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Ok I have to start this post bragging on how GOOD our GOD is! So today is the day that Dempsey’s first grade teacher and I set for me to come to his class to talk about his ears and explain a little bit about how they work.
Our cochlear implant company, Med-El, has an elephant as their mascot. Her name is Mellie and she’s adorable! The book about Mellie getting cochlear implants is the book I had planned on reading to the class.
When Demps’s teacher and I set the date for me to come chat with the kiddos, we had no idea that TODAY IS WORLD ELEPHANT DAY!! Is that not the COOLEST thing?!
This is what my small group likes to refer to as GOD’S PERFECT GOLDEN THREAD. Little details lining up that just show us that He’s in the details. He CARES. About the big and the SMALL. He has filled my heart with gratitude today for SO many things. I’m thankful for the 8/12 date and the Med-El elephant threading into World Elephant Day, among other things! It’s been an awesome day!
So now that we have established how awesome God is at loving on us, I want to share about sharing with Dempsey’s first grade class in hopes of maybe inspiring more cochlear kids’ parents to maybe do something similar?! This is our second year in a row to set a date with the teacher and come do a little talk about CIs! Last year, Dempsey’s sweet audiologist came with us. Today, I was solo!
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I used the Med-El children’s book called Mellie and her Cochlear Implants (you can find a digital copy here!) to introduce Demps’s class to what life is like when a family finds out that their child might not have hearing! It’s a precious illustrated book with a story that parallels our family’s story really well! I gave a very high level overview of Dempsey’s particular type of hearing loss, gave a simplified version of how his implants help him, and answered some really great questions from his teachers and classmates!
We had a cookie cake that said, “HEARS TO OUR EARS!” (Thanks, Chat GPT, for that verbiage!) I used this cookie recipe which is always SO good! So each kiddo got a slice of that and also went home with a little stuffed elephant (I ordered these cuties in hopes that, when the kids see those little elephants and their big ears, they’ll remember Mellie and think about what a GIFT hearing is!) as well as a few elephant stickers and two coloring sheets: one of the inner ear and one of Mellie! Click HERE to download the Mellie sheet we used and click HERE for the inner ear sheet! Our sweet audiologist also loaned us a cochlear implant demo, so we passed that around and several of the kids “tried it on!” 🙂 It was precious!
Oh, and I had at least three kids ask where I got the smiley face napkins! Target! 🙂
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My prayer for this day was that it would be a fun, interactive, memorable day for all the kids to learn more about what those things on Dempsey’s head are! I know they’ve had questions, so I do feel like the Lord just put peace in the room and allowed for a safe space for unfiltered first graders to ask whatever was on their mind! I had a blast, Dempsey did so well sitting next to me while I used him as a model and asked him some questions in front of his friends, and I really think those kiddos walked away with a little more knowledge under their belts and a little more thankfulness for their own hearing!
I’m always always always grateful for our sweet school, the jackpot professionals we have behind us, the top-tier teachers we continue to get, and the opportunities we have gotten to have through Dempsey’s hearing loss!
I hope you find some cool golden thread detail in your day / week / season where you can see God’s love for you through the little things like elephants (which maybe aren’t so little now that I think about it 😉 )
Thank you for being here! You are amazing and LOVED!!! XOXOXOXOX!!
