Nine Months with Dempsey and The Fox

I wanted to hop on and give a really quick – and VERY HAPPY – little Dempsey update! I posted on the socials a few days ago, but want to catalog it here since Price and I are so excited!

Dempsey was nine months on August 2nd, so I wanted to share our #dempseybymonth collage with his little foxie because I love it so! It’s been a wonderful nine months! Not particularly easy, that’s for sure. But it’s been so good. God is just showing up in every nook and cranny like only He can do 😉

SO! For the biggest, bestest news! We found out on July 23rd from our wonderful ENT who will be performing Dempsey’s surgery that our little fella is getting his cochlear implants on August 22nd!!!

Can you tell I’m excited?! I’m so ready to get our little bean to hearing!

Some of you who know about implants might wonder what company we selected. We went with MedEl. It’s a wonderful brand that has been around for years, and after soooo much research (I feel like it was all I could do for a few weeks), and after being invited to participate in a study with MedEl and our hospital (UMC, where Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital is located), we felt confident that this was the brand we should choose. It was one of of the hardest decisions in the world because once someone is implanted, those things are in there for life! But we felt peace about this decision.

We have also been asked by so many people if we plan to film his activation, which is currently set for September 26th. (It’s typical to wait about a month between implantation- where the internal processor is implanted- and activation – where the external processor is turned on!)

The answer is YES, we definitely plan to film it! And yes, we have seen all of the wonderful, beautiful videos going around of all the amazing reactions when babies hear for the first time. Of course we hope for a magical reaction like that! But we have learned that it’s actually way more common for first time hearers to get scared and cry. I mean, honestly, if I’d been accustomed to nothing but peace and quiet my entire life, then my sound was turned on one day, I might cry too! ha!

ANY reaction to sound is a huge win in our book! As long as that baby hears, we are going to be over the moon! 🙂

I would love to ask you for prayers as we approach surgery date. Pray for the team who will be in the OR with our baby. Pray for steady hands and clear minds. Pray that Dempsey can stay in primo health leading up to his surgery. Pray for Dempsey, as his life is about to really change! Pray for Wilson and Lily Ryan, that they can learn to not yell every time they open their months… ha! But seriously… They’re so loud, so we are about to start working HARD on inside voices. Pray for wisdom and peace for Price and me as we navigate this stuff as a team. It is my prayer that little bursts of light come from all of this and that Jesus will make way into some dark places with hope and joy through Dempsey’s story.

We are so thankful and so blessed and SO EXCITED for what all is to come! Thanks for journeying with us on this. It really means the world! Much love to you! xo