Watch a 3-year-old boy hear his parents for the first time

Once in a while a story comes along that reminds you of the things we take for granted.

Grayson Clamp was born profoundly deaf. Without an auditory nerve – literally no connection between the ear and the brain stem. His mother couldn’t care for him and he ended up in foster care – in the home of Len and Nicole Clamp of Charlotte, North Carolina who immediately felt that God had called them to be his parents.

So they adopted him and raised him into the cutest 3-year-old you’ll see – especially when you see him talking with his hands.

But they wanted more for him – they wanted to hear his voice. And they wanted him to hear theirs.

Now he can.

Last month Grayson Clamp became the first child in the United States to receive an auditory brain stem implant. The operation is considered still experimental in children, but Grayson’s parents thought it was worth the risk of performing major surgery on a 3-year-old. Dr. Craig Buchman is the head and neck surgeon at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and hopes Grayson’s youth might turn out to be an advantage.

His mother Nicole has no illusions – she points out that no one knows yet what Grayson actually hears.

But as for whether the operation is successfully sending sound to the brain – the look of complete wonder on Grayson’s face on that video which has now raced around the world speaks for itself.