Thank you, Variety, for Ethan's hearing aids!

Dear Variety St. Louis:

We wanted to write you this letter to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for giving Ethan the gift of his hearing aids! We can’t tell you how much of a difference it has made for him. Ethan has grown leaps and bounds since he has had his hearing aids. He is taking a more active role in his kindergarten class and is making friends extremely well. The first week that he had his new hearing aids, it was amazing to watch him, because whenever he heard a new noise that he had not heard before, he asked, “What was that noise?”

At one point in time that week, we turned on one of his video games, but the t.v. was not set up properly for it so the white noise was coming out of the t.v. He held his hands to his ears and yelled, “What IS that?! IT’S SO ANNOYING!” We laughed then because, first, we never realized that he couldn’t hear things like that, and second because we were just overly delighted that he heard it for the first time and we got to experience it! One other experience that was incredible to witness was that we looked out the kitchen window to discover Ethan just sitting in the middle of the yard. We wondered what he was doing, but realized as soon as he cocked his head to the left. Ethan was experiencing birds chirp and the wind breezing through the trees for the first time!

Ethan will be going to a special school for deaf children in St. Louis beginning January 2, 2012 until he is caught up. That school will work with his current school to try to get Ethan back into his normal school by the time that he starts first grade in the fall. It has been an absolute whirlwind of new activities with Ethan since he was diagnosed with his hearing disability. We have received so many Blessings, and the biggest Blessing that Ethan has received so far comes from the kindness of your organization.

Ethan loves his hearing aids and would like to thank you for the opportunity and gift to really hear. We also would like to extend to you our great gratitude for this gift. Ethan was such a wonderful little boy before, and the hearing aids that you have gotten for him have allowed him to grow into an even more amazing little boy! There are so many things that we look forward to him doing now that he can hear, and this just gives him a plethora of new opportunities.

Again, we can’t thank you enough for this gift. We hope that you can feel our gratitude towards each of you, and we hope that you all have a very Blessed and Merry Holiday Season!

Sincerely,

The Owens’ Family