A new discovery

Today is Landon's 9th birthday- we've had 4 birthdays in the last 19 days and it worked pretty well this year!  There was a swimming party for Landon and Abuzaid- a combined party that was not at my house and they all had a ball- swimming it is every year now!! :)  The 'hardest' party was Jonah's, but mainly because 6 additional 5th grade boys are stinky- they were good boys:).
So last week, Jonah and Temesgen were listening to music in their room and Jonah decided to get out their Ethiopian airlines ear phones and share them.  He tried to put one in Temesgen's right ear and he said, "No Jonah- not that ear.  I can't hear in that one."  Really?? We had no idea.  Thankfully, we got an appointment with the school district audiologist and had that appointment today.  Diagnosis??  Profound hearing loss in his right ear.  He could only hear something like a jet engine right next to him.  We're going to the ENT on Friday to determine if it's something that is internal that is causing it, but the audiologist thinks it's probably not.  Temesgen has told us that he never remembers hearing in that ear.
The crazy and amazing part??  That this boy, who has been in the country for 8 1/2 months, is reading at a second grade level with no reading instruction before he came except knowing the letters and sounds.  He's scooting through 1st and 2nd grade math with ease.  He should be caught up to his grade level by the end of the summer in math and potentially even reading.  All of this while dealing with learning another language, becoming part of a new family, and being deaf in one ear.  The audiologist even said that he must be very intelligent to be able to compensate for all of that and be at where he is now.  Yep- he's a smart kiddo!!!!
So what's the next step?  Well, we'll meet with the ENT on Friday, but other than that, our plan is to just help him be successful any way we can.  Hearing aides won't help him, so he'll just have to deal with it (which he's been doing for years- possibly even since birth).  We'll do things like have him sit at the front of the room with his left ear towards the teacher.  He'll work well in smaller groups because having all the background noise is hard for him.  His left ear and brain are trying to do the work of 2 functioning ears and where they lack is in the filtering department.  It's hard for him to only listen to the person speaking- he has trouble filtering out the background noise.  Teachers (and us!) will have to be sure they have his attention before they give him directions.  When noise goes in his left ear, it has to cross to the right side of his brain and then go back to the left side- it's an extra step that will slow down (only slightly) his processing.  He loves sports, but with all the extra noise in a game, it will be something the coaches will need to know- it could be very difficult to get his attention on the field or court (which we noticed during bball!).
We are so thankful that we have people who know how to diagnose these things and help us along the way.  Even if there's nothing we can do to 'fix' it, at least we know about it now and can help him deal with it better.  I am AMAZED by this child- if I was deaf in one ear and trying to learn a new language, I'm pretty darn sure I'd be failing miserably!  He takes it all in stride.  Have I said recently how thankful I am that we said 'yes' to bringing him home and making him a Fanning?  If I haven't (or even if I have), we are so thankful for him!!!!! 

Oh- and by the way, completely off topic, Jonah and I are going with our church to Uganda for 2 weeks in June!  Can't wait to be His hands and feet there!  Jonah will be working to build a playground at a school and also working through a sports ministry.  I will be doing multiple things, like vision clinics, women's health education, and bible studies.  CAN'T WAIT!!!