Miracles

Today has possibly been the best day ever.

I can't even count the amount of prayers that have been answered in the past 24 hours.

It started out like any other day.  We all woke up, ate breakfast, took baths, the usual.

Then, all before lunch, Nikki and I met with Lily's teacher and got the final word that she can continue attending this school next year, took a tour of a potential school for Molly, and got exciting news about the paperwork the kids need to be put up for adoption (which requires a 2 day trip to Ongole starting tomorrow!).

Then came the icing on the cake.  We took Nolan to get his cochlear implants turned on.

If you aren't familiar with Nolan's incredible story, I recommend you read my earlier post about him.

Nolan had his surgery on February 18th.  Everything went incredibly well and by his first check up had healed enough for the turn on day to be March 10th as planned.  Today.

We fed Nolan dinner early, dressed him in his trademark Superman shirt, and off we went.

The day had finally come.  After months of fighting, fundraising, and waiting, it was time.

While we waited for what seemed like forever outside the audiologist's office, I was a ball of emotions.  Part of me was so excited this day was finally here.  Another part was anxious that after all the fighting and all Nolan has been through, it wouldn't even work (a definite possibility).  But for the most part, it hadn't even sunk in.  Every once in a while it would kind of hit me and I'd almost start crying but then it would pass and I'd feel all confused again.

And there we sat, just waiting.

Finally, we were called in.

And it became real.

They got him all hooked up and started running tests.

The doctor said it would be a while and left the room.

There we sat, waiting, hoping, praying.

The only sound was the beeping of the tests.

Nolan sat there looking incredibly confused.

We had no idea how long it would take, if he was actually supposed to be hearing something at this point, or when we would know if it worked or not.

The doctor came back but even after he answered our questions we were still confused and had no idea when he would actually be turning it on.

As we sat there trying to kill time (and not think about all the emotions threatening our sanity) by talking about how we hoped he would show some sort of reaction when it got turned on, Nolan all of the sudden started crying.  Really crying.

We stopped and stared at him for a few seconds then realized as he buried his head in his lap that he was scared because HE WAS HEARING!!  For the first time ever, he was actually hearing!

They had turned it on without giving us any warning and instead of crying as anticipated, Nikki and I just both started laughing!  It was all so unexpected, exciting, and quite comical with Nolan sitting there sobbing into his lap!  We got the reaction we had hoped for!  It wasn't exactly as we had planned but can't complain. ;)

They turned the volume down so it wouldn't be so overwhelming for him and we killed the rest of the time between seeing the different doctors by calling his name and clapping to see his reaction and telling him "I love you" about 600 times :)

The tears that didn't come in the doctor's office have since made their appearance as it has finally sunk in.  Our little boy is hearing.  HEARING.  After 7 years of silence, the world just got opened up to him in a whole new way.  What a beautiful ending to this part of his story and beginning to whatever is next.

God's hand is all over little Nolan's life and I am so blessed to have a front row seat.  Nolan has been through so much in his few years but he is so loved.  Despite his past, his voice is now being heard.  There are people all over the world praying for him and sharing his story.  Thank you for being a part of that.  Thank you for fighting for those who can't fight for themselves.  You are changing lives.

Today was truly a day of miracles.