Normal.

I just want so badly for my son to be normal.

But that's such an arbitrary word. What is normal?

This hearing loss, and its challenges, and its triumphs will be normal for O. And by extension normal for us. He won't know any other reality because this will be his reality. He's too young to remember a life before, before hearing aids and audiologists, before speech language therapy and regular hearing tests. This will be normal. It will become normal. For him. For us.

And I will try to bring that normal to the people we meet. To the strangers we encounter. To our families. To our friends.