Jordan's "Best Day Ever": RALLY CAPS ITALIAN PRESENTATION

 

I was really trying to be a good Mamma by vacuuming my house, but the vacuum cleaner literally just exploded...I am NOT meant to clean my house (which now smells like burnt vacuum cleaner).

 

Sofia after spending the morning outside screaming, I mean as if her hand got slammed in a car door, because every now and then she sees a spider the size of a quarter of a baby tooth just said the funniest thing: "Mommy, what is English?"
"Sofia, English is what Mommy speaks to you, it's a language. We speak Italian, English and Jordan is learning to speak French." I replied.
Sofia asked, "Like Japanese?"
Shocked at my intelligent 5 year old, I suddenly understood and said, "Right, like the Japanese you see on Naruto or Dragon Balls."
Sofia smiled and said, "Yes, Mommy, I speak English, Italian, Japanese and Fairy Tales."
"Yes, Sofia, that's correct."
*smile*

Okay.

 

Yesterday was the presentation of the Italian Version of RALLY CAPS. Twelve people spoke including the Adminstrative Representative of Cochlear Italy, our pediatrician, our child psychiatrist, our first audiologist, our speech therapist and another one of our speech therapists travelled 8 hours to be present as well, our current audiologist responsible for mapping the ci, the vice-mayor of Grosseto, a representative of the Medical Association who endorsed the book, the President of our Parent Association for Families of Deaf Children, Jordan's friend the famous Martina and Jordan.

There were over 120 people in the hall, every seat was filled and people were forced to stand:). I had invited the ENS, Ente Nazionale dei Sordomuti (Deaf individuals who communicate using LIS). After sending a letter to their President requesting their presence and an interpreter, the president contacted me accepting the invitation. There were about ten people present from the Association, and I was VERY excited about this.

I was a strung-out nervous wreck. There was media coverage, tv, newspaper, etc. I was so nervous when the TV guy interviewed me that I think I made him nervous. Okay, speaking before 130 in a language that is not your own, is kind of scary. I must have sounded half-decent because one of my student's moms just texted me: "I saw you on TV and in listening to you speak, one can truly understand exactly just what a mother is capable of doing for her child. Long live women!" THAT was a hot message.

However, this day was not about me, it was about Jordan. Every single person who spoke, spoke to Jordan. He began the presentation by playing "Old McDonald Had a Farm" on his guitar accompanied by Martina, who is just amazing. When she spoke about Jordan there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

 

After one hour and a half of speeches, Jordan read his letter. He read it clearly and sincerely. After the letter, he decided he wanted to speak to the public. Spontaneously. He said, "I would like to thank everyone for being here with me today. Now, I feel good. I play baseball, I play the guitar, I hang out with my friends, I do anything I want. Before, when I wore hearing aids, I wasn't so good. I was frustrated and life was difficult. Then, I got the cochlear implant and my life changed. Now, I feel good. Thank you again for coming."

I am a nervous mess and my son is a natural. Calm, cool and smooth. Jordan signed books for about an hour, after all he is a published 11 year old. After the book presentation, Luca, Jordan and I went out for pizza. Later that evening we went to an end of the school-year party and on our way home, he said, "Thanks, Mom, this was the Best Day Ever!" (Note: It was also his last day of school:))

PSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPS...*SMILE*

 

YEAH...WE'RE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY:)

(Just downloaded this beauty! Disregard previously written frustration!)

I used to just steal Val's photos and videos of her ADORABLE kids! Now, I'm stealing her entire blog, also because BLOGGER WILL NOT LET ME DOWNLOAD PIX FROM MY COMPUTER-ONLY IMAGES! Between my cramps, computer issues and the freaking bar of chocolate I just ate, I am so annoyed...and then there was Val, who sent me the most miraculous picture of our book with a library bar code. There was an even better picture she sent me where you can see Gage and Brook's cis really clearly and it was just the most beautiful photo I've ever seen...AND I CAN'T DOWNLOAD IT! Can you tell I'm frustrated? Anyway...thank you, Val!
LOOKATTHISLOOKATTHISLOOKATTHISLOOKATTHIS AMAZING PICTURE!!!

Val, bless her gigantic heart, wrote:
I can't tell you how honored I was to walk into my library today and check out Jodi's book Rally Caps. I've read the book already since I ordered a copy for myself a while back but decided it should be in my library as well and here it is!! We were the first at our library to check it out! All I had to do was ask the library after I had them help me search for books w/characters wearing cochlear implants. When they discovered they had none to offer, they were more than happy to put her book in our library and told me anytime I had a specific book in mind they would always do their best to order it for me! How nice is that? You rock Jodi!
NO, YOU ROCK, VAL! THANKS FOR MAKING MY LIFE!
PS. Note the choice of music on the blog today. To give you an idea of how warped Italian adolescents are these days and to give you an idea of how old I feel as I try to help their messed-up heads, this was the song one of my students played on his cell phone. He said, "Hey Jodi, have you heard the latest group - Guns N'Roses?" Lesson over.

"THE LANGUAGE OF BASEBALL"

(Video care of one of my special friends Nestor Aparicio. To see more footage of Cal's incredible experience in China visit www.wnst.net and click on wnstv)

Cal Ripken Jr. is one of the last great heroes of our times, and my dad's number one hero, that is why he was chosen as my father's inspiration for RALLY CAPS. My dad's passion for baseball began as a child and only increased when he realized he had two daughters who could drill a wiffleball better than most of the boys in the hood. Some of my greatest memories are cheering with Wild Bill and high-fiving my dad and sister as the BUDWEISER BEER MUG filled four times on the Orioles' scoreboard after Pat Kelly, Terry Crowley or my number one all time favorite Oriole Eddie Murray hit a clutch grandslam in the bottom of the ninth in Memorial Stadium. We were never speechless as children, we talked baseball.

To help pay for college I worked at a happenin' bar called Bohager's Bar and Grill, where regulars included Mark McGwire (when he played in Baltimore), Brady Anderson, Jeffrey Hammonds (loved him), Damon Buford and Paul Molitor...I served all of them, could even tell you what they drank, but I don't want to bore anyone...One player who NEVER made an appearance at Bohager's was Cal Ripken Jr. - Not even when Keanu Reeves' band Dogstar played and Keanu Reeves himself invited Ripken personally to attend the concert. Ripken's staff showed up, but he stayed at home with his family. (I hung out with Keanu Reeves and company:)) I loved the fact that he was a truly committed family man, so when my dad wanted Cal Ripken Jr. to be a fundamental part of RALLY CAPS, that was okay with me. Cal Ripken Jr. represents the American work ethic, he went out day after day, game after game and did his job. My son has been working since he was 12 months old through frustration and difficulties to learn to speak and comprehend language.
Jordan is MY hero.
In this video, Ripken speaks "The Language of Baseball" to a group of Chinese children who do not speak or understand English. Ripken gets down on his hands and knees to indicate and model for them the appropriate techniques in order to overcome the language barrier.
My dad has done the same thing with Jordan. When Jordan was younger and could not speak English, my dad would take him to the park and pitch him a few balls, a hit might as well have been a sentence. As Jordan got older, they would go to the batting cage, sometimes my dad would steal Jordan's coins to have more turns than him (just kidding..kind of)and they would laugh about that and communicate. Every summer we go to Baltimore and my step-father Eddie and Jordan bond by playing baseball in the backyard, shagging flyballs and working on his batting stance. Last summer, Jordan attended a baseball camp in Baltimore, his first time in a group situation with only English-speaking kids. By the end of camp, his teammates were screaming in Italian, "Non tirare la mazza!" (Don't throw the bat:)) and Jordan was yelling in English, "I got it!"
It's just amazing how a ball, a bat and a glove can provide a bridge for better communication.

Signs...of good things to come

If I could have left Li-Li's video another day, I would have...even a week, she's so beautiful, but I actually had a day worth blogging about...and it has been a long one. I began the day by Hokey Pokeying with one of my pre-school classes, then I bought myself a new military green coat for my birthday (November16th) and at 1:00pm I met Jordan and his class in the cafeteria. As I've said before, his typical school day is from 8-1, but twice a week he goes back to school to study Music. On Fridays,his class walks to the cafeteria of a private school for lunch, because there is no cafeteria or lunch service in his school. He is such a picky eater that he can never find anything to eat at the cafeteria (keep in mind it's an Italian cafeteria and this food is nowhere near the moon cheese pizza and rubber spaghetti of my fondest school memories)so I show up with a couple of pieces of pizza and some peach flavored iced tea. Jordan says, "Thanks!" and as I'm about to leave I see the deaf gentleman, Francesco who always drops by my house to say hi, leave information and ask how Jordan's doing. He was sitting and having lunch with his 10 year old son Roberto who is hearing and who signed and interpreted for me so that I could communicate better with his dad.
I had seen Francesco about a month ago when I asked if there were sign language courses available and he had said no. Keri, who left a comment on one of the posts had suggested that I attend a function organized by the Deaf Community or even an informal get-together. So, I proposed these ideas to Francesco, but he said there were no organized events planned for any time soon, then I asked about a dinner among friends, although I felt like I was inviting myself, but he said there weren't any get-togethers organized in the near future. I'm trying to learn sign language!!! Then, something so sweet happened, (aside from the fact that his son is unbelievably mature and it just rocks my world that he acts as an interpreter at age 10)Francesco looked over at Jordan, sitting at the table with his friends, laughing, hanging out and signed (that was then translated by his son)"He has a really nice group of friends." Francesco had this really happy look in his eyes watching Jordan as he signed this, it was just one of those can't-quite-put-words-to-the-emotion, amazing
moments.

Then, after I had a couple of afternoon English lessons, I came home and found an envelope from my dad of a book report that a nine!!! year old hearing child named Rudy Chacon Jr.had done for school on RALLY CAPS. Allow me to quote this highly intelligent eleven year old with exceptionally great taste in literature...Rudy writes, "After the injury Jordan(the hearing character) is fearful and does not want to play baseball ever again. His parents send him to a sports camp to overcome his fears. He meets a boy named Luca who is deaf. Luca has a determined attitude and teaches Jordan to love baseball again..." Rudy also writes, "Luca is a deaf boy that has a cochlear implant. Luca has had to overcome many hard times and teaches Jordan NOT to give up his dreams...Jordan realizes he has made a great friend that has helped him overcome his fears. I would recommend this book to all my friends and anyone I know because it teaches a good lesson in friendship and courage." Rudy Chacon Jr. read RALLY CAPS, wrote a book report and "got it!" He now knows not only what a cochlear implant is and how to spell it correctly, but that DEAF means DETERMINED. THANK YOU SO MUCH RUDY FOR WRITING SUCH AN INCREDIBLE REPORT!!!!(I heard he got an A++)
Just when you think life can't get any better, it does. Tonight at 6:45 pm Italian time, I translated an email from a small Italian publishing company requesting authorization from my publishing company Publish America to publish RALLY CAPS in Italian...the waiting begins. Will my own son ever be able to read the book he inspired? We're getting closer.

Introducing......An American Mom in Tuscany and the Cochlear Implant

Hi Everyone!!!
I'm Jodi and this is my first official blog ever! I am the co-author of the children's book RALLY CAPS that was published in April 2007 (the other author is my dad). This book was inspired by my eleven year old son Jordan, who is deaf and wears a cochlear implant. I wanted to mainstream a strong deaf character in literature as my son is mainstreamed in public schools and life in general....IN GROSSETO! Grosseto is a town in Tuscany, Italy. I have chosen to write a blog because after so many years of teaching my deaf son to have a voice, I have neglected to use my own voice regarding how cochlear implants are changing lives. I feel extremely fortunate that my son is overcoming his disability and I would like all parents to know that the cochlear implant truly works.
To learn a little more about our story and to meet my incredible son (there is also a picture of my daughter Sofia) visit http://www.rallycaps.net/ciinfo.htm.
I look forward to writing and meeting new people curious about the cochlear implant and life in Tuscany.
Jodi
Co-Author of RALLY CAPS
Mamma of Jordan 11 years old (Nucleus 24C FREEDOM upgrade left ear) and
Sofia Madyson aka "DRAMA" 4 years old
http://www.rallycaps.net/