Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

"Are you going to fix his ear?" "Is there something that could help him hear?" "Did you know there's a great surgery that helps deaf people hear?" "If a surgical procedure would allow your paraplegic child to walk wouldn't you do it?" Being Deaf is unique compared to other differences such as being blind, unable to walk, having Down Syndrome.  It's historically been difficult, even for Deaf people, to pinpoint exactly how it's different.  I usually explain that the Deaf community shares a common language, norms, folklore, etc.; therefore they form a culture.  But it's more than that.  I think the real difference lies in acceptance. If parents have child with Down Syndrome, they must come to a point of acceptance .  They can't change the facts.  They are forced to accept what is  and give their child the tools needed to become successful in their life.  If parents have a child who is blind,...

You all know I've been posting videos and blogging about the boys' language development .  This blog began as a way for friends, family and others interested in adoption to follow our journey to one son.  During that process, the one son became two sons and now here we are!  The Brown Seven!  Our most recent video has not gone "viral" according to YouTube standards, but it's gone viral according to our standards and it's been fun!  I've enjoyed receiving emails and comments from people all over the US and even other countries. The boys have attached to us unusually well, so I didn't have a lot of "adoption issues" to blog about.  The focus of my blog naturally transitioned to the language development happening in our home.  Even with our backgrounds in the Deaf World (husband is Deaf, I'm a fluent signer for over 15 years), Ken and I were dail...

Happy 2012!!  I don't know about you, but that number astounds me!  As one born in the 1970s, the 2000's seemed a futuristic, impossible dream, but here we are.  We can connect with people all over the world in a matter of seconds, fly across the globe in half a day, open a "marauder's map" of sorts and see where we are in this vast, yet small world.  Before visiting a new place, I can walk the streets virtually before ever touching down in the city.  I can ask my phone to show me the way home, tell me the temperature, call my mom, text my husband or find the answer to any (and I mean ANY) question and she will try and most often succeed.  (I just called my phone "she!")  If I lose my coveted phone, my computer can find it for me.  We are living in the Jetson's world.  Better yet, we're living in early Star Trek world. Minus warp speed and medical tricorder.  Come to t...

Most of my posts about language development have centered on Travis, who is deaf.  His language progress has intrigued me because 1: he's my first deaf child 2: he came to us having been exposed to no formal language. Tian, however, has made amazing language strides in his own right!  When we first read his file, we assumed he was at least hard-of-hearing, if not deaf.  As we read more about microtia and atresia and got more information on Tian, we quickly realized we needed to keep an open mind because he most probably could hear.  Now that he's been home with us almost 6 months, we can tell that he not only can hear, but seems to have keen hearing in many circumstances.  Just this morning, he heard the faint sound of a faraway helicopter outside, perked up and signed, "helicopter!"  Other times, it seems he doesn't hear some things, but that may just be his age. Obviously, he doesn't have complete hearing in his right ear.  That's evide...

Although they make rare appearances here, we DO have three older kids.  However you want to say it: birth kids, original 3, biological children, fruit of our loins, made in America.  Some of those are politically incorrect and one is just gross, but they are all terms that could be/have been used to describe the oldest three Brownies. Could you just die?  December 2006 Five years later, they would NEVER agree to do this pose! They love their brother, but would no longer be willing to smooch him on the cheek and have it saved as a framable photo forever.  Ah, the sweet, younger years. The three oldest kids have had quite a 2011!  They moved from a kids' dream house and neighborhood into an apartment half the size of the house. They went from having their own room to sharing a room.  They left the street that held some of their dearest friends.  They happily, and without a second thought, gave up a spri...

One of the many things I took away from the various adoption blogs I read and on Beth O'Malley's newsletters about creating lifebooks, was this: Don't forget that your adopted child had a life before they came into your family. It seems many adoptive parents have made the mistake of telling the child's life story beginning at "gotcha" day or the day the parents first saw their file. This came to mind this Christmas as we were decorating the tree.  Each of my birth kids were given an ornament to commemorate their first, second and third Christmases.   I considered how to commemorate the boys' first Christmases.  Without previous consideration, I may have called this year their "first Christmas," but it wasn't!  Before we met them, Travis lived through 3 Christmases and Tian, 2.  So I began a search for ornaments for the boys.  My first thought was to search eBay for year-appropriate ornaments similar...