He screamed so loudly at times just to hear his own voice; it was painful for the hearing. When baby number two was born and passed her newborn hearing screening, I wasn't sure how he'd take it. As a two year-old, holding his infant sister for the first time, he asked me where her hearing aids were. Little did we know, she'd be getting her first pair just ten months later. No doctor has ever found a relation between the two's hearing loss, as my son Gage (now seven) has Goldenhar Syndrome and Brooklyn (now four) is non-syndromatic, with no genetic loss detected.

I assumed, being the hearing adult, that I would teach my deaf children to hear after implantation. What I found out was that amazingly they were teaching me. Had they not been deaf and needing to be taught how to hear, I would have never stopped to listen to that woodpecker. I would have gotten mad when all the crayons were broken, just to hear them "pop". I would have never cried when they sang me a song. So thank you to my deaf children who have taught me how to hear.

Val is editor of Cochlear Kids, a blog about hard work, dedication, and love for two people who, despite being deaf, have taught her more about what's important in life than she ever imagined.