Non-judgmental PARENT TO PARENT support that honorS each family’s unique journey
My husband and I live in a rural northern California town with our two sons, Jordan and Chrystian. In 2009, at the age of 13, Jordan asked to enroll at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont. Even though the idea of being apart from him tore our hearts, we put our emotions aside as his parents and focused solely on the needs of our son. We followed his lead.
As cliché as it sounds, life really is full of some amazing and powerful lessons. We never know what obstacles lie around each corner or how we will be shaped though the management of each of these challenges, but through all of them, a part of us is often fundamentally changed. For both my wife and me, it all began when our son Ryland was diagnosed as deaf.
Learn, Experience, Thrive . . . the motto of California School for the Deaf, Fremont. As I reflect on this motto, especially in how it relates to my daughter’s new chapter in life as a student at CSDF, I marvel at how it accurately captures this new stage in life for our family.
The decision to send my daughter, Courtney, to CSDF was not an easy one. We are a very close family, and my Deaf husband and I always thought we would raise our daughter here with our support and involvement with the local Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.
Can you please share a little about you, your family and any hobbies you have?
My name is Zina Jawadi, and I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was diagnosed with hearing loss when I was 3.5 years old. Predicting that I would never speak normally, ear doctors suggested speech therapy and special education schooling. Although I did undergo eight years of speech therapy, I have been mainstreamed my entire life. In fact, I took all honors courses at one of the most difficult schools besides speech therapy, classical piano, public speaking tournaments, and other extracurricular activities.
Here’s a fun game to try at home with your toddler and preschooler. It’s an activity that will help your child’s audiologist get the most accurate results possible the next time your child has a hearing test in the audiology booth.
I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a woman.
Depending on the day or even the hour I may be more one than the other. In the early years of raising my oldest daughter Zahra, late identified as deaf, it seemed I was a drowning mother, terrified mother, unsure mother. Until I became the informed, empowered and powerful mother.