The Adventures of Julie and Bella 2025

As I write this, 😭 tears are rolling down my face. Happy tears. Overwhelmed tears. Tears of gratitude. 💕

Did you know that 🍂 leaves make noise when they blow across the sidewalks? Or that Bella’s 🐾 nails softly click as she walks? That my house door 🚪 creaks open and shut, and a rake 🍁 scraping the ground sounds almost thunderous? I didn’t. Not until today.

Today, at 48 years old, I feel like an infant 👶 experiencing the world for the very first time.

My appointment with the audiologist 👂 changed everything. I was blessed with new hearing aids—ones I wasn’t even supposed to have, ones that were meant for someone else but never claimed. Because they’re programmable, they were fitted just for me. And they’re even more advanced than the ones I had originally planned to get. 🤯 I can hear in ways I never imagined. I can do things I never thought possible.

Tomorrow will be the real test—returning to work, stepping into a world now bursting with sound. 🏫 I won’t lie—I’m nervous. 😬 What if it’s too much? What if my brain struggles to keep up with this flood of noise I was never aware of before? The audiologist warned me it would take time to adjust, and I know that. But even with the uncertainty, I feel something even stronger—✨ excitement.

Because if this is what normal hearing is, I have been missing out on so much.

For the first time, I feel like I’m truly stepping into the world of the hearing. Not as someone who struggles to catch every word. Not as someone who constantly feels like they’re on the outside looking in. But as someone who can actually hear. 🎧

It feels like a miracle. ✨ And maybe it is. Maybe my guardian angel 😇 had a hand in this, guiding the pieces into place so that, for once, things worked out in my favor.

I feel blessed. 🙏 I feel grateful. 💖 And for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m truly living. 🌟