Jacob, who attends Skowhegan Area Middle School, lost all of the hearing in his left ear and much of the hearing in his right ear when he was only 2.

He became profoundly deaf over the past 12 years, a process that was painful for Jacob and his family, but which ultimately meant he qualified medically for a cochlear implant.

The implant is an electrical device that restores hearing -- when the surgery goes well. But because the inner mechanisms of the ear are destroyed during implantation process, doctors waited until Sept. 26, when Jacob's ability to hear was all but gone, to implant the device.

For more than a month, Jacob waited in silence for doctors to turn it on, to learn whether he would ever be able to hear birds, to hear his mother's voice, to talk normally with his classmates.

Friday, Jacob said emerging from silence was "like getting Christmas early."

At times, however, he said the sounds that most people take for granted could be overwhelming.

Friday morning, when a teacher dropped a calculator, Jacob said he almost yelled in surprise -- and the hustle and bustle of lunch in the cafeteria was simply too much.

But those sounds also opened up a new way of gathering information about his environment.

"I am more aware of my surroundings," he said.

Jacob's mother, Dana Waring, said that when her son first heard a series of beeps that signaled the device was working Thursday afternoon, his eyes lighted up and he stood up and did a little dance.

"It was just incredible. It was like a whole new world opening up," she said.

Family friends the Rev. Mark Tanner and his wife, Deb, and speech pathologist and friend Barbara Gillis, made the trip to Boston to be with Jacob on Thursday -- and each said a few words to him.

To Jacob, every voice and sound was a new discovery.

Small sounds such as the "pop" of a plastic soda bottle -- or the rhythm of his own feet hitting the pavement -- were all new, Dana Waring said.

Being able to communicate has made a difference that is at once mundane and profound.

Within minutes after the implant was turned on, Dana said, her son was arguing with his older brother, Justin, 23.

"As a mother I just feel like it is going to enrich his life. I feel like the small things that we all take for granted he is going to be able to enjoy," she said.

On the way back home, they listened to a favorite compact disc that Dana had heard before he became profoundly deaf.

A single mother who holds down two jobs, she said she is deeply grateful for all the help she has received from her employers, members of the community and from her church.

Without that help and support, she could not have made all the trips to Boston before and after the operation.

"I am just truly blessed to be in Skowhegan, Maine," she said.

By Alan Crowell
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/2096017.shtml