Another Inspirational Voice

This youtube video has been posted with parental permission. I'd like everyone to meet Jessica. She is speaking in front of a large crowd at a fundraiser for the Auditory-Verbal Center of Atlanta - the Governor of Atlanta was a member of that crowd. She is obviously extremely nervous about speaking in front of a large crowd (as I myself get before I have to speak before a group of people)yet she stands behind that microphone and delivers her speech like a typical twelve year old girl who loves listening to Avril Lavigne on her ipod and who religiously collects posters of Zac Effron. Jessica is not typical...she is extraordinary and later that night she could be seen shakin' her groove thing with the governor himself.(unfortunately, they didn't manage to get that on tape!) She wears bilateral cochlear implants successfully, but her outgoing personality and the courage she mustered to speak in front of a large group of people are not a product of her implants alone, they are a result of a supportive, loving and determined family that has spent hours and hours doing lessons at home in collaboration with the Auditory-Verbal Center in Atlanta to help Jessica learn to speak and gain the maximum benefit possible from her cis. Jessica also has a deaf older sister named Rachel who wears bilateral cis...but we'll dedicate this blog to only Jessica who spoke into that microphone and used her voice. To see more of Jessica and Rachel click on their website link to the right...