We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Leighton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Realizing success resembles a roller coaster, not a straight line. Success can include plateaus, even a few steps back. Just when you think there is a reason for concern, success can ramp up. That’s exactly how Logan’s journey was. Once we got her cochlear implants, the journey was anything but linear!
Lauren, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hi, hello! I am Lauren! I am the mother of Logan Nicole. An amazing girl who just so happens to have disabilities but despite all that you may read in her medical chart, she is happy and has overcome so much in her 5 1/2 years of life. Being a parent of child with disabilities wasn’t a choice I made, but giving it my all is a choice I make everyday. I give my all to set Logan up for success. And the results are a culmination of my determination and Logan’s hard work.
Logan has bilateral cochlear implants, a VP shunt, a feeding tube and a plethora or diagnoses that would lead a lot of medical professionals to say she isn’t worth a chance. But with all that we’ve done and put into the past 5 years, she is thriving and proving everyone wrong!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When Logan was first diagnosed with being deaf, it was a struggle to get answers from our first provider. Without doing any research, without ordering any scans, without trying, the provider told us that Logan wasn’t a candidate for cochlear implants. As my husband and I sat in the doctor’s office holding our sweet little 6 month old, we looked at each other and knew this wasn’t it. A few weeks later and a lot of research, we found the absolute best physician who would end up telling us Logan was indeed a candidate for bilateral cochlear implants. With a lot of hard work, auditory verbal therapy, and a ton of support, five years later, our girl is now a graduate from her deaf school and will be attending a general education public school kindergarten class! We were tired, and often frustrated, but we never stopped!
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first got pregnant, I knew I would be a stay at home mom. After Logan made her debut 9 weeks early, and after her first 125 days staying in the NICU, we were hit with medical debt. And it wasn’t stopping. Logan needed therapies, had a calendar full of doctor appointments and still needed a handful of surgeries. It was important to stay home and give her all the care she needed, but it was important to pay bills and not lose our home. A few years later after help from family and my husband getting new positions, the perfect opportunity came up. We knew we wanted to Logan to go to a deaf and hearing loss school in Houston, but tuition was a problem and with Logan’s feeding tube, her attending all day wasn’t an option. The solution, I would become a teaching assistant at her school. I would feed her on my lunch break and she would be able to get all the instruction of a full school day. It was far from perfect for me. I was rushed each and every day. Being a teaching assistant for toddlers was a challenge in and of itself. But my girl was able to get all she needed. It was a pivot I never expected to make, but it was for the better of our entire family!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: lauren_leighton_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzVsUtFt8lRAqWHTmAB6ziQ