Oh Oh - I Hear That!

For a kid who had a cholesteatoma removed from her right ear when she was 5 years old that made her pretty much deaf in that ear, she has amazing hearing. If she is in her room and you open the Moose Tracks down in the kitchen, for sure she will be down for hers.

There are certain words we don’t use in our house. Words like shut up, stupid, hate, the R word for sure. I just think there are better words in the English language to express our feelings. So, if you are in the company of Kate and you say one of those words, you will hear Oh oh, I hear that. It is her reminder to us to be kinder and smarter.

She also can sit in church at Cornerstone and answer Pastor Manny’s rhetorical questions. Although we prompt her not to before we go in and sit, invariably she can’t help herself. He is a good sport about it and will say something like, "Thank you Kate" and you can hear the muffled laughter. My friend Barb Blasco wrote about Kate doing this in her book, "It’s A Girl But Will She Live. " This is what she said: " Another young disabled girl in our church, Katie, responds out loud to the rhetorical questions sometimes asked by Pastor Manny in his sermons. This could be an annoyance, but it has been turned unto a positive situation. Katie's mom, Cheryl, told us several people have come up to her after service and said, "Katie is a real example to me. She puts me to shame. She really listens to the sermon and doesn't get distracted as I sometimes do. I have to learn to listen better the way she does."

It seems we are still learning from Kate: patience, acceptance, how to see the good in the bad, how to laugh at ourselves, what is actually important and what we can let go... and others are to. Another blessing from Kate.