Valli Gideons: Through the Fog

Join me as I talk with Valli Gideons who is an author, speaker, and mother of two teens who were born with hearing loss.  Valli is a repeat guest (go back to episode 29 and hear more of her story).  In this episode, we chat about her book “Through the Fog: Navigating Life’s Challenges While Raising Kids with Hearing Loss.  Valli shares the parts of her book navigating through the fog as a mom and how even when the future seems unsure, there is a way to find hope and encouragement.  Valli’s work has reached millions of people across multiple platforms.  She is passionate about her role as a parent and as an advocate for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.  This is a must-have for parents and professionals.  

Link to Episode 29:  https://www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/empowear-audiology-podcast

Contact Valli:  https://mybattlecall.com/

You can listen to this episode wherever you stream podcasts and at www.3cdigitalmedianetwork.com/empowear-audiology-podcast

For more information about Dr. Carrie Spangler- check out her Linktree at https://linktr.ee/carrie.spangler.

For transcripts of this episode- visit the podcast website at: https://empowearaudiology.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

Announcer: [00:00:00] Welcome to episode 61 of empowEAR Audiology with Dr. Carrie Spangler.

Carrie: [00:00:14] Welcome to the empowEAR Audiology Podcast, a production of the 3C Digital Media Network. I am your host, Dr. Carrie Spangler, a passionate, deaf and hard of hearing audiologist. Each episode will bring an empowering message surrounding audiology and beyond. Thank you for spending time with me today, and let's get started with today's episode. All right, welcome to the empowEAR Audiology podcast. I am going to read a little bio about a return guest that I have on the podcast today, and I'm really excited about our conversation that we are about to have. I have Valli Gideons with me, and she is an author, speaker, and mother of two teenagers who were born with hearing loss with a degree in journalism she transitioned from everyday stories to sharing her family's hearing loss journey to date. Her work has reached millions of people across multiple platforms with an engaged community. She is passionate about her role as an advocate for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Valli is also the author of the children's book Now Hear This Harper Soars with Her Magic Ears, which she co-wrote with her daughter. Um. And you can also follow her journey at mybattlecall.com. So, Valli, welcome to the empowEAR Audiology podcast.

Valli: [00:01:47] Thank you for having me back.

Carrie: [00:01:49] Well, I'm excited to have you. And for all of our listeners out there, I actually had the opportunity to interview Valli, and she was a guest for episode 29, and we talked a lot about her, um, social media and her blog called The Battle Call. And since that time, she has become a author of the book Through the Fog Navigating Life's Challenges While Raising Kids with Hearing Loss. So I just wanted to encourage all of our listeners to go back and listen to episode 29, which I will link up in the show notes today, and you can hear a lot more about her story of raising her two children with cochlear implants, and also about her social media reach with my battle call. But again, welcome. Thank you for being a return guest. I was excited that your book was published. I know it was in the works the last time we were together. Um, and I'm still bummed we haven't met in person yet.

Valli: [00:02:55] I am also bummed because I see you in pictures at conferences, and when one I'm always sad I'm not there, I have the biggest FOMO. And then also you're always in other. You're in pictures with other people who I may know virtually but haven't met in person, and I just get very jealous. So someday.

Carrie: [00:03:15] Someday it's going to happen. It's going to.

Valli: [00:03:17] Happen one day.

Carrie: [00:03:18] Going to happen.

Valli: [00:03:18] Yes.

Carrie: [00:03:19] Well, I know that people can go back and listen to episode 29, but just to give everybody a frame of reference for Through the Fog and what we're going to talk about, is there anything you just want to give a background about for your kids or your backstory?

Valli: [00:03:38] When was episode 29? What was the date? I couldn't goodness.

Carrie: [00:03:43] I'd have to go back and look. I want to say, I mean, it was before you had your children's book. You were just releasing it and remember I had just ordered it.

Valli: [00:03:58] Okay, because that was February 2020.

Carrie: [00:04:01] Okay. So I think it was right after that because you talked about having to cancel all of your, like, book. You know, you were going to go on your tour with Harper and then we shut down.

Valli: [00:04:14] Yes. Wow. That seems like yesterday. And it seems like a lifetime. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to bore your audience. You're my bio. My gosh, that's embarrassing. It's kind of long, but, yeah, I'm just, uh. Now my kids are. Well, now a junior and senior in high school. Battle and Harpe;  Battle’s the oldest. He's who the blog is named after. And I started writing about kind of what it was like raising two kids with hearing loss and being a military wife and, um, all different aspects of my life, but particularly, you know, focused in on what it was like to raise two kids with hearing loss. So.

Carrie: [00:05:00] Yeah. And so you went from this blog and social media presence to, hey, I'm going to write a book. So how did that what prompted you to go from that blog to a book?

Valli: [00:05:14] It probably depends on what day you asked me if the story changes. Um, because it's a blur. It's a bit of a fog, but I didn't actually have any motivation to write a book, so it's just kind of still baffles me that one came to fruition. That was my story. I thought our next book would be another children's book, this one about B attle, because the first one is about Harper, and we're creatively that one's in the works. But. I think what it how it initially came to be was I was doing a lot of speaking engagements, and I thought it wouldn't it be nice to have something when I am there to, for people to leave with? There was more about my story, not my kids. And so I talked to one of my best friends from college, Vinnie. She writes the opening, the introduction in the book. She had helped edit my children's book, and I asked her if she'd be willing to help me edit some essays that I'd already written together, and just I was going to self publish and it wasn't going to be a big to do. Oh my gosh, I think it must have been getting Vinny involved because what she did, she does nothing.

Valli: [00:06:36] Halfway. She printed out everything that she dug and dug and printed out everything I had written. And she's like, I'm going to send this to you. I want you to print it, and I want you to lay it out on your dining room table. And when I did that first I was overwhelmed. It was like 25,000 plus words. And the themes were just jumping off the pages, which was navigating, navigating through the fog. It was just I didn't purposely have that metaphor. It was just all over the place. And then she's like, I think this is more than just putting some essays together. I think you really should rethink this. And then that's kind of where we started adding, you know, I added more stories, lengthened stories. It if I had been more patient, the book probably would have been fleshed out even more because, you know, you put these kind of deadlines in your head. And so I was trying to really make that deadline. Um, so and at a certain point, you think, okay, I'm done, I need to just stop or it'll never. You hear people or spend 20 years writing their book.

Carrie: [00:07:49] Right.

Valli: [00:07:50] So that's kind of how it evolved.

Carrie: [00:07:53] Yeah. So you were talking about spreading everything out on your dining room table, and then the theme kind of popped out like through the fog. Do you want to expand any more on the title and.

Valli: [00:08:08] Well, I think I realized that in every experience in my life, I had gone through, like most people, like, periods that felt like you're kind of in a fog. You don't have your footing, you can't see clearly. And then after the fog comes the light, the rainbow, after the storm. And like I realized that pattern was just kind of throughout every experience I had had. And it I mean, it was really profound. During the initial hearing loss, when Battle was identified with hearing loss at birth, it literally felt like we were living in a fog. I mean, like I can remember like yesterday and he's 18. Like I can remember just feeling a fog and then just realizing how we got we got through that. And then there's another fog and then we get through that and it's just a constant all. And so the theme for me is just always keep looking for the light like fog was going to come and go. It'll be dense sometimes it'll be hazy sometimes, but there is always light. You just have to believe. Yeah. I mean it's so corny, but it actually, no.

Carrie: [00:09:22] It's not corny.

Valli: [00:09:23] It was an actual pattern in my life that I didn't ever really put together.

Carrie: [00:09:30] I was thinking about you. I was just sharing that. We drove down to Charlotte from Ohio a couple of days ago, and I would say 80% of the trip is going through West Virginia and Virginia, and you're driving through the mountains. And it was I knew we had this podcast coming up about through the fog. And I'm like, this is so true, because that's exactly what I was going through, through the mountains. I mean, it's just a good visual. And you're driving through the mountains and it's clear and then like one second later you can't see in front of your headlights because there's such dense fog. And then you get through and there's little patches of fog and then there's sunlight. So it is a very good visual for your book. And I was thinking about you as I was driving.

Valli: [00:10:15] I love that, you know, I just hadn't thought of this either. But we live. I write about it. I think in the opening chapter about we have settled in our favorite little beach town in Southern California that's known for what they call June Gloom. It's a coastal fog, and we kind of live up a canyon, but we can see the ocean like I'm looking at it right now, but the fog rolls in. It's just part of what living here is like. And then almost always, you can it's guaranteed that eventually it's going to part and you're going to see the sun. And I've never stopped appreciating like that. Cool coastal dewiness reminds you where you live. You know, you can smell it, you can feel it, but you can't see the ocean. And then it clears and it. And I'm grateful for it every time. Like my kids are annoyed by I'm. It's my favorite sun. It's my favorite sunshine day. Like, because the sky gets blue. The air is crisp. It's like it's so perfect and I live. This is where we live. We live in a fog of coastal fog.

Valli: [00:11:27] Yeah.

Carrie: [00:11:27] So again, a great analogy for the title of your book. So and so when you had all this on your, on your table with all of these papers and different stories and essays that you have written, can you share how you really thought about your chapters and how they were set up that collection?

Valli: [00:11:53] My process was kind of an interesting one. I think initially it would seem that it would have made sense to start in chronological order, but then somewhere along the way, I just left that whole idea and kept adding stories from childhood. Or as when I'm a newlywed or.

Valli: [00:12:20] Um.

Valli: [00:12:22] Because what that really and one of my editors was not such a fan of that. She's like, I think it would be, you know, here we are in chapter 15, and I'm talking about my marathon before I have kids, and I got hypothermia and went down. And it's a whole kind of signature kind of part in my running journey. She's like, I think if that came before, it would make more sense about some of the feelings you're having once you have kids. And I'm like, but for me, what makes sense is. I didn't learn the lessons in life linearly. And so I didn't want the story to read. I didn't want to say. For you to be reading it and go, oh yeah, that makes sense. Oh, it makes sense that you married someone in the military because your were military child, it's like, um. Because I think even talked about my childhood. Being in a military family comes somewhere in the middle, middle of the book, where I start with meeting my husband in the beginning of the book. So I feel like it was just organic how that kind of came together. It did annoy a couple people who wanted those, you know, to be more of an obvious, I shouldn't say, annoyed. But, you know, they wanted the metaphors to be more obvious. And I was like, but it hasn't been obvious.

Carrie: [00:13:53] And probably some of those stories, you didn't really know what the message was until you were later on and reflecting on it. You didn't know what that was in the moment. So it makes sense that when it kind of was clear to you to put it at that point in your life or the book.

Valli: [00:14:12] Yeah. And I would I would be curious. My daughter just reread the book this summer.

Valli: [00:14:18] Oh, did she picture.

Valli: [00:14:19] Of her sitting in our backyard in our pomp? What are the pompous chairs?

Valli: [00:14:24] Oh, yeah.

Valli: [00:14:25] A papasan chair. It's like those big cushion chairs, outdoor chairs. And she's sitting in it reading. And first she was like, mom, that's a really good book.

Valli: [00:14:39] Which I thought was cute.

Valli: [00:14:40] She complimented me, but she said, yeah, I didn't even realize like some of the the themes till I reread it the second time. Like it made more sense and I thought, oh, that's kind of cool. She knows me. And she still picked up on something different.

Carrie: [00:14:56] And that was one of my questions later on too, is did your kids read the book and what what was their reaction reading about themselves from your point of view.

Valli: [00:15:10] Yeah, so battle hasn't read it. I think he might have read his one chapter. That's like kind of a love letter to him. I left it on his bed with a little note and said, I know you're not going to read the whole book, but, you know, I think it was on his birthday. And I was like, but this is for you. Like, I don't know if he read it, but Harper was my first reader. She read it when I got my a proof copy, and she read it when it first came out, and then she just reread it. So like a year later. And her reaction, she's like, it's really weird to read because I know you, but you're you're you're a mom. But then you were like a you were like a person. You were a child.

Valli: [00:15:52] You were.

Valli: [00:15:53] A newlywed. Like I you know how kids don't really see them, their parents that way. And she's like, and you're talking about me. And it's weird because I was there, but I don't remember that. And so it was I think it just a lot of light bulbs went off for her.

Valli: [00:16:11] That's so neat.

Carrie: [00:16:12] Well, hopefully that's supportive. Yeah. Well Battle read it like when you know he's 35.

Valli: [00:16:20] Yeah.

Valli: [00:16:21] And if he doesn't want to read it I think he's not not reading it for any reason other than just. Hasn't made the time to do it, so.

Valli: [00:16:31] Yeah, but.

Valli: [00:16:32] She's more, you know, she's my writer, so I think. It was more interesting for her because she's. And she probably likes that she's, you know, the star of a book.

Carrie: [00:16:43] Well, throughout the book, you also write a lot about what you were so vulnerable and open, sharing different stages of, you know, grief and shock and just kind of coming to terms with things. What was. How was it to write about all of that, knowing that anybody can buy this book and read it?

Valli: [00:17:09] I think the only way you can publish a book that's so personal is you can't think about that. You cannot be self-conscious. Like sometimes. Now I'll think, oh my gosh, what if I decide I actually don't want to share that? I can't. That's out of the, you know, the genie's out of the bottle, but I just didn't think of it that way. I just was telling my story. And I'm not telling anyone else's story. I think that's the key is to stay true, to like my siblings see certain things differently than I do. My mom sees things differently. Sure, my husband would. My kids. I'm not very careful not to tell their story because I didn't.

Carrie: [00:17:58] Ask you about your husband. Did he read the book?

Valli: [00:18:01] I don't think he's read it completely either. I think his fear. Is it'll make him feel bad for. Are guilty for so much of the time not being there because of his military career. And I think he already feels guilty about that. And I think he fears that this will make him feel certain way. And I'm like, well, don't flatter yourself. It's not. It's not that much about you.

Valli: [00:18:35] It's about my experience.

Valli: [00:18:36] But that is a. That was a big part of what made it so hard. I was often doing it alone. Yeah, it was hard.

Carrie: [00:18:44] Yeah, well, I mean, putting those words out for other people who are going through the fog in their own journey, I'm sure is helpful to know that, hey, there's other people that have gone through the struggles but have seen the the light too.

Valli: [00:19:03] Yeah.

Valli: [00:19:05] I, I just love storytelling, I always have, I love reading and hearing other people's stories. And so probably the most meaningful thing that's happened besides having this for my kids, for them someday, is having people who connect in different parts resonate parts you would never expect, like the story I shared about being on my yoga mat and having a complete breakdown. I've had quite a few people say I have had that moment over something different, but literally come to Jesus moment on a yoga mat. And runners of the parts of my marathon training have resonated with runners. A lot of people about grief, of losing people because my dad and he. It's not a I'm not giving anything away, but he dies when he's 50 and that really shapes me. And people who have lost loved ones particularly young, that really resonates. And I love that because it just connects us.

Carrie: [00:20:18] Yeah, well I had I'm going to ask you if you have a favorite chapter, but I picked out a couple of points that kind of resonate, resonated and I thought would resonate with listeners too. So do you want to share your favorite chapter, or do you want to hear some of the things that I picked out?

Valli: [00:20:37] Oh, really excited and curious to hear what you have to say, and I would. I have some chapters. Like every once in a while I'll skim through it when somebody refers back to something because it's almost like it's a big blur. You would think I would know where every single word was, but like someone will say, I loved this part and I have to go digging for it, and sometimes I'll skim and. And there are still parts that make me cry. And I would say one of the most. Poignant moments.

Valli: [00:21:13] Um.

Valli: [00:21:14] There's a lot, but. I love the story I shared about my dad in the van, my mom backing into his car. With her custom van. And then I also love the description I use sharing me and my son snorkeling together and seeing that sea turtle and him putting his hand on my shoulder and giving me like a thumbs up that you've got this mom, because that visual is still crystal clear in my head. And now I have it in like an essay. So, you know, when I'm, you know, God willing, 9500 years old, that memory will still be there. But they're like your kids. They're all your favorites.

Carrie: [00:22:04] Okay, well, I have a couple of things that I thought I would ask, so. And I and I wrote something down. So I'm going to read a couple of things because like you said, you probably need to jog your memory. Right. So in chapter 16 it was titled I Am here. And you talk about throwing up the white flag and dragging yourself into a therapy room. And I think as women, as mothers, as caretakers, we sometimes think we need to carry all of that weight and be strong at all times. Can you share how you came to the realization that we, whoever is listening, also need to throw up that white flag in certain situations?

Valli: [00:22:48] I hope I have friends that write about it. They write about therapy. They write about depression, mental health. Like a lot of my online circle of authors and friends write a lot about it. And I think the more we normalize. These discussions that motherhood. Parenting is hard. A military. Being a military spouse is hard, like losing a loved one is hard. Having a child identified with something out of the ordinary that requires extra medical is hard and just being allowed and safe to say. It's hard. It's both. I think I do write about it can be both. It can be hard and amazing and it doesn't make you feel. It shouldn't make you. Anyone think you're a bad mother. You're complaining. You don't. You're not grateful. Um, I think therapy. I'm a huge fan of therapy. I am a huge fan for my kids, for my marriage, for myself. Like I think it's so even when things are good. To just reflect and make sense of things. I think it's just I think it's really healthy. So I went a long time in life thinking I just needed to suck it up and put on this. I don't know, perception that I was just so strong. And I had a moment. I'm not going to go into it, but where I was walking my dog when it happened, and I just felt the weight of what I had endured on my shoulders like. This has been hard. This has been really hard.

Valli: [00:24:43] We need to talk about the hard more. So people don't feel as alone because most likely someone else is going to throw their hands up and say, oh my gosh, me too. Like, I had a my first piece I wrote about military being a military spouse and deployment.

Valli: [00:25:30] Went.

Valli: [00:25:31] Viral.

Valli: [00:25:33] And.

Valli: [00:25:33] I could not believe how many people were saying, oh my gosh, me too! I've always wanted to say this, but I was afraid I was going to be judged. People were going to say, well, you knew what you were getting into or you're not, you know, you're not supportive, you're not patriotic, you're not this, you're not that. And it was like almost like ripping the band aid off to say, yeah, I, I'm married to a colonel in the Marine Corps. I've been with him his entire career. I've never stood in the way. I've been a supportive spouse, and it's been hard.

Carrie: [00:26:11] Yeah, well, I think putting that out there so other people realize it's okay to put the white flag up and wave it and be like and have a community of people that you can go to and talk to. And whether it's professional or your so-called friends and family around you is so important too. Yeah.

Valli: [00:26:34] For sure.

Carrie: [00:26:36] And then there's another chapter that you talk about being in the trenches and how one day you woke up and you have teenagers. So and that chapter, you reflect on decisions and emotion that you had and have as a hearing parent raising two deaf kids. So statistically speaking, that's probably like 90 to 90% of families. What can you say to parents or professionals listening today of like being in the trenches at the moment? And then all of a sudden you have they they grow up, but reflectively as a hearing parent, do you have any anything that you want to say?

Valli: [00:27:18] Oh, geez. Well, first, you know, it's very annoying when you have two toddlers, but when people say go so fast. But it's true. The day, the days are long and the years are fast. Is that the saying? But. Particularly people who are in a really hard maybe phase or season. You know, I can think back to like the pulling the devices off, if that's the route that, you know, if you're dealing with hearing aids or cochlear implants and. You just think it's never going to end and it totally ends. It's like phase. And I think that's why another theme in addition to The Fog is grace. And it took me a long time to be able to give it to myself. And I think that is what I would tell parents is to just give yourself grace through the process. It's, you know, it's challenging and it's okay to. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to sometimes maybe feel judged. You're going to get the opinions of so many people who want to tell you what you should do, how you should do it. I mean, that's just true in parenting in general, but. And with the internet because my babies you know, it's I write about it that, you know, it's before Facebook, it's before there's no social media groups and people can't comment and tell me, you know, I've made the wrong choice, or I should do this or I should do that. Like sometimes. Maybe parents now need it can be helpful to have that social media and. That connection, but it can also be too noisy. Letting the opinions of a few. Drown out what you think you know you've decided is best for your family.

Carrie: [00:29:22] Yeah, that's good advice. I like that it's it is noisy and so how can you kind of clear some of that fog. Right. That you, you talk about so you know and feel in your heart that you've made the best decision for your family.

Valli: [00:29:38] Yeah. I think also be willing. I feel like luckily we were pretty open to pivoting. And learn as we go. I didn't think I had to know it all. And if we had tried something that didn't work, we were kind of open to trying something different. So don't dig in and be set. There's not one way. And each kid is so different. I mean, I have two kids, same syndrome, and they experience it so differently. It's really they should be studied these two. They really should. I mean, I think siblings would be a really interesting. Thing to look at is just how different their experience is.

Carrie: [00:30:32] Right? Yeah, I know we always say like, especially if you have a boy and a girl like you do, like they live under the same household with the same family members, how can they be so different in different things? But it would be interesting to as far as hearing loss goes, to see if there's anything that stands out that way.

Valli: [00:30:53] Yeah, I think it would be. Um, and then the flip side, they're so different. Yet sometimes, like last weekend, we were at my brother's house and the two of them were in the pool together. It was just the two of them. And they were talking. It was probably for like two hours straight.

Valli: [00:31:12] Um.

Valli: [00:31:13] Floating and talking. And I'm like, they have a connection that is like nobody else in this world has, like, the two of them. It's it's really fun to see.

Carrie: [00:31:25] So just a side question. Did they do they have water devices for the cochleas or were they like just trying to read each other's lips or what were they doing.

Valli: [00:31:37] So in this case, they both had their devices on without the water cases, which, you know, normally I'd be like, you know, we're on, we're on a trip. This is a bad idea. But it was like kind of they kind of controlled the environment of just floating.

Valli: [00:31:51] Yeah.

Valli: [00:31:52] But even when like. So Battle will use his water ear and Harper because she still has residual hearing on one side. She's only single a single. What's it called.

Carrie: [00:32:04] Bimodal or. Yeah.

Valli: [00:32:06] Bimodal.

Carrie: [00:32:07] So yeah.

Valli: [00:32:08] Yeah.

Valli: [00:32:09] So she still has a residual hearing which she shouldn't really be able to make out speech as well as she does. But it's as if she's still wearing her devices. It's strange. They can communicate.

Valli: [00:32:25] Um.

Valli: [00:32:26] Yeah. It's.

Valli: [00:32:27] Yeah, it's.

Carrie: [00:32:28] Well, that was a little side note when you said that. I was like, oh, that's interesting. That connection between between them.

Valli: [00:32:35] But parents piece of advice, if your child is not 18 and doesn't understand actually, you know, impulse control and all this stuff, I would never let them be in a, in the water with their devices on and think they're not going to go under like.

Valli: [00:32:51] Right. Yeah. It's been a lot of.

Valli: [00:32:53] Years in the making and all their cousins know and everything. So like you're not going to jump in and Cannonball and.

Carrie: [00:33:00] Yeah yeah yeah.

Carrie: [00:33:02] And then you have a mini heart attack in the process. Right. Thinking about that. Oh so you did know earlier that the days are long, but the years are short. And since writing and publishing this book, Battle and Harper are a little bit older and entering almost into, like the young adulthood of you, late teens and 20s. Before long, if you could add another chapter to Through the Fog, what would that title be and would do you have any thing that you jumps out to share?

Valli: [00:33:40] Oh, dear.

Valli: [00:33:42] That chapter still being written because now we're in the Battles going into senior year, and he's been been pretty heavily recruited for football. So we're going through this whole process pretty I mean, it's early in. He still has a senior year ahead of him. But it's the preparing to launch. And I know this is going to be filled with lots of stuff.

Carrie: [00:34:09] Yeah.

Carrie: [00:34:10] So that's the title preparing to launch.

Valli: [00:34:12] Right to launch.

Carrie: [00:34:14] Love it.

Valli: [00:34:15] I'm tethering. Just trying to mentally prepare. Um, baby steps I can't imagine. I mean, I still can't imagine.

Carrie: [00:34:26] Yeah, it goes like you said. It goes really fast. I have a daughter who will be a senior this year too. So that lots of decision to be made in the next year.

Valli: [00:34:38] Yeah. It's again, how did we get here? I'm so proud of the kids though. I mean, I'm it is really this stage in life is so fun to see who like they really are. You know, you see who they're becoming. And I love hanging out with them. You know, it's traveling is fun. Like, just hanging out is fun. They're really interesting, cool people. I like the people they are so.

Carrie: [00:35:08] Yeah.

Valli: [00:35:09] Worth the wait.

Carrie: [00:35:10] It's worth the wait. In the moment it's hard. But reflectively you get through and you're always going to be their mom. So you're always going to have some kind of fog that you're going to be looking through.

Valli: [00:35:25] Exactly.

Valli: [00:35:26] That's what my mom says. She's like, you think kids are stressful? Wait till you have grandkids. You know, you worry about them even more. I'm like, oh dear goodness. But that's what for anyone who's in the fog, you know, and you in the young, you know, the younger years.

Valli: [00:35:45] Um, it's.

Valli: [00:35:46] Just like, stay the course. It's gonna pay off everything you invest in your kids. It does. It pays off.

Carrie: [00:35:53] And then you enjoy it differently later. Later on.

Valli: [00:35:58] Yes.

Valli: [00:35:59] That's the goal.

Carrie: [00:36:00] Yeah.

Carrie: [00:36:00] So wrapping up today Valli with today's episode. Do you have any final thoughts that you want to share?

Valli: [00:36:09] Besides, I hope we get to see each other in person.

Valli: [00:36:12] No.

Valli: [00:36:14] I don't know. I hope that people will support the book. It's, you know, it's a labor of love. I don't have a marketing team. It's just me. It's available on Amazon. I love hearing people's feedback. Um, the reviews are very helpful. And then just following along on social media so we can connect. I really read every comment. I respond to as many as I can. My message is like, I love connecting with people and hearing their stories. So, um. I would love to hear from people.

Carrie: [00:36:51] Well, I just want to say thank you again for being a guest on the empowEAR Audiology podcast. And like I said earlier, I will link up the previous episode if people want to go back to that. And as you said, people can get onto your web page, My Battle Call and I can link that up too. And they can find your book on Amazon and order it and have it delivered right to their house, too.

Valli: [00:37:19] Oh, I know.

Valli: [00:37:19] What I was going to say is for organizations, audiologists, class classes, groups, I can also do bulk author copies for a better rate and ship them right to those. I've done it for quite a few. Our audiologist has a stack of them on hand that she gives out to new parents, and so somebody if anyone's interested in that, I'd love to offer that for people. They can contact me through my website. I think my email address is on there or through any of my social media. They can message me, just say they heard about the book. Book bundles.

Carrie: [00:37:57] All right. Well, that's a great way to get the book out there, and probably a great tool for parents to have and read. So again, thank you, Valli, for being a guest. And, um, I can't wait to meet you in person sometime soon.

Valli: [00:38:14] Thanks, Carrie. Take care.

Announcer: [00:38:16] Thank you for listening. This has been a production of the 3C Digital Media Network.