The Beauty of the Drive from Holland to Italy
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The Beauty of the Drive from Holland to Italy
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At my birth I landed in Italy. I didn't have anything to do with it. That's just where I landed. I could hear. My wife, at her birth, landed in Italy as well. She could hear. And our two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel, also landed in Italy at their births. Amazingly, born two and a half years apart, they could each hear. I had gotten to the place where I just assumed that most everyone landed in Italy. I fully expected our third child to land there as well. I expected he would be able to hear. Well, John Mark did not land in Italy. He could not hear. He landed in Holland. He is severe to profoundly hearing impaired. He is deaf. When John Mark landed in Holland and we finally discovered that that was where he was (we spent the first two years of his life looking for him in Italy and couldn't really find him there) it was as if we all landed in Holland, except that we could still hear. We had never been to Holland before so we were quite lost and out of sorts as to how to get around in Holland. The first tour guide we had told us that John Mark would never leave Holland, that he did not hear anything, that he would never learn to talk, and that we had all better learn sign if we were to communicate with John Mark, and he with us, as we explored life in Holland. Her extreme diagnosis and prescription did not seem quite right, but what did we know. We had never been to Holland. We grieved. And we grieved some more. And I think we grieved even some more after that. It wasn't that Holland doesn't contain beauty or possess a vibrant language. It does. It's just that our world is Italy. Our world is the hearing world. We grieved that John Mark was not with us in the hearing world, and no matter how much time we attempted to spend with him in Holland, he would not get to explore Italy. He would miss out on the hearing world. At some point along the way we began to realize that there were other tour guides with other maps. Some of them seemed to be in competition for our business with little regard for our well being. But eventually some guides were brought into our lives that not only spoke of getting around in Holland, but also of making journeys out of Holland. Holland would still be home for John Mark, but by following their maps he would not be confined to Holland. He could commute to Italy, the hearing world, the home of the rest of the family. We would be able to explore Holland with him. He would be able to explore Italy with us. Our grief was giving way to hope. Still, the voice of that first tour guide lingered in our minds. Could John Mark really take trips to Italy and spend large amounts of time there without getting totally lost, frustrated, and overwhelmed? And if he could, why was it taking so long to make the trip from Holland to Italy? We sensed that if the trip was not made soon, it would become too late in the season of travel for it to be made at all. There might be short excursions out of Holland, but no real stays in Italy. Enter the John Tracy Travel Agency. The tour guides of this clinic opened their doors, and themselves, to us for a three week crash-course (well, maybe not crash) on how to make the drive from Holland to Italy. They gave us maps and prepped us for many of the road hazards along the way. They helped us to understand the journey that we would be setting out upon, what to expect, when to expect it, and how to respond. The journey would be one of development and require intense play. With his hearing technologically boosted into the speech banana, John Mark would learn to speak by being spoken to. The trip would demand lots of intentional speech interaction. Listening skills would need to be constantly honed. And the journey must be made now, during the travel season. Above all else, the JTC Travel Agency fueled us with hope and a realization that we could indeed make the drive from Holland to Italy. Several hearing impaired folks came before us as testimonies that the commute is possible. We had never journeyed to Italy in this manner. We had simply arrived there. But with John Mark it would be a drive: our drive, his drive, and the drive of the communities that support us. Thank you JTC! Thank you travelers that have gone before. Thank you fellow travelers! We are making a road from Holland to Italy, so that John Mark can live joyfully in our world and also so that we can live joyfully in his world. Joy comes from togetherness. Once the auditory oral lane to Italy is in place, we as a family will work on the sign lane to Holland. Holland and Italy are both nice places, but they become beautiful when we can be there together. And that is why the drive from Holland to Italy is beautiful. Our worlds will touch and our lives will be the richer for it. Perhaps we will even be of encouragement to someone else making the drive behind us.
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