Jamie’s Journey

Those of you, who know me, will probably know that my son Jamie is profoundly deaf.  Some of you may not have been aware of this, as when you meet Jamie or talk to him, he comes across as perfectly normal.  And the thing is, that he is perfectly normal and that’s how we’ve always looked at him.  We’ve always set out to treat him the same as our other kids, he sees his world as a hearing world, not a deaf world.  Don’t get me wrong, he is different but in a way that he is very comfortable with, he has limitations that we don’t focus on, and he makes up for those limitations by being the best that he can be in other areas.  In short, we think he is fantastic!

You may be wondering why I’m writing this post – well, the reason is simple, I want to be able to give hope to other parents of kids, who are suddenly faced with finding out that, their child is deaf.  I want to document Jamie’s story and how we dealt with all  the issues that arose from when he lost his hearing as a young baby right up to the present day.  So over the next couple of weeks, I will do a little piece each week on Jamie’s Journey from then up until now as a 15 year old boy, who is full of ambition but more importantly, who is very happy being who he is.

I’ll be writing about how we dealt with the news of Jamie’s deafness, what options we were given, the pre-school years, primary school, secondary school, obstacles that we overcame, how the future looks, along with lots of other insights into how Jamie got to where he is now.  I hope that if you are on a journey that is similar to what we faced fifteen years ago, that maybe, Jamie’s story may inspire you.  I remember all those years ago, that I searched the internet, day & night, to find some hope that the future could be bright for Jamie, so if you’re reading this story, I hope you’ll realise that the future can be very bright & you can have a very happy, deaf, child!