If I had to nominate one child from Casa Hogar Douglas to win the award for something like... "most dramatically different" this year - it'd for sure go to Jahir. We always suspected this sweet child had some hearing issues but it wasn't until we actually had his ears tested this past year that we found out how profoundly deaf he is. As soon as that truth came out, he stopped being required to go to the elementary school who had honestly written him off as just plain dumb. Poor kid couldn't hear a thing the teacher said. He was in a 3rd grade classroom and didn't know numbers, colors, sounds or letters so he'd just sleep the entire morning. Jahir a year ago was quiet, shy and reserved. Today he has so much confidence. He walks around with this thug like swagger. He feels cool. He feels handsome -- I gave him the most good looking hair cut ever last week and he just walks around yelling things like, "HEY!! My hair looks good!!" As soon as the rest of his world realized what he knew all along - that he had taught himself how to read lips and can't hear a thing if you just yell a command at him from a distance - Jahir finally felt accepted and smart.
He has been going to speech therapy since this fall and is able to communicate his thoughts now. I know for a fact that Jahir loves school more than any child at Douglas. He calls his special needs school, "la otra escuela" which means "the other school." At this school for kids with special needs, they treat him with respect and encourage him to keep learning sounds and how to talk better. He is learning so much at school and LOVES it when he gets homework. For years now, I've referred to Jahir as "my favorite child on planet earth" because he can always bring a smile to my face or make me laugh. This past year, Jahir has probably grown about 6 inches. His first teeth finally started to fall out. Boardgames are probably Jahir's favorite afternoon activity - he loves Connect 4, Uno, War and memory. I'm so proud to say that when I play war with Jahir - he can now determine on his own whether or not my 7 beats his 2. Even though Jahir tries his best to put on a tough/cool guy show, he is a total softy and rather sensitive.
With his new confidence, he has started branching out and playing soccer with the rest of the boys even though he has little chicken legs (he was a premature baby and hasn't physically caught up with the rest yet). He'll be the first to recount the day when we were playing soccer on the fields out back and because he was running so hard and so fast that he got tangled up with another boy while going after the soccer ball and bit the dirt hard. He had a bloody face for a week but was so proud of his scars. Fitting in with the rest of the world is a struggle for this little man for obvious reasons.One of my favorite times of the week to see Jahir is on Sunday mornings during church. The worship band is so loud that Jahir can actually hear them. He is almost always in the front row, paying attention to no one except the worship team with his hands raised, clapping off beat at times, singing at the top of his lungs and worshipping his creator.
Jahir came home from school dressed like an oompa loompa with sparkly green hair and could not for the life of him tell me why they dressed him like this for the school assembly or what the school assembly was about. I had a really hard time not laughing as he walked up and showed off his costume. He just said, "Yeah Caroline, check out my costume! Cool huh?"
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