Graduated

I can't believe it but he has done it. Douglas is now a high school graduate. This photo is of him and his interpreter. I am so proud of him. He has decided to go to UNL. He was all set up to go to RIT but found out two months ago that he has Type 1 diabetes. He was accepted into a study through Creighton Medical center in Omaha Ne. He will have to go once a week for two years to get injections. They are hoping that this medicine will make it so you don't have to inject yourself anymore. They are trying to restore his beta cells. I hope it works. We are getting everything ready now for UNL.

speaking with more words

Aw, My baby is growing up, both of them. I can only assume that Diezel talks as well as he does because he is mimicking all six of his brothers and sisters. I could not have imagined that we would hear such words come from him. Diezel will say, come here, where you go, I want eat, give me that, look over there, I poo change, grandpa, grandma, mom, dad, Jason, destiny, Douglas, Devin, Dawson, Decemberlyn is Decemb, Morgan, come here, playing with my tar (car), drink please, eat now please, bath please dirty, and much more. I can only hope he keeps expanding his vocabulary. We are blessed....

Letting go and College bound

Our oldest is in his senior year. I am having a hard time getting him to understand that there is a lot of things he needs to consider when picking a college. I am trying to let this be his decision with letting him see all sides to each college. How do you let go and hope he makes the right choices? How do you step back and know he may fail? How do I let him be a young adult? How do I just let go, period?  These are all questions running through my head. Way back when I could not have imagined that We would be here already and I would have to let go?

Lost Processor

Where did the summer go? This is a picture of Decemberlyn and Diezel at the kid's swim meet. While the kids were swimming, Diezel was playing at the park. Do you know how difficult it is looking for a beige processor in sand? Two hours in and we found it. The thousands of imaginary bricks on my shoulders dropped the minute I saw it under the merry go round...
Now we have lost it again. This time at the babysitters. We spent all day looking for it without any luck. We are hoping the company will replace it this once and then I can only pray that we never lose it again. Body Adhesive Tape works well for the most part and if Diezel isn't wrapped up (in whatever it maybe that he is doing) he is usually pretty good at bringing me his processor if it falls off.
We will just have to see what the future holds......

E.Y.F. IN ROCHESTER NEW YORK

DOUGLAS WENT TO ROCHESTER NEW YORK TO SEE IF HE WOULD LIKE TO GO TO COLLEGE HERE. HE WROTE AN ESSAY TO THE LIONS CLUB IN RETURN THEY HELPED A LITTLE WITH THE COST. I WANTED TO SHARE HIS ESSAY.

First, I want to thank you for the donation of 100 dollars to fly out to Explore Your Future at Rochester Institute of Technology. I appreciate your generosity. I had a great time and learned a lot at EYF. I met a lot of people and made new friends. It was a great learning experience and it was also a fun time to be with others who are deaf whom can relate to me or I them.




When I arrived at RIT I first went to the dorms. The room was fantastic. It had desks for homework to work on. It had a/c, heater, and drawers to put clothes in. After dinner every night we would do fun activities such as ice skating, swimming, dancing, going to the water park, and socializing. I was able to use my sign language at EYF. This is one of the reasons I want to go to this college because they cater to the deaf. The colleges in Nebraska are catered for the hearing world. I wouldn't get the experience of being around hearing and the deaf. I know that Nebraska has some really great schools and I plan on checking them out before I make up my mind but it was nice to go here to see what they have to offer.



In the morning we would have counseling and classes. The counseling was to see what job would be best for my life. We also took testing such as compass test, which tests reading and writing skills. When I took the compass test there were 3 different categories of scores and I was in 80%-100%. This means my English is good and ready for college. I was a little surprised with the score but I was proud because I spent my time working hard reading and finding the errors. Then we would have classes such as engineering, chemistry, biology, computer art, and engineering art. My favorite class in EYF was engineering because it was interesting and hands on activity. I have always liked to do things with my hands. I didn’t have any non-favorite classes, it was all interesting to learn and watch from. I have learned a lot from the classes and counseling.



On the last day they had a guy who works at IBM to come over and give a presentation for the kids who were interested in this career and I went to listen. The presentation was really cool. It gave me more information about engineering and I think it could be a field I would be interested in because I could think up new ideas and create them. I learned a lot from the guy who works at IBM



It was a great experience getting to go there and finding out what RIT looks like. Now I am more confident in choosing RIT for college. Or I should say I am really leaning towards this college but I plan on checking out colleges in Nebraska before I make my final decision. I have 2 different ideas for my future. One is FBI Tech analyst and the other is to work for IBM. Thank you once again for being interested in helping me chose my future.

Douglas Marion Sidak

I AM PROUD OF MY SON: but I wish he would chose a school a lot closer to home. Everyone keeps telling me I had to have done something right if he has confidence enough to go so far away...I will have faith that everything works out the way it is suppose to...

My Dad

My Dad, is an amazing man. I love this picture of Diezel and my Dad. He is letting Diezel help him fix the lawn mower. He has more patients than I or anyone I know has. He is mellow. The only time I have seen him angry is when you have pushed WAY to far and that takes a lot to push that far...
I just wanted to recognize my dad on Father's day. I love you, Verdel (DAD). You mean the world to me.

One more year

Douglas had his senior pictures done a week ago. It made me a little sad. I starting thinking about how short this year will be. Then my baby will be heading off to make his own destiny. He plans to go to R.I.T. in New York. That is a very long way from home. I won't be able to see his smile, tears or hear his laugh or snores.

When I was told Douglas was deaf it was like the world stopped. Every sound I heard I just couldn't help thinking that he would never hear them. How life can be so different than you imagined. Here we are seventeen years later and thanks to the miracle of cochlear implants my son has defied the odds. He hears most and speaks very well plus he is fluent in sign language. His deafness may have been a loss at the time I found out but who would have thought I would say now We are Blessed... I may worry about him being so far away but I know he is ready. He will do great. I must enjoy every second I have this year before he is gone far away.