Abbi Timmons is my precious little 7 year old daughter.  She was born profoundly deaf we assume. Newborn screening wasn't mandatory at that time.  The nurses tried to test her but told me she wouldn't cooperate.  They assured me she was probably fine and I could take her to the pediatrician for testing in a few months if I had any concerns.  Having no history of deafness in my nor her father's family, I dismissed the thought and didn't have her tested

Being my second child, I wasn't reading daily from my "What To Expect During The First Year" book.  I got it out every few months and read back over what she should have accomplished since I read it last.  At four months of age, she should have turned to my voice.  Abbi didn't do that and she was 6 months old.  I overlooked that as it said at the end of each chapter "not all infants reach milestones at the same time". 
 

When Abbi was 7 1/2 months old, my sister was taking her picture.  She kept calling Abbi's name but she wouldn't look up.  I finally waved my hand in front of her face and that startled her.  My sister innocently commented on Abbi not recognizing her name yet.  I knew then there was something wrong.  After performing some of my own "test", I was certain Abbi was deaf.  Within the week, she was diagnosed as profoundly deaf by an ABR test.

We began the process of getting her fitted with hearing aids, having someone come to our home from La. School for the Deaf once a week and taking her to speech therapy 3 days a week.  We never saw any signs of her hearing with her hearing aids after six months.  It was then we were told about this "unreliable" thing called a cochlear implant.  I did lots of research and found so many different opinions from "The CI is the most wonderful thing you can do for her!" to the extreme opposite of "The CI is child abuse and she will grow up to hate you for doing that to her". 

Ultimately, with God's guidance, we decided to give her the opportunity to hear something with the CI, even if it was only enviromental sounds, versus nothing at all with or without hearing aids.  Abbi was implanted unilaterally and activated on January 4, 2001 at the age of 2 years and 2 months of age.  At 6 weeks post-activation she was saying words like, bye-bye, nose, mouth, uh-oh and most importantly, momma.  She didn't say those words perfectly but oh, it was just amazing to hear her wonderful attempts!  Many a grown man cried when they heard her speak! 

We began a year and a half ago looking into the possibility of a second implant.  Research was being published that seemed so promising.  Several parents on my internet CI circle had their children bilaterally implanted as part of those research studies.  They posted regularly with very positive results.  After a nine month battle with our insurance company, we finally won with the help of the Let Them Hear Foundation.  We were on our way to bilateral!

Abbi's second implant was activated on July 19, 2006.  The results have been astounding!  As I write this, she has been activated for 15 days.  She already seems to be speaking more clearly and more aware of sounds around her.  She has adapted quickly to her new "baby ear".  She is already able to repeat back words and phrases with just her baby ear on.  She is very proud of her new baby ear and has told me several times over the last two weeks, "See my new baby hearing ear.  It's so beautiful!  Thank you so much, Momma!"  Hearing that from her is so valuable to me.