Marika Maris

My name is Marika Maris Blakey.

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My Mom is Arabic and my Dad is Greek. I was born on august 8, 1985 in Panama City FL and my parent thought I was 'perfect' baby as what doctor said. My parents had called my name and made noise to get my attention so many times, I never did. They thought I was a stubborn baby. On 4th of July I slept though fireworks and it was very loud. I slept though about everything even at Disney World. It made them suspicious so they decided to take me to doctor to find out what was wrong. The Doctor told them, I am deaf.

My parents were very devastated and upset because they didn't know what to do. I was only a 16 month old baby. Our family history never had any hearing-impaired person. I am first one that is deaf. They had to learn sign language for communication with me. My mom stayed at home with me and was teaching me to use the auditory verbal approach, basic sign language, sound and learned to which sound it is, that time I used hearing aid. I was very happy and hyper little girl. It was never bothering me as being deaf because I didn't think I was different.

At 4 years old, we moved to Alabama because we were told, there's best doctor in Birmingham Alabama. I started realized that I couldn't hear and I asked my parents a lot of times why can’t I hear?

They said unfortunately with sorrow and regret you are deaf, I didn't know what that meant. I kept asking till I was 7 years old. I told them I want to hear so many times. Every time I told them and they started to cry. I wanted to be a gymnast at age 8, I was the best at it and my coach said I had Olympic potentials.