Jenae Brown anticipated the moment for days, wondering what it would be like when daughter Ava Mae would actually hear her mother's voice.
The moment came Monday morning when Brown called out her daughter's name, knowing the 2-year-old would be able to hear again with the help of cochlear implants.
When the electronic device was turned on and Jenae called, "Ava," the moment wasn't as dramatic as Jenae expected, but she knows it will be life-changing for her little girl.
"It's a lot, because I'm a singer so just to know that she'll be able to hear is amazing, just amazing," Jenae said.
Ava, who just turned two on the 18th, was born with a slight ability to hear but suffered profound hearing loss before she was a year old. She recently had surgery for implants in both ears through the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Cochlear Implant Program. The implant is an electronic device that bypasses the damaged organ and directly stimulates the auditory nerve.
"I gave her the life that she deserves. The disability, you know that's what she was born with, but it's not what she has to live with for the rest of her life. So I gave her the second chance to be able to hear, so that she could be into the community of hearing impairment," Jenae said.
Ava, who has already been working to learn sign language, will begin working next week with a speech therapist so she can learn to talk.
