Happy New Year!
I hope the holiday season has been treating everyone well. Mine has been filled with family get togethers - for Christmas and birthdays, and the new year will be filled with the same.
I wanted to add one more blog for 2008: I have been enjoying my ipod like never before. I was able to use one before I got the implant, but I had to take my hearing aid out and then turn it all the way up, which of course everyone around me could then hear too, so i did not use it that much. My daughter got a new ipod for Christmas so she gave me back mine (she had lost hers). I plugged it in to my processor and the music came in loud and clear - and no one could hear what i was listening too, even turned all the way up! I think I listened to it for the next hour, and then again in the car on the way back from my brothers house an hour away a few days later. I have to update the music now and i will carry it with me everywhere.
On the national level the news this year has not been that great to put it mildly. But on a personal level, I am almost sad to say goodbye to 2008, especially the last couple of months. The highs and lows have given me a real appreciation for my life and family. As 2009 quickly approaches I expect to settle into the everyday routines with much fewer highs and lows, which is a good thing. My blogs will probably be fewer and farther between as well. Feel free to add comments or ask me any questions.
Take care and happy New Year!

Hello and Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa!
I hope you enjoyed the Christmas letter. This is the one we sent to all our friends and family. It truly has been an amazing and eventful year and we are grateful for God's continued presence in our lives,as well as our many family members and friends.
I had my one month (or closer to five weeks) check up with my audi Jennnifer today and I feel like doing some bragging. I took another hearing test in the sound booth and scored in the 30 decibel range - meaning I could hear sounds in that range. . Rememeber, with the hearing aid I was around the 50-60 range, and without it I was in the jet engine range - over 1oo! Then I did some word testing in her office and got 84% percent correct, followed by sentence recognition in which I got 100% correct! Jennifer was pretty happy. Me? I was playing it cool while trying not to burst out laughing with pride and joy. I can't emphasize enough now how glad I am for getting the implant. And I get kinda giggly thinking it still might or should get even better in the months to come. It is simply amazing if I can say so myself.
Jennifer also "mapped" the processor again, and things sound ever so slightly better. My everyday program is working well with most of the environments I am in so we did not add any new programs. I probably will at my next session in a couple of months just so I have options if I want to try them - if they are there I may as well take advantage of them and see if I like them or not. For example I could have a t-coil mix which would allow me to use the t-coil (telephone or microphone switch) but still hear sounds around me.
In the meantime - Merry Christmas! If God blesses you half as much as He has blessed me, you are sure to receive a huge bounty of blessings!
Take care,

Sligo SDA Church Advent Candle Lighting and reading

Santa Dan

I got to play santa for the kids at our annual Christmas party on Saturday.

Our 2008 Holiday Letter

What an amazing journey our family has been on this year! It has been a real blessing to know that we have family and friends that are always there for each other when you need them, and that God is ALWAYS in control if you just place your life in his caring hands.From the beginning 2008 proved to be challenging and at times a little overwhelming. Dan was faced in March with learning that the remaining hearing he had was beginning to fail and that he could lose all of it suddenly or gradually over a period of a few years. Luckily, living in this area, we were referred to John’s Hopkins and were able to meet with some of the best doctors for cochlear implant surgery. A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with electric impulses. Needless to say this has been a journey for all our family and friends. Dan completed the surgical part in early October and for the next 5 weeks was completely deaf while healing. On November 12 he was activated. We now live with “RoboDan”! Everyday is an exciting adventure as he adjusts to his new way of hearing. But he is doing wonderfully and is glad her has it. (Check out his blog: http://danscochlear.blogspot.com/ ).After many nervous weeks we were able to finally move into our newly built home in July, which has allowed for much more space for everyone, and a great place for all of our family and friends to enjoy time together. For awhile we thought we might not actually get to move when the townhouse sale fell through at the last minute and pushed the closing date on the new house back over a month. But by Gods grace it all worked out. Logan (Tammie’s nephew) and TJ (Niece's boyfriend) as well as many others helped with the moving process. Robyn (Tammie’s sister from California) was also able to help organizing the whole kitchen as well as other rooms. Tammie’s parents, although not here on moving day were extremely helpful in the decorating process as well as the walk through before closing. We are now settled and enjoying all the visitors that have been over.

Danielle has now entered her last year of Middle School and became a teenager. At the end of her 7th grade year, after 10 years of waiting and watching others, she built a card board boat (one of her Science projects at school) for the annual boat races in the campus pool. She did well and finished the race– we were all thankful she didn’t sink like many others did! She has one more chance to perfect it this year before moving on to high school. Danielle also enjoyed her Baptism with Megan (cousin) at Sligo SDA church in September. Although she had been baptized years before at New Hope SDA Church, she decided to re-affirm her relationship with God. It proved to be a wonderful experience for both girls, and it was a very exciting day for the whole family, as Uncle Rob and Aunt Aimee welcomed their new baby Caleb that very same morning!As always, Danielle has been very active with sports and activities this year through school. She played Lacrosse goalie in the spring, Volleyball in the fall and as we enter the winter season she is on the basketball team. She also enjoys her school service learning group whose focus is breast cancer awareness. Now we are looking forward to the remainder of her year and holding on to each experience as she wraps up this phase of her life.There were many other wonderful things to celebrate during the course of 2008. Tammie’s niece, Kelsey Trifone, graduated from High School and began college at West Virginia University. Charlotte and Bob (Dan’s parents) celebrated their 50th Anniversary in August . As mentioned above, we welcomed baby Caleb Conway in September. Friends Ron & Gina Turner also welcomed a new baby Isabelle Turner. We are looking forward to Christmas with family and friends, and a year end celebration for Tammie as she turns the big “40” on New Year’s Eve.As you can see this year has been especially eventful. We enter this Holiday season grateful for all that God has done for us we continue to live knowing that each day will draw us closer to our wonderful Father in Heaven where we will be reunited and rejoice in his goodness.

Things are still going well. I am slowly starting to experiment with some of the different settings on the processor after just being happy to hear and keeping everything pretty much the same every day. I have adjusted the volume and sensitivity but am not sure exactly when to do either yet. At church on Saturday, I used an assistive listening devise and turned the processor onto t-coil. That worked well - anyone who spoke into the microphone came in nice and clear, although the singing still wasn't the best.
I got more than 24 hours on my rechargeable battery the other day. I wore it all day Saturday, then took it off in another room I was sleeping in (My neice and nephew spent the night and kicked me out of my own bed!) without recharging it. I put it back on Sunday morning and it lasted until 11:00pm that night. Pretty cool. I haven't used batteries since the first week.
I will be going back for my third mapping in three weeks.
Later,
Dan

Wizards Game

Our school played a game at the Verizon Center, and I got to announce the players. Very Cool! Also got to take a picture with a few of the cheerleaders.