the deaf girl sings

i had to register kiele for school before she returned from her dad's (she spends the summer with him).  kiele has three electives this year and i had to choose them for her.  art was a no-brainer.  then i selected yearbook and theater, after discussing all the options with her.  since she participated in the no limits theater group for deaf | hard of hearing children for three years, i thought theater would be a breeze for kiele. OH MY GOSH!

coleman middle school theater is musical theater.  they just happened to forget the musical part of it when they told me about it and kiele found out on the first day of school.  ummm...yea...musical...like...yea...similar to glee.  their first song, to learn and sing, is jump by van halen.  the glee version.

OH MY GOSH!

prior to school starting, kiele said,

i hope i don't have to sing in theater.  i'm so not singing.

she's singing alright!  and the girl can't keep a tune if you paid her (lots of money). but in all seriousness, her dad has a great singing voice so maybe kiele just needs a bit of training...on listening to the tune. and singing.  just maybe...she has a wonderful singing voice like her daddy (and not like her mommy). ;-)

and as her theater teacher said to kiele,

don't worry.  it's going to be great.

when i picked kiele up from school today, one of the first things she shared was,

i think theater is going to be my favorite class this year.

and my heart melted.  i can't help but think about all kiele has and continues to accomplish.  she inspires me beyond words. and pretty much inspires everyone she meets.

all in all, things have gone pretty great.  kiele's school services are in place, including CART.  we (the IEP team) are meeting again in three months to "evaluate how kiele is doing" -- whatever that really means.  hopefully by then, the school staff will fully realize how very much kiele utilizes and needs CART to have equal access to communication.

and there's always something to open my eyes that much more, in regards to what kiele does and does not hear in the classroom...

yesterday, kiele's CART provider told me that kiele was sitting at a table with a few other girls.  the girls were chatting with one another (a conversation that a normal-hearing person would clearly hear).  the CART provider noticed that kiele didn't seem to be hearing them and sent kiele a message (through CART), asking her if she was hearing what the girls were saying.  kiele wasn't and so the CART provider asked kiele if she wanted her to type what they were saying (gossiping).  kiele said no.

the way CART works is...if it's something kiele would hear if she was a normal-hearing child, the transcriber will type it.

it blew me away that kiele couldn't hear the kids talking at her own table--right next to her.  made me a bit sad too, thinking about all the casual conversation that kiele might be missing out on, at school.  but then i refocus and am just so overwhelming grateful that kiele can hear...period. A-MA-ZING!!

so here's to kiele having a most amazing school year and...singing!!  singing proudly, no matter what the tune.  :-)

in closing, sharing a quick snap from yesterday, their first day of school... p.s. none of them were happy about having their picture taken. go figure.