From Signs of Love to Words.... Our Journey Part 10

WOW this month has been really amazing and as well really packed and full of A LOT of stuff. Joshua turned 4 last week, I became 25 again... as I stopped getting older at that age!

We also had mothers day and I have to tell you that this mothers day present was by far the best one that I have ever received. Joshua and Peyton both made one each for me, and lets just say... I cried. I will fill you in later as to what the present was, and you will understand why I cried.

So lets go back to last year, at about this time... Joshua was in speech therapy and we were working on it daily, at the same time I had put Joshua in signing preschool, or a preschool for the hearing impaired. It was my thinking that if he couldn't talk then he needed to sign. The more he signed and we signed as a family, the easier the days would get. I had not accepted the diagnosis that the Dr. had previously given Joshua which was for us to be prepared for him to never speak, but I wasn't going to let that stop him from becoming anything and everything he wanted to be, even if he didn't speak until 14, 20 or even ever... I was prepared for it but I was also going to give it my all.

Joshua at this point could have full conversations in signing, and it was wonderful, he was able to make friends which he hadn't been able to do before because a lot of kids and parents were almost fearful of what Joshua might have. The looks that he and I received were horrible, and now that he was able to express himself he could tell me what he was feeling... however I always knew that it was painful for him. Now that he knew sign, he would approach kids and sign to them, most not all but most kids really liked this. Some kids parents had taught them sign and they knew some of what Joshua was saying. Those kids attached themselves to Joshua and you could see his true personality coming out.

One thing that I really noticed with Joshua was that he was fearful of anything new, I always joked that he was a 40 year old accountant in a 2 year old body because he wouldn't do anything that appeared dangerous... this included running. I was concerned about it, but I also knew that his personality was one that was quite conservative, and I wanted to respect that.

One night I was giving Joshua and Peyton a bath and I ALWAYS sign to them in the bath, and I had begun the ABC Song and signed along, all of a sudden Joshua out of the blue started making sounds. AH for A, Buh for B, no C, Duh for d and EEEEE for E... he did the whole alphabet and only missed I think 4 letters. It was amazing... this was such a break through because now we could have him piece the sounds together... hopefully.... I thought it would be a lot easier but after another 4 weeks of therapy and doing his ABC still no words.

At least at this point I had some hope!