I’m feeling very upbeat and positive these days. It feels good not to be sick after last week. It feels good to have some energy again. It feels good to be strengthened by God’s word and by the encouragement of others. I was thinking about my previous post and the statement I made about what I would be missing if this hadn’t happened. I still feel that way, but want to say that I don’t mean for that to sound like I somehow think that the path I am now on is superior to anyone else’s. I don’t. It’s just different than what most of us expect. The same way that I love to travel and experience new things, I look at this as a journey….an adventure…a chance to “travel” and experience new things. I’m excited about it and wondering what’s around the next “bend” in the “road.” I don’t want to minimize that there is a trade-off and I have lost things that most people have. There are times I feel the loss and do and will grieve. I guess it’s more that I am choosing not to dwell on that and to be open to whatever God has planned for me in my new journey.

I’m trying to take note of things that are different in the life of the deaf, that you might find interesting and wouldn’t realize. I think one thing I wouldn’t have thought about is that I can’t hear people coming in and out of the house anymore, so when Chet or Cody get home, I am unaware. I’ve been home alone doing my thing and then suddenly someone touches me on the shoulder – it’s startling, to say the least! They do that to let me know they are there and try NOT to scare me, but there’s not really any way around that! I try to pay attention to when I would expect someone to arrive, but that’s a definite change in daily life 🙂