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We hadn't been able to get an answer on my mother-in-law's cell phone all afternoon.

My husband and I sat in the living room, anxious to learn whether the surgery was a success.

Finally the phone rang.

"Ma! I've been trying to get you on your cell. How did it go? Did it work?"

"No, it didn't work," said my mother-in-law.

My husband's shoulders fell in disappointment.

"It didn't work?" he said.

"No, stupid cell phone," said my mother-in-law. "I can't get it to work."

"No mom, I'm not talking about the cell phone! How did Dad make out? Did the surgery work? Tell me, can he hear?"

"Yes," she said, momentarily pushing aside her cell phone woes. "Your father can hear."

My husband fell back into his chair and looked at me.

"He can hear, Martha! My father can hear."

As my family gathered for Thanksgiving this year, we had something special to be thankful for. For the first time in 35 years, my father-in-law could understand all the voices around the table.

He could hear the tiny voice of his granddaughter as she told her cousins about being student of the month. He could understand the request for someone to "pass the green beans" over the cacophony of chatter. He could laugh at the jokes without having to have someone yell into his ear, explaining what had just been said.

He could hear it all.

Hearing troubles run deep on my husband's side of the family. Nearly everyone wears at least one hearing aid. Those who don't, need to.

A few years ago, my father-in-law looked into cochlear implants, only to be told he wasn't a suitable candidate. It was a tough time. After struggling with double hearing aids for decades, he saw a glimmer of hope with cochlear implants only to have it vanish.

Then a couple months ago, my husband heard about something new, a surgically implanted hearing device that received FDA approval in March.

Unlike hearing aids, which simply amplify sound with microphones and speakers, this device, called the Esteem Hearing Implant, helps a person's own ear hear better via probes inserted into the middle ear.

Not long after learning about the device, my father-in-law was on a plane to California.

"Grandpa is in California getting his head cut open," said my son, to anyone who would listen.

Well, it wasn't exactly that gruesome.

Dr. Jack Shohet, one of three specialists in the country who had participated in the clinical trails for the device, made an incision behind my father-in-law's right ear and implanted the sound processor and probes during a four-hour surgery.

According to Shohet, 10 percent of the U.S. population has significant hearing loss. He estimates that in the future 70 to 90 percent of these people could be candidates for this type of hearing implant.

Two weeks after getting the device turned on, my father-in-law sat at my kitchen table eating turkey, participating in the usual holiday dinner conversations - who shot deer, who got a new septic system put in, which is better, Chevy or Ford.

As I took it all in, I couldn't help but feel like I was witnessing a miracle. Not the loaves and the fishes, stand up and walk kind of miracle. But the kind that uses the talents of men and women to develop the technology to give a man back one of his senses.

So, during this season when we reflect on our blessings, I am thankful that someone I love can now hear. Now, if only my mother-in-law could figure out how to use her cell phone. THAT would be a real miracle.

Martha Petteys writes a weekly column for The Post-Star. Write to her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit The Moms' blog at www.poststar.com.