Week 9-Senses, Day 3-Hearing

Wild and Wonderful

So we are officially out of NJ and now residents of WV!  Six hours in the truck, about ten highway patrolmen, and many tunes later we picked up our new key to our very own townhouse.  No more apartment.  No more seeing our neighbors as we walk into the building.  And no more hearing other people’s music.  Today I am thankful for more things than I could really blog about, but I am really thankful for the sound of good music and new television series (thank you instant Netflix) that have gotten us through the past 24 hours.

So I asked this question in my blog a few days ago but would you rather be blind or deaf?  I still can’t decide.  There’s nothing like an awesome song to totally change your mood, or picking the right one to reflect your mood.  The National Education for Assistance Dog Services has been working since 1976 to train service dogs to help deaf and disabled individuals live more independent lives.  NEADS has trained over 1300 dogs from all across the United States to be all types of dogs including; hearing, service, social, specialty, service dogs for the classroom, ministry, therapy and walker dogs.  Plus they have a graduation ceremony for the service dogs three times a year to celebrate the all the hard work and giving that the dogs and countless volunteers have accomplished in few short months.  Dogs and children are weak spots for me, and most of America, so the Central Institute for the Deaf seemed liked a great choice for my second charity to blog about.  CID is a school in St. Louis, Missouri that has been teaching deaf and hard of hearing children to listen, talk, read, and succeed for almost 100 years.  Technology like cochlear implants and powerful digital hearing aids along with education tools developed at CID are increasing the number of deaf children who are able to talk, read, and hear.  Giving the gift of hearing is priceless.

Cute and charitable 🙂

National Education for Assistance Dogs Services Donation

Central Institute for the Deaf Donation

Here’s to you hearing!  You give us the gift of being magically charmed with only those little pieces of cartilage on the sides of our heads.  You help us put a voice with a face, and a song to our everyday lives.  You help us hear the crickets chirp in the summer and the squirrels scampering across the rooftop in the winter.  So let your voice be heard for something worthwhile.