A graduation day in Phoenix marked the latest step in a long stretch of study, hearing loss and raising a very big family.
Heather Porter received her graduate degree from Grand Canyon University on April 29 after first noticing hearing trouble when she was an undergraduate student.
“I was, like, really struggling to understand things that other people were easily understanding,” she told ABC 10.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Porter was diagnosed with an autoimmune inner ear condition that led to hearing loss.
“It was very isolating and scary,” she said. “I had an identity crisis. I feel like I started withdrawing from a lot of my social groups, even my family.”
“There was definitely lots of grieving that happened. Yes, and probably the symptoms of depression,” she added in an interview with Grand Canyon University News. “I was never expecting to get that diagnosis.”
Porter later got funding for a cochlear implant, but about a year-and-a-half after receiving it, the device started malfunctioning.
“It started acting up, like really bad. It was causing some pains and things, and we found out it was failing,” she said.
She said doctors found the implant had been leaking electricity into her head, and she had surgery to replace it.
Porter kept studying while also caring for her children. She and her then-husband first found one foster child, then decided to foster that child’s three older siblings too.
“I was young, 25, and very naïve and idealistic and didn’t want to split up a family, so I got all of them,” she recalled.
Porter said there are now 11 children in her family. She gave birth to six of them, and her 11th child was adopted while she was in graduate school.
“There’s no more important work than my raising souls in a loving environment to know God, especially if I can help someone who is in a less fortunate situation,” she said.
Porter said knowing sign language has been “a huge blessing.”
“I questioned the whole time,” Porter said. “There’s been lots of tears throughout this whole program.”
Now she hopes to work as a psychotherapist for people who are hard of hearing. She also has not ruled out a Ph.D. program or teaching internationally.
“Her losing her hearing and to already have the gift of knowing that language and loving that language and having so much connection already in the deaf community (was a blessing),” her sister, Annie Pearce, told GCU News.
Porter added, “There is hope, no matter how low life feels.”
Read more from People.
