A child with a hearing disability refuses to let her problems get to her. She is a typical second grader with a wide variety of interests, much to her family's delight.

My name is Rosalia Esquivar. I live in Columbus, Ohio, with my family. I am married to Miguel (twenty years); we have three children: Tomas Miguel (ten), Bella Graciela (seven), and the baby, Estrella Yacinthe (two, going on twenty two LOL).

We are a seemingly typical Hispanic family: our culture--music, language, food, etc.--is very important to us. We are also a typical American family--that is, we speak English as well as Spanish, we love hamburgers, pizza, and the latest in family movies, books.

The two older kids participate in after-school activities (sports--Tomas plays pee wee football at school; he's the nose tackle; I still don't know exactly what that is, but it sounds funny! LOL), and Bella, the older girl, participates in dance (ballet, jazz, tap, clog).

Both kids enjoy their activities very much, and they are very good at what they do. We are very proud of them.

We are especially proud of Bella: you see, she is deaf. Born that way. Profoundly deaf. Can't hear a sound; yet her silent world has never held her back. She still dances (feels the vibrations, picks up the rhythm of the music that way), plays baseball, softball, or basketball (she's very competitive, just like her older brother).

Bella can talk some; yet she has "deaf-speech". Her speech is very unclear, most people don't understand what she's saying; however, we've come to understand her, and she is a very happy, verbal child. In addition, she uses sign language; we all have had to learn sign language, and it's opened up a whole new world for everybody.

Having a child with a disability is challenging. It isn't easy at times. Bella doesn't look disabled; in fact, most people don't even know she's disabled until they see her (or us) doing sign language to each other or other people, or hear her funny speech. Bella looks perfectly normal.

Bella could have a cochlear implant, but we don't want  her to go through the pain of surgery. She's happy being the way she is. We are too. At times the world's sounds are ugly, frightening; we don't want to subject her to that kind of heartache. Maybe we are being overprotective, but this is what Bella wants, and we'd do anything to make her happy.

Besides sports and dancing, Bella loves to draw, paint, go to movies (as long as the theaters have closed captioning, so Bella can follow along with the movie's script and not be left in the dark), read (she's a voracious bookworm, her favorite books being the "Junie B. Jones" series by Barbara Park), and do gymnastics. She's a fantastic little tumbler; she can do all those fancy flips just like Carly Patterson, her idol.

As you can see, Bella is one very busy little girl.

I will be writing in here again, with more stories about not only Bella, but Miguel and Estrella. They are wonderful kids too. I have to get them ready for school (or in Esperanza's case, pre-school). I then have to go to work (I'm a nurse; work at Columbus Children's Hospital). Until later take care and God bless!

Love, your friend, Rosalia Esquivar, mother to Tomas, Bella, and Estrella.