Sunday's Answered Prayer!

Hey you guys!
Thank you so much for your prayers! After church I hung out until I was nearly the last one left, then my kids and I went shopping for a birthday gift for Joe, then got lunch, then came home and it was already 3:00! And I crashed for a lovely hour-long nap.

Church was...great. I felt totally peaceful, and I think that was the message God had for me. I told David and John, "I really want to get to church on time, but I also really want you with me. I don't want to wait for you and be late, but I also don't want to leave you behind. So, don't please don't push me this morning!" Well, I'm happy to report all three of us got there, less than 10 minutes late.

The first part of the service is the singing, which was my greater concern, anyway. I got there in time for the last half of the last beginning song. It was not too loud. Very good sign. I always sit in the third row, partly so I can hear, and partly just because I am an incredible creature of habit! :)

I tried to relax into the sound--not tune out, but not strain to hear. It worked really well. I could follow the Scripture readings because they are all printed out in the bulletin. I followed enough of Jays sermon to enjoy and not feel so frustrated. During "The Prayers of the People," William beckoned me and the Mulders to come forward and give our praise! So I could say I'm grateful for how well I came through the surgery, that I got activated already, that's a long road to adjust to the electronic stimulation but, yes! I'm hearing! I probably said more than he intended me to say, BUT that got me off the hook of people coming up and asking me, "So, can you hear now?!?!"

I had even printed up a little blurb and got it to fit on a 4x6 portion of an 8.5x11 paper, explaining that no, I do NOT hear perfectly now, and made a bunch of copies. I didn't need to use it once. I guess that shows I was afraid of other people's expectations, as so many people know so little about CI's. But I got LOTS of hugs afterwards and people are just so excited for me.

I'd say the things that were "best" about the service were
1. I had an incredible sense of peace and quiet enjoyment
2. I didn't have to be constantly switching back and forth on my HA remote between enough power to hear an individual speaker and little enough power to be able to even stand the singing.

The singing always gave me a headache unless I put my HA's on audio-zoom to "cut out background" to keep the sound from just being very loud buzzy mush. But then I couldn't hear if the pastor said something between songs. So I was constantly switching back and forth between my programs, constantly on the alert the whole service.

It felt SO GOOD to just relax! During the fellowship time afterwards, I was again relaxed, not straining to hear every word. I got to (took advantage of the opportunity to...) stand around and chat with people I haven't talked to much, and it was lovely.

So there's your update--thank you SO MUCH for your prayers!!

Liz