Thankful

There were many things I was thankful for this Thanksgiving. I was thankful to be feeling well enough to take part in the Frandsen family feast. I wish I had more pictures of the grand production, but it includes plastic carpet covering, aunt Kathy making 28 homemade pies, sleepovers in the furnace room and grandkids galore. We didn't stay the night, but we were thankful for such a wonderful Thanksgiving day with family.
I was thankful that Aaron was transitioning so well into his role as big brother. I spent a lot of time on Thanksgiving day away from coughing kiddos, feeding Jared his many servings of Thanksgiving dinner. Aaron played well with his cousins, but never went even a half hour without checking on JJ and me. I felt so loved. And, for the first time in months he was excited to put on his pajamas, just because they matched baby J's (thank you mom).I was also thankful that Jonny was happy with a low-key birthday celebration. I did feel guilty for not being up for making him a bday cake (he shared one with my mom), but he has been happy enough with his EVO gift that I doubt he even gave it a second thought. Jonny is such a great dad and husband. If he's not hanging out with baby J while doing homework, or helping me mitigate my postpartum emotions, he's helping me wrestle our naked, screaming, laughing, cochlear-less Aaron into clothing after his bath. Good times.
But more than anything, I will remember being thankful for the sounds we heard this Thanksgiving, and knowing that both our little boys could hear them. There were many cougar fight songs sung by A-train; doors slamming that made me rush to see if JJ was still sleeping; "ooing" and "aweing" over Jared; the high-pitched scream/cry JJ makes when he is mad; angry yelling at bad calls made by football referees; and singing my kiddos to sleep with Christmas lullabies.
The day after we were released from the hospital I took Jared back to get an advanced hearing test called an Auditory Brainstem Response. The type of hearing loss that Aaron has is genetic, so there is a 25% chance that each of our children could have LVA. I sat in the pediatric audiologists' office unable to control my tears of joy and relief as Jared's test results came in looking perfectly average. We are so thankful that he can hear, and though we are not completely out of the water (he still needs to get an MRI to be sure that his inner ear anatomy looks average as well), we are grateful for the good news we've heard thus far.
It would have been just fine if JJ had hearing loss as well; in fact, I had kind of planned on it. I certainly don't long for another child with hearing loss, but in a strange way it would have been neat for our boys to have something so difficult and personal in common. I just never want any of my children to feel lonely in my home, but as long as they know how much we love them that will never be an issue--no matter what unique obstacles my boys have to wrestle with in life. More importantly, I know that God is with us to coach us through whatever may come. I definitely am thankful for His help to be the best mother I can be for my sweet boys.