A Boise baby is inspiring people around the world through a simple video of a profound moment. The video shows three-month-old Annabelle Lawless hearing for the first time. You can hear her mother, Sarah Jo Lawless, so excited to see her baby communicating with her through a smile and noises.
It's a video that's gone viral, being viewed tens of thousands of times all over the world. "Ever since I found out she was deaf, and we put a plan in place, I couldn't wait to tell my daughter I loved her," says Sarah Jo.
The journey to this day though, started with heartbreak for Sarah Jo and father Tyler. Annabelle failed her hearing test at birth, but doctors didn't worry until she didn't pass again at a month old.
"It was so awful. Just what do you do? I'm holding my baby and I've been told this whole time she couldn't hear me," says Sarah Jo. "My legs got weak, I had to sit down. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to hear," added Annabelle's father, Tyler.
But there was a solution. Doctors fitted the tiny tot with hearing aids and with Sarah Jo recording the big moment, they turned them on this week. "As a mom, I could not have asked for her to respond any better than that," says Sarah Jo.
Annabelle could make history becoming the youngest child in Idaho to get cochlear implants. Doctors hope to do that surgery when she is nine months old.
