Thankful here...

Hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving.

We went over the river and through the woods about 3 miles to Mom's house for dinner. We even survived her husband's family being there. Barely. Luckily his sister's cooking didn't kill us.

Among a list of many things we're thankful for here in our household - due to Hubby's hearing problem the university has put him in contact with the local DARS office. It turns out when the first test showed his hearing was 40-60% in each ear, it was conducted at decibels ABOVE normal conversation tones. At normal conversation level, his hearing is 8% and 28%. (Explains why I yell at him so much, haha.)

So, being a "disabled student" they are providing him with:

• Free hearing aids - and these are NOT inexpensive ones, the models that he requires cost around $4500 for the both of them.

• Free tuition - starting in Spring, so all his grants etc will be refunded to us for next term

• Free textbooks

• Free school supplies - Scientific calculator, laptop, all other supplies needed for his classes, which for engineering wouldn't be cheap

For all of these things we are very thankful, it will help us tremendously. He's thrilled about the hearing aids, which he was fitted for last week. It'll help him hear again and help save my voice. Not to mention the speakers on our TV.

I'm also proud of him for handling the word "disability" so well. He thought himself to be superman when he was younger, so I'm sure it's not easy for him when at school he has to tell people he's "hard of hearing, please speak up," especially around the younger classmates. That's okay, he's still superman to me.

But there's something he's learned from being part deaf- the hearing therapist brought up that he could probably read lips and didn't even know it. It turns out it's true, he has a harder time understanding people when he can't see their lips move as they talk. So now that he knows it he's been having fun with that little developed assimilation, watching people talk across the room to see if he can understand them, lol.

Yes, we are thankful this Thanksgiving. Hope the rest of you are just as blessed.