Jamie Wieseler

My name is Jamie Wieseler. My husband, Matt, and our two boys, Abel (age six) and Will (age four), live in western Nebraska in Ogallala. Our oldest son, Abel, was born with profound hearing loss and received bi-lateral cochlear implants at eleven months old. Our youngest son, Will, has normal hearing, and they are best buddies. We had no history of hearing loss in our family, so we were shocked when we received the news. It has been a beautiful journey of learning and growth for our family. Abel has Connexin-26 which causes profound deafness. With Connexin-26, parents have a 25% chance of having children with profound hearing loss. Abel is now in kindergarten and loving it! We used a lot of sign for the first two years of his life, and then transitioned to really focusing on spoken language and improving his speech. He’s doing so well being in school and has made significant progress and communicates so well with his teachers and peers. I am so excited to begin this journey of being a guide and helping other families. This such a valuable program, and I hope I can give the support to other families like many gave to us.