Too Bad, Train Gone

When I first started this blog, I had every intention of writing weekly with updates of how we're doing and what we're learning. I had visions of videos of me signing and teaching the world the wonderful language of ASL.

It was a good plan. But then I woke up and realized, HA! I have four kids, three with special needs, a job, a house I'm remodeling, a not for profit foundation I'm running and a million other little things that suck up my time. The good news is that in spite of it all, we ARE learning. SO much is happening so fast that I am trying  hard to keep up with it.

Every week we have a teacher from the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind come to our house, and he's been a life saver. I can't even begin to quantify what I've learned from him. Because Mikkel is also profoundly deaf, he has an interpreter that comes with him. Her name is June and she's fantastic. (For the record, she's the one that teaches me the naughty words. I love her. )  During one of our lessons we were discussing deaf culture, phrases, idioms etc; and one of the phrases that I leaned is "Too Bad, Train Gone." It's a statement of, you missed it, you weren't paying attention, too bad for you, I'm not going to repeat myself again... you had your chance, you missed your opportunity to be a part of what I was saying.

It sounds silly to those of us who can hear, but apparently, little things like this have big meaning in the deaf community, and I like it. I have been thinking a lot about my "missed trains" and man, there are a lot. It seems now that I am frantically trying to catch every train I've ever missed.

I am working harder than ever to learn sign language, work, keep up with the house, raise a hoard of kids... but I also want this blog to be as inspirational and helpful as I had originally planned. So, pardon my ineffective first year while I cried, grieved, learned and grew. Here's to a much more productive, educational, humorous and effective second year!

Here is my new motto towards the goal of no more missed trains:

"When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better."