“I think that I did it to myself. I played rhythm guitar in a church band. We had our amplifiers sitting right beside us. We wanted to be heard, so they were turned up real loud. All the years of playing in the band, and playing music real loud, certainly contributed to me being hard of hearing.

“Even though I hear some things, I don’t always understand them. Anything that comes over a loudspeaker, or voices at a higher frequency, I have problems understanding.

“One ear is worse than the other, but I wear two hearing aids, mostly when I’m working in the classroom. I’m a substitute teacher. With most of the young girls who have softer, higher voices, it’s hard for me to understand. Sometimes I’m afraid that I’m going to give them permission to do something I’m not supposed to. Because they’ll ask you anything.

“I have struggles, but I can still hear. So it’s not like the struggles that a deaf person has. Everyday conversations with me, one on one, I usually do pretty well. Sometimes I have to ask people to repeat.

“When I’m teaching, I’ll introduce myself to every class using sign language. Most of the students are very accepting. Sometimes they’ll want to go through the alphabet. But there are some who make fun. Sometimes it’s at schools that have deaf ed. I’m surprised they’re not very accepting there, because they have deaf students in some of their classes.

“I’m satisfied with the way I am. It doesn’t bother me that I don’t hear everything. I think there’s a general idea that if you can’t do everything, then you’re not a whole person. I can’t walk like everybody else does, but I can still walk. It doesn’t make me half a person. It just makes me a person who can’t walk real well. Same with my hearing. I can’t always hear real well, but I’m still a person. I should be treated like one.

Creating awareness

“There needs to be greater awareness in the community of those who are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s more about hearing people understanding and being able to communicate with us.

“Hearing people don’t try to be rude. They’ve just never been taught what to do. If I walk into a restaurant and sign, the staff will usually just stand there and stare or start talking. If I was completely deaf, I would have no idea what they’re saying.

“There are ways to communicate with a deaf person, even if you don’t sign. You can grab a pencil and paper, and write quick notes. You can hand them a menu, and they can point to what they want. Another way is an app on my phone called Live Transcribe. It takes spoken words and transcribes them into written English.

“Many deaf people do speak. Some have been deaf all their lives, and never heard their voice. So it may sound weird to you, but don’t let that affect you.

“After my wife passed away, I no longer have anyone at home to practice signing with. So I enjoy going to deaf coffee chats. We gather as a group and we sign. We talk about the news and things going on in our lives. It makes me feel like I’m part of a group of people who understand me, and I understand them.

“We’re trying to make my church, Baytown Revival Center, deaf friendly. Next year, we want to have an ASL musical. There would be music for hearing people. And those on stage would also be signing, so deaf people could enjoy. I’m also hoping to start a Bible study for the deaf.

“This is an ongoing project for me, for people to be aware that there are various ways to communicate with the deaf and hard-of-hearing. It’s something that I’m passionate about.”

— Dennis Voris

For more information on the deaf coffee chats, check the Facebook pages, Deaf Coffee Chat Baytown and Deaf Coffee Chat Mont Belvieu.

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“I’ve played the piano since I was 3 years old and the harp since I was 11. I teach and I love music.

“I was in my early 20s when I started losing my hearing. When you’re a professional musician with a hearing loss, it’s a stigma. So I hid it for a long time, and I learned to read lips very well. Nobody knew until I couldn’t hide it anymore.

“I was at a concert about three years ago, and I broke a string. I had to replace it over intermission. I usually rely on an electronic tuner. But because there were so many people around me also tuning, I couldn’t hear well enough. I asked a violinist friend to help me hear to tune it.

“Then in rehearsals, I couldn’t hear our conductor. I began missing cues. I was completely lost. I had played with several community orchestras. But at this point I had gone back to school and didn’t have as much time. So I pared way down and just played gigs and with Baytown Symphony. Finally, I went to the conductor and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore because I’m deaf. I’m legally deaf. I love this orchestra, but you’d do better with somebody else.’

“At first, there was a process of getting people to believe me. I hadn’t told anybody. I had hid it so well.

“Music is in a different range than speech. It’s still a range that I can hear. There are certain things on the harp that I can’t hear. But I can absolutely hear the piano. I still play weddings and stuff like that. It doesn’t affect that work because it’s just me playing. As long as I play the right notes, I’m good. But playing with an ensemble, I just can’t do. I’ve kept my piano students. But I had to stop teaching voice because I couldn’t hear my students.

“My hearing loss has been gradual over 20 years. I speak ASL and I read lips. So I live inside the deaf community as well, and I’m at peace with that. It’s helped shape the kind of ministry I’d like.

“I hope to become a priest with the deaf community for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. We don’t have a deaf ministry, so I hope to bridge that gap. It’s God’s redirection for me. I can’t do everything that I used to do. But I still have vital things to offer the world. I feel like this is the way I can do that.”

— Amy Waltz-Reasonover

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“We got her as a puppy, and she was a very bad little girl at first. The people we got her from would not even let her out of the car because they were afraid she’d get loose and run off. But we fell in love with her completely and brought her back home.

“About a week later, I realized something wasn’t quite right with her. She was like a child that no matter what you told her, she was kind of ignoring you. She never would respond to anything we asked her to do until she saw us. So one day I got out my boat horn, and everybody in this place came alive but her. That’s when I knew she was deaf.

“My granddaughter knows some sign language, so she taught me a few signs. We also looked on the internet and came up with our own little vocabulary, you might say, and started teaching her. Through structure and repetition, she picked it up pretty easily. But because she’s deaf and also has limited sight, she’s probably always going to be treat oriented.

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“One of my biggest challenges is time,” she said. “With multiple children at different ages, it’s hard to find the time for one-on-one with each. It’s also difficult to do activities that everyone is interested in or that all can participate in.”

When Amanda was 23 years old, the story was a bit different. Besides her young son, Logan, the focus of her attention was a new baby facing an uphill battle.

Bethany was born full term. She weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces, and was the largest baby in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“Doctors noticed right away that she did not have the ability to suck a bottle or swallow,” Amanda said. “Before we could take her home, she ended up having surgery for a feeding tube.”

Born with cerebral palsy, Bethany was given little hope of leading a normal life.

Based on what the doctors told her, Amanda believed her daughter “would most likely be a vegetable, for lack of a better word.”

To add to a young mom’s challenges, Amanda and Bethany’s father separated. Eventually, Amanda felt it necessary to legally end his relationship with Bethany.

“So here I was, 24 years old, with two kids under the age of 5, one with severe disabilities,” Amanda said.

Fortunately, when Bethany began receiving therapy services at 3 months old, she showed progress right away.

It was a long and slow process. But with the therapist’s guidance, follow through at home and Bethany’s determination, she eventually was able to eat enough food by mouth to have the feeding tube permanently removed. She was able to sit by herself by 3 years old.

“Once she started going to the clinic for therapy, she really started taking off,” Amanda said. “She learned basic sign language to communicate until her speed improved, and she learned to independently dress and groom herself.”

Bethany, now 14, has been released from therapy services for five years. And she continues to flourish.

Anything physically demanding causes Bethany to tire a lot faster than a typical child. She uses forearm crutches to assist in walking every day. She occasionally uses a wheelchair, mostly on vacations or trips to the zoo when lots of walking is required.

A teacher recommended placing Bethany in Special Olympics through the school district to help her get exercise, and also to meet new people and make friends.

“She loves it. She participates in bocce, baseball and bowling in the fall, as well as basketball, soccer and cycling in the spring,” Amanda said.

Bethany also competes in Unified Showmanship, where she shows a goat or lamb. In addition, she is in student council at school.

“Like many other special needs parents, I tended to overcompensate in the beginning. I just wasn’t sure how to navigate this unfamiliar path our lives had taken,” Amanda said.

“But as the years went by and I saw the interaction between Bethany and her siblings, I noticed that she just wanted to be treated the same as them. She sees herself as the same as them, and we do, too.”

Amanda and her husband of nine years, Andres, have two sons and two daughters: Andres (24), Logan (18), Bethany and Mia (4).

When they saw that Bethany was old enough and capable of completing chores, she started doing her fair share.

“All the expectations of the kids are the same, and she lives up to them every day,” Amanda said.

“She is smart, kind, funny and beautiful inside and out. I couldn’t be prouder to be her mother. I’m amazed by the things she accomplishes and the way she continually inspires everyone around her. She inspires me. She is my hero.”

Through the years, Amanda feels she has matured as a parent. Despite challenges along the way, she has embraced the experience.

“The best part of being a parent is learning and growing with your children, and watching their little personalities blossom. You get to share every accomplishment, every milestone, every bump along the way. You get to be a part of someone’s story from the very beginning. You get to see the very best parts of yourself in them,” Amanda said.

“For me, a high point of parenting is when I see the qualities of good character, compassion and acceptance come from my children’s actions. It makes me proud to know that some of what I’ve been trying to instill in them is sticking.”

The post Daughter with cerebral palsy inspires mom appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I learned American Sign Language in high school and was part of the Singing Hands group, where we performed songs in sign language. I loved the upbeat energy and the positivity of it. Being able to reach out to people who aren’t able to communicate like you and me is pretty cool.

“A few years ago when I was in a Kroger’s parking lot with my dad, a deaf man was selling pencils to help raise money for his family. A lot of people were ignoring him because they couldn’t understand him. When he approached us, I started signing to him. We ended up buying two or three pencils.

“When I work at jobs and a deaf person comes in, one of my favorite things is to sign with them and get to know them so that I can help them better. I’m pretty fluent, but not perfect. So if I start finger spelling something and mess up, they will show me the correct signs.

“I think it would be great if everyone took the time to learn the basics of sign language, along with the basics of other languages, too. So many people just know one way to communicate. It would be great if we all were able to communicate better with each other. I think it would help reduce some of the struggles people face. It would help us all understand each other a little bit better.”

— Chloe Anderson

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