We are still patiently ...or not so patiently awaiting the answers to our questions from the orphanage. I have about 800 so it was hard to boil it down to just 10. We are also expecting some current height and weight measurements as well as updated photos. Oh how great would that be to get more photos..I have stared holes in the three we have. Plus even complete strangers have asked me to stop showing them our pictures! What I did arrange is to have digital photos sent to molly with our names so that she can start looking at them. This service will put them in a little album for her. They will also send digital cameras so that when you pick her up, you will have pictures of her living day to day in the orphanage. We will also send her some candy and a blanket and a doll or toy.
Spent some time on the phone last night with a man who is married to a deaf woman, has six kids, four that are deaf and two of those kids are adopted from China. He provided some really interesting insight into language and auditory processing as well as what we can expect when we get to China. We are foolishly trying to come up with a game plan prior to getting Molly which is hard to do as everything really depends on her evaluation. But I guess arming yourself with all the information cant hurt!
Attempted to find a local preschool program for Molly...one that would include deaf kids...no luck yet. Right now it is all about early intervention and/ or therapy in the school system. There are still a few phone calls that are due back to me...but the good news is that our insurance ( which is a total nightmare...just ask Dr. Patz) covers not only hearing aids...but CI's as well. So thats good news.
I am starting sign language classes next week. The course will be an intro to ASL and will run 10 weeks. Hopefully it will give me enough of a head start in order to at least attempt some communication with Molly and get her recognizing/ understanding..dare I hope "using" some ASL to communicate. Once that course is over, the next one will be more conversational and my new friend that I spoke to last night is going to try to arrange someone that is deaf to come over to the house so that I can practice speaking in sign.
By the way, a little note to all my hearing friends. Deaf is not a bad word. Deaf is not slang. Deaf does not mean dumb. Deaf does not mean that a person doesnt have auditory processing skills ( yes, that one confused me as well). So if you are reading this and thinking that I should be saying that Molly is hearing impaired and not deaf...well, I was assured last night that would be wrong.
So there is your deaf etiquette for the day!
Off to do some laundry and get something done around the house in an attempt to not think about this every second of the day.
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