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A couple of weeks ago, my son David asked if he could have a new friend over. “Sure,” I said. After all, the reason we fought to have him attend a different high school was to end the social isolation he was experiencing in middle school.

David’s friend Aleksey came over with another friend and the guys played video games. Aleksey and his friend came over another weekend, playing video games and hanging out. It was clear that David enjoyed being with his new friends.

Aleksey’s story is an interesting one. Born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, he grew up in an orphanage in Russia and came to America just before he turned twelve. His parents found him through the Children’s Hope International. You can read more about Aleksey here: The Ultimate Survivor.

Aleksey will be featured on the ABC News this morning at 11 a.m CST through an interview with Karen Meyer. The transcript is up and the captioned video will be available later today. Deaf Gymnast Excels.

It’s Wordless Wednesday! Here’s Kaycie waiting for the kids to come home from school.

It was the news that I was hoping not to hear. For the past few days, I have been reading about Emma Agnew, a deaf woman from New Zealand. She went off to meet someone about selling her car and was missing for nearly two weeks. Christy Smith, a deaf participant on the Survivor show, posted information about Emma on her blog: The Search for Emma. Jamie Berke from About.com also urged readers to help find Emma.

This has a terrible, sad ending: Emma was found murdered. A 35-year-old man has been arrested, his identity has not been released. More can be found here: Deaf Community in Mourning.

My heart goes out to the family and the Deaf Community of New Zealand.

An interview with the family can be found here: Emma Agnew: Living Life to the Full.

When my friend’s son Matthew attended sports camp this summer at the Illinois School for the Deaf, he told his Mom, “I want to go to school here.”

Sue never thought that she would consider a residential school as an option for her kids. Sue is deaf and she grew up attending schools that had several deaf students within a regular school. She always had one or two deaf friends to hang around with when she was growing up. She attended Hinsdale South, which had several hundred deaf students back in the 80’s.

So when Sue saw the isolation that Matthew’s brother, Alex, was experiencing during his freshman year at their local high school, she decided it was time to take some action. Hinsdale South wasn’t an option for them unless they moved to a district that would accept placement there. Sue sat down with Alex and together, they made the decision to enroll at the Illinois School for the Deaf.

Sue called an IEP meeting with the district team and explained the reasons for her decision. “I was tired of seeing my kids socially isolated,” Sue shared. “And when I explained this to the team, one of them simply said, ‘they’re all isolated.’”

For the same reason, Illinois School for the Deaf is now experiencing growth at a time when other schools for the deaf are struggling to keep their students. A recent newspaper article explains more: ISD Sees Enrollment Boom.

Social isolation for deaf and hard of hearing kids is a subject that is difficult to talk about and difficult to remedy when schools have rigid boundaries and limited regional programs.

To me, the solution seems simple: break down the boundaries and allow parents to choose school programs with a critical mass of deaf and hard of hearing students without having to fight for them.

For Sue, it will be hard to send her two sons off to Illinois School for the Deaf in January, but she knows that it is the right decision for her family.

“It’s time to end the social isolation,” she says.

The hubby tossed me the “Perspective” section of the Chicago Tribune this morning. I almost never read this section of the newspaper but today, there was a side shot of a cute four-year-old girl sporting a hearing aid with a swirly pink and blue earmold.

Hear and Now? is written by Julie Vassilatos, a mom in Hyde Park, Illinois. She recounts the family’s journey of getting a diagnosis and finally fitting her daughter, Angeliki, with hearing aids. Or “hearing maids,” as her daughter describes them. Or perhaps it is “hearing mades,” her mom shares.

“Strangely, Angeliki doesn’t always want to hear as much as I want her to,” Julie writes. “Who wouldn’t love to hear everything better all the time?”

But I have say this– Julie is quick to understand. She goes on to explain how hearing aids amplify everything, and that hearing is exhausting work. “And it makes a little child sleepy and cranky,” she says.

As I’m typing this, my son is at the computer next to me with his rap music cranked up loudly. “Hey Mom,” he says, “Go put your hearing aids on. I want to share this new song that I downloaded.”

No thanks, honey. The silence is bliss this morning.

Potbelly Sandwich Works was handed a lawsuit when a customer using a wheelchair couldn’t access the restaurant:

Potbelly Adds Accessibility to the Menu

Kudos to Potbelly for committing to an accessible design for all their restaurants– even if it took a lawsuit to make it happen.

Now let’s see them hire people with disabilities as well!

John consults with cruise staff about upcoming entertainment on the ship.

John and Mac perform a belly flop at the end of the Belly Flop Contest.
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John Maucere was the perfect cruise director for the Deaf Freedom Cruise. Filled with boundless energy and sporting a Hollywood smile, John entertained the guests each day through various activities. With his background in stand-up comedy, John kept the passengers laughing each day.

“My experience as the Cruise Director was awesome!” said John. “It was almost 24/7 on the job for me, having to host games and perform evening shows. I had a fabulous time seeing thousands of smiling faces.”

John was chosen as the Cruise Director after Mac and Tab Partlow, owners of Passages Deaf Travel saw him perform as a stand-up comedian at the DeafNation Expo in North Carolina. “I was honored to be part of history in the making,” John continued. “The Deaf Freedom Cruise will be an unforgettable time in my life. I had a wonderful experience and I was blessed to be a part of that special week.”

John grew up in Hollywood, California and attended the California School for the Deaf in Riverside at the age of four. John is part of a third generation deaf family. “My family was heavily involved in Deaf community events, which exposed me to the deaf way of life, its culture, history and language,” explained John. He grew up watching his mother perform at deaf clubs and while at Gallaudet University, John was bitten by the acting bug. He performed in the National Theatre of the Deaf and later formed his own company, Deafywood, which specializes in stand-up comedy and shows about deaf life. John is known as the “Deaf Jay Leno” and does impromptu interviews with deaf and hard of hearing individuals at events, just as Leno does on the street in his show.

John and his wife Lauren are the parents of two children. When he isn’t off performing, John works as a Deaf Interpreter in the Los Angeles court system.

Terry Starbucker over at A Glass Half Full tagged me for a book meme. This meme is right up my alley, as my mother used to beg and plead for me not to bring a book to the dinner table each night. My own daughter always has her nose in a book, but I have to beg and plead with my sons to crack open the printed page.

So here goes:

Total Number of Books on my Bookshelves: I would guess that I have around 200 books. I’ve been selling them off one by one in the effort to downsize my life and only keep the ones that I treasure.

The Last Book I Read: I’m currently reading Talking Hands, a fascinating, well-written book about a community, Al-Sayid, that has a large population of deaf and hard of hearing members due to genetics and inter-family marriage. It is a modern day version of the community that existed in Martha’s Vineyard many years ago.

Last Book Bought: I just bought one yesterday despite a promise to myself that I would not add to my book collection. I had a gift certificate that I won a year ago on Epinions and I finally got around to using it. So I bought The Unheard, by Josh Swiller.

Five Meaningful Books:

What Happy Women Know by Dan Baker and Cathy Greenwood. I selected this book for next month’s BookHands meeting in my home. We’re going to explore the secret to happiness.

On the Fence by Mark Drolsbaugh. This book is special because I was able to contribute a chapter about growing up hard of hearing.

Please Don’t Cut Me! by Angela Hoy. Another special book for the same reason–I contributed a chapter about my son’s homebirth.

If You Could Hear What I See by Kathy Buckley. A humorous look at life without normal hearing.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. This is a great book about letting the little stuff slide.

I’m tagging the following to play along:

Adversity University

Groovy’s Ruminations

Enter the Laughter

A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye

Beth and Cory’s Mom

When the hubby and I got married on November 4, 1989, we shared our honeymoon with another deaf couple, Kay and Paul Folster, who were married on the same day. By the seventh day on our honeymoon cruise, we were ready to go home. We sat through a movie that wasn’t captioned and couldn’t enjoy any of the comedy or entertainment as no interpreter was provided. Because of that experience, the hubby was very relunctant to attempt another cruise.

Royal Caribbean is to be applauded for the communication access they provided on the Deaf Freedom Cruise. As soon as we arrived at the Port of Miami, there was an interpreter in every corner. Royal Caribbean hired 124 interpreters, including interpreters from other countries and deaf blind interpreters. On that first day, the interpreters worked the entire day with nary a break.

Mac and Tab Partlow,(seen with me in the photo above) the owners of Passages Deaf Travel, arranged for staff training. Royal Caribbean moved one of their staff, Bobby Brown, the Training and Development Manager with a background in Deaf Ministry, from the Navigator of the Seas to the Freedom of the Seas. Bobby arrived seven weeks before the cruise and provided classes to the entire staff. Keith Wann and a deaf staff member from Passages Deaf Travel teamed up with Bobby and together they provided numerous classes and a DVD for the staff. Some of the classes were provided late at night, which was the only time some of the staff were available.

We especially enjoyed our wait staff at dinner time. Ronnie, our head waiter from India (the tall guy in the photo below), stayed by our table one night and chatted with us. He used gestures and the signs he could remember and told us about his family back in India. His brother is a staff person on another ship. Each of them keep long hours. Some nights, they don’t get to bed until four a.m. and they get up a few hours later. Ronnie was quick to whip out a notebook and pen whenever we had difficulty with communication. We always encountered smiles and friendly faces among the staff, which is even more remarkable considering the long hours that they work.

You can read more about the communication access here: Disaboom.com.

As for the hubby, the one who initially didn’t want to go on another cruise after our honeymoon, is now saying he wouldn’t mind another all deaf cruise!

Anna, from Beth and Cory’s Mom surprised me with a Wonder Woman award. Thank you, Anna! I sure wish it came with Wonder Woman’s body, too!

I could have used Wonder Woman at my house last night. I was in bed watching HGTV when my youngest son came in the room and said, “Mom, I hear something like water splashing.”

Uh oh.

I got out of bed and turned on the light in my bathroom. Water was on the floor everywhere and it was spilling over the counter of the double sink. I frantically grabbed towels that were hanging up and the youngest ran downstairs to get the hubby. I opened the vanity doors and there was an inch of water inside.

Uh oh.

It took a while to sop up the water. We used just about every towel in the house. There was a lot of it on the floor. Unfortunately, it dripped into the ceiling over the kitchen as well. It will take a few days to see if we will be able to salvage the drywall.

Apparently the hubby was washing his hands and noticed that I left a shirt in the sink so he went over to the other sink but forgot that he left the water running.

Uh oh.

But back to the Wonder Woman award. The very first blogger that came to my mind was Liz Strauss from Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. Liz has an incredible amount of energy and often posts thought provoking questions on her blogs. On Tuesday evenings, she hosts “Open Mic” night, an event where bloggers leave hundreds of comments on a themed post and the comments actually become an open conversation for several hours. Liz created the SOB Award for Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. If you have a few hours between meetings, you’ll find some incredible blogs on this list to read.

So Liz, the Wonder Woman award goes to you!