Where Are They Now? — Taunya Woffinden (Paxton)

Hello. I would like to say that I believe in the saying that you are only as old as you feel, and I don't feel old. There are still a few good years left in me yet:)

After high school, I attended college and then served a mission to the Netherlands. I got to travel and see the world a bit in there too.

After returning home from my mission, I met my husband who had just graduated from BYU and was planning on getting a job outside of Utah. Thankfully, he stayed around long enough for us to meet and we have lived practically happily ever after since. He still hasn't made it out of Utah. His dad was a major in the Army so he was used to moving around a lot in the military. I like to think he succumbed to my irresistible charms.

My husband and I were able to go back to visit my mission together while expecting our first child. We toured, visited people and sipped hot chocolate on the Rhine. Upon returning home, we did the usual parenting things: slept less, built a swing set in the backyard and took a trip to Disneyland.

While we were going about living our lives, our 2nd son caught a virus that caused him to go deaf. Who knew that could happen? Since he was born hearing, and went deaf as a toddler, we didn't realize he had gone deaf until he was almost 3. You would think that deafness would be an obvious thing, but actually some kids learn to compensate very well. It was quite a surprise for everyone involved to learn that he was deaf. So for the past 5 years, we have been educated in deafness, we've had first hand experience with hearing aids (am I the first one?:) and had two surgeries to get our son cochlear implants to help him hear. (Cochlear implants are surgically inserted into the cochlea of the ear and electrically stimulate the nerves in the cochlea, bypassing the damaged part of the ear. A processor on the outside of the ear - looking kind of like a hearing aid - has a microphone that picks up the sound and sends it to the device inside the cochlea). Technology is amazing. The implants do not cure deafness, but they make it so my son can hear. He now attends a regular elementary school where he is at the top of his class and scored the highest in his grade in reading. He gets some language help by a specialty teacher after lunch and I attend a language therapy session with him each week to work on gaps he has in language but he is like any other kid. It has been an exciting journey. My son has literally learned to hear again and has shown me that persistence and faith together can bring about miracles. It has required some hard work but it is more than worth it. We have been incredibly blessed both in acquiring the technology to help our son and in the wonderful professionals who helped and continue to help us on our way.

My husband and I are quite involved with hearing loss and deafness in children. I have presented at two national Health and Human Services conferences - in Salt Lake and Washington D.C. My husband and I also sit on several advisory committees with groups associated with treating kids who are deaf and currently serve on the Governor's Advisory Council on Newborn Hearing Screening for the state of Utah. I have also kept a blog chronicling our son's journey with the implants for the past few years. I won't make it to the dinner, because there is a convention in Milwaukee for the Alexander Graham Bell Association of which my husband is currently chapter president for the state of Utah. I do hope to make it to the picnic though.

We currently live in Pleasant Grove Utah in a spot that I am quite certain was a big cow field when we were in high school. We are the proud (in a good way) parents of 4 children. Three boys and one girl - ages10, 8, 5, and 2. They are truly a blessing in our lives and we've decided to keep them. I am blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and find each day is an adventure. There is a continual stream of neighbor kids at our house and more than one person who is visiting our home for the first time has wondered just how I managed to have so many children under age 10.

Our house is the Mutual of Omaha house with critters and animals arriving daily. We have a dog, two bunnies, three fire belly toads, one great plains spadefoot toad, one frog, and two garter snakes that the boys just caught outside. If you call me tomorrow, the list will probably have changed. Depending on the season, we have various creepy crawlies in see-through containers or jars. Most of them seem to require catching aphids or purchasing crickets from the pet store where my oldest son has already secured a job for when he turns 16. Our kids love pets and bugs and anything else that is alive so we just try to ensure that there are not too many more of them than there are of us so they don't revolt and take over. By the time my kids leave home, I will have enough knowledge about all living creatures to
start a consulting service.

I look forward to seeing you all at the picnic. We'll see how many kids are easy to recognize because they look like miniature versions of their parents.