2010 April | A Deaf Mom Shares Her World

Start the Ripple and Inspire Someone Today!

For all those who think they’re “too old” or that the “best years are over with,” this one is for you:

Here’s the script (the captioning is wonky!):

Keith St. Onge:
“Here we are at the World Barefoot Center with Judy Myers and Karen Putz. Very unique story we have here today. Today we have Karen Putz, she is deaf. It has been over 25 years since she has barefooted and we got her back on her feet skiing along today! Some more of the unique story is that Karen was introduced back into barefooting by seeing Judy Myers 67 years old skiing. Want to tell us a little bit more about that Karen?”

Karen: “Sure! It was my 44th birthday and I was sitting at my parents’ lake, just sitting there thinking that the best years were over with. It had been ten years since I touched the water barefooting. So I’m sitting there thinking, “Gosh, I wish I could barefoot again.” I didn’t think I could. I mean I was 44 years old and I thought if I barefoot again I might break something.

Keith St. Onge:
“Right… A lot of people think that they might break something and they are to old to barefoot, but that is not the case.”

Karen: So in October of that year, my husband sent me a link to Judy from the Today Show. At first, I didn’t open it but when I was cleaning out emails that one popped up. So I clicked on the link and I’m watching Judy and she’s barefooting on the water. I’m like, wait a minute! She’s 66 years old and she’s barefooting on the water. If she’s 66, well then, what’s my excuse? I’m 44– I can get back on the water again!

So I contacted Judy and she said, “Come on down to Florida!” So that’s exactly what I did two, three weeks ago. On my first try, I got back to barefooting again.

Keith St. Onge: One of the big questions is how we communicate with Karen. We can talk but she can not hear us, Karen can read lips. She reads lips perfectly! As long as Karen is making eye contact it works well.
Karen:
Keith is easy to lipread!

Keith: The unique cool thing here is that Judy Myers 67 the oldest female barefooter in the world still competing . She has been bringing a lot of people down to the ski school, people have seen her Fit to Boom video, Subway commercial, all this type of stuff and things have been really cool. It has been AWESOME!

Karen: If Judy can do it, then ANYONE can do it!

Judy Myers:
“That’s Right! That is exactly right”

More: The Best Years of Life Are Still Ahead

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Tags: Inspirational Stuff, People You Should Know by DeafMom
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Deaf Child from Russia Needs a Loving Home

There’s a little boy in Russia who is deaf and needs a loving home. Read this email that I received from Elizabeth Gastelum, an attorney from Illinois:

My husband and I adopted our kids from Russia last fall (both with hearing loss). We thought they were the only kids there with a hearing loss, but once we arrived we realized that another little boy in the same group as our daughter also has a hearing loss. He is 5 years old and Buryat (Russian, but of Mongolian descent). He is a sweetheart! Aside from hearing loss he has a form of CP (although this did not seem to be severe as he can dress and feed himself, and walk etc.) To make a long story short, I am trying to get the word out about this little boy to anyone that is thinking of adoption.

He is in Ulan-Ude, Russia. The adoption agency is LSS of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. This adoption agency has the ability to handle Russian adoptions without going through another adoption agency with the required Russian permission.

I realize that the recent media reports have seemed to indicate that Russia is or will be closing their adoptions with the United States, but reports that I have from professionals there and working with this program indicate that this will not be the case. He is five years old now and I believe he will be six years old in October. I am not for certain, but if it is the same scenario as it was with our two kids, there is a long waiting list for the school for the deaf there and more than likely he will be sent to a facility when he is six years old (unless there is a family in the process of adoption) that is for multiple handicaps (children and adults) and the majority are bedridden. He does not belong there. But this is a part of the world where there are few other options. I am willing to speak with any family interested, candidly, on what it has been like for us to have adopted two children from the same orphanage.

If you are willing to open your heart and your home to this child, please email me at: karen@karenputz.com and I will connect you with Elizabeth.

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Tags: Raising Deaf/HH Kids by DeafMom
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On Being Deaf

Someone asked me recently, “Do you wish you could hear?”

I had to stop and ponder that one.

If you asked me that question when I was nineteen, shortly after I became deaf from a fall while barefooting, I would have said, “Hell, yes.” No pause. No reflection there. The answer would have been simple: give me full-fledged hearing and I will dance a jig until the end of time.

I was born with hearing in the normal range. I can remember my Dad telling me stories about a dog named Scamp. My Dad worked double shifts, so I would crawl into bed when he arrived home and lie there while he told me stories. I was about five or six when the warning signs began showing– I’d misunderstand a sentence or would ask him to repeat the words. I grew up hard of hearing and had developed lipreading skills since I was young — I was firmly entrenched in the “hearing” world and knew no sign language.

The last shred of what I could hear without hearing aids was gone the moment I climbed into the boat after cartwheeling on the water. I didn’t realize it that day– I just figured I had water in my ears and it would subside. It wasn’t until the day that I left for college that I realized that “being deaf” was here to stay. I spent my college nights lying there in the dark and… crying. Grief was a heavy cloak that wrapped around me in the darkness. I cursed the piece of electronic equipment that I stuffed into my ear each day which did nothing more than bring environmental sounds to life and made lipreading a tad easier. I had already spent most of my life lipreading, but I could at least hear the sounds around me and turn when spoken to without the hearing aid. After that fall, there was nothing but silence without hearing aids. A blessing at night, indeed, when the roar of tinnitus eventually stopped. But it wasn’t a real blessing until I was deep into the journey.

College life was filled with deaf and hard of hearing friends; some who had arrived into the Deaf Community like me– with no knowledge of American Sign Language. I spent my days learning to lipread the interpreters and match their lip movements to their rapid hand movements. I took several ASL classes and slowly incorporated the language into everyday life. Before I knew it, life had become a happy journey down this new road.

And then one day, I realized that I no longer grieved. Instead, I celebrated. There was much to enjoy from this new life path– an amazing language, a wonderful community and a blessed acceptance that a deaf life was indeed full and beautiful.

So, you can see why today, I pause and ponder the answer to the question, “Do you wish you could hear?”

The answer is a complicated one. On one hand, yes. I close my eyes and imagine being able to hear what others are saying when I hang out in groups. I imagine the sweet bliss of being able to go anywhere, anytime and have access to the audio jungle out there. But there is the sweet bliss of being content with how my life has unfolded on this journey; because you see, becoming deaf didn’t rob me of life, instead, it gave me a whole, new, beautiful life.

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