Layout - love your smile

The Boy struggled through his prep year at school.  It took 6 months to finally have that diagnosis of hearing loss, and then another 2-3 months to be fitted with his first set of hearing aids. I cried when they told me he had such significant loss, not because I was sad, or scared - all that would come later. No, those first tears were of relief that we finally had an answer, finally something we could work towards, understand, and act on. 

The Boy struggled that year because without that diagnosis we couldn't access extra help for him at school, and he was falling further and taller behind at school. Once we had those magic words, things were put in motion for speech therapy, extra teacher aide hours, access to a Students With Disabilities teacher for an hour or two a week. I'm happy to report that now, a quarter of the way through year three, he has caught up in so many ways, and is actually reading and spelling above the average. He has a keen interest in science, good at maths, loves cooking, and adores anything to do with dogs. His ear team is ever expanding - we don't know where we would be without his audiology, speech pathology, ENT and education people!!

So today's layout celebrates that second big step - after diagnosis, the first set of hearing aids. Just over a year later he would be fitted with a Cochlear Implant for his left ear, but those first hearing aids made such a change to his life. His access to sound was switched on for the first time since he'd started losing his hearing, and it was exciting.

Layout recipe:

Card stock/paper: Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings collection, Whisper a White (SU!)

Stamp: journaling tag (Kaisercraft)

Ink: Walnut Stain (Ranger Inc)

Other: paperclip (SU!), brad (SU!), chipboard border and label border (Papermania), cream paint, charm, pearls (Kaisercraft), rub on ("your"), alphabet dies (Pep Squad, sizzix)

Challenges:

Scrap our stash: #13 spring colours, paperclip, journal card, 3d embellishments

Sketch'n'Stamp: sketch #54