She has a sucker stuck in her hair.

I can't believe I forgot to share this story when it happened! Last month, my sister came to spend the day with the kids. She took Kelton and Audrena out to lunch, and after they picked Reyana up from school they went to a carnival in the park. Then, since she had my van, they picked me up from work.

On our way home, we stopped at the grocery store for some supper items. Reyana, Kelton, and Audrena were all squished into the race car shopping cart. As I was paying for our groceries, Audrena was squirming around in her seat. Her implanted side was facing away from the cashier, a high school-aged boy. As she turned very briefly, he caught a glimpse and said to me, "Ummmm, she has a sucker stuck in her hair."

I explained, "Oh, that's not a sucker. It's a cochlear implant. She is deaf, and it allows her to hear." He had this mortified look on his face, and by that time Kelton had climbed out of the cart and bolted for the door. I took off to catch him, and Darci stayed with the girls as she paid for her groceries. I could see her showing him the different components of the implant and explaining how it works.

She and the girls caught up to us, and as we all got into the van we were laughing so hard that the tears were just pouring out of our eyes! We couldn't wait to get home and tell Randy the story. That poor cashier was so embarrassed, but we had the opportunity to educate him a bit about what a cochlear implant does. There are three other people in town (that we know about anyway) that have them. Now he will know what it is when he sees one.

A sucker. It does kind of look like that at a glance. Audrena was wearing her "tropical sea" colored headpiece, and the cord is white. So I have hung onto that sucker story because some days if I don't laugh I will cry. It's better to laugh, and that cashier gave me a good reason to. Thankfully the bad days are getting fewer and farther between, and the laughter is taking over. And what can I say? I love my little red-headed, four-eyed child with a hearing aid and a sucker stuck in her hair!