[Seattle68]

Please don't adopt a Deaf(hearing impaired is an offensive term in the Deaf Community) Child with the goal of fixing him!!

There is nothing impaired about a Deaf Child. Hearing folks are impaired in their limited communication abilities.
The idea of putting a small child under general anasthetic and cracking their skull open for a Cochlear Implant to make them "more like everyone else" is horrible! Are you really willing to risk putting a little one under for something elective??? The success rate with Cochears varies wildly! Cochlear Implants are not the answer or a quick fix. They rarely tell you about the failure rate to acquire speach etc. but it is high! Not to mention the risks of such an hideously invasive procedure.

Raising a Deaf child, or hard of hearing for that matter can open up a whole world of people to you if you do it with an open mind.
Learn to sign.
Take a class in American Sign Language. Conact your local Deaf Center-look in the blue pages in your phone book.
That is where you will find true support and an idea what a percentage of loss truly means.

If you are truly drawn to this child love them as they are, not how you hope to make them through surgery or other training.
Learning to lip read is not a given. Not all people can learn to lip read. It is a bit like having an ear for music. Either you can learn to sing or you can't, no amount of training can teach some people and others just take to it.
However, if there is residual hearing the chances of successfull lip reading are a bit better.
Speech is another issue. Most Deaf people don't speak like hearing people-ever. Hard of hearing folks usually do and some folks with some residual hearing do too.
All too often you see parents obsessed with Johnny or Susy "talking like everybody else" to the degree that academic time is sacrificed for speech therapy and audiology appiontments. This is wrong.

Deaf Children who sign first have a much greater degree of success with English and reading. If you can sign you will KNOW your child and they will know you and will truly be a parent to them.

Don't you always hear communication is the key to any relationship?? That doesn't mean just in English.
Children with good relationships with their parents, good communication, have much better teen years than those who don't.

Do you only want to be able to "talk" to your child when they have their hearing aids on? Do you want to be struggling when the batteries die or they have just gotten out of the shower or are in bed at night??
Lip reading is exhausting to boot. Try it sometime.
I'm not saying don't use hearing aids etc. I'm just saying don't expect them talk and act like a hearing child. You need to decide if you can love them as they are, not as they could be if you could remodel them.

Raising a Deaf child and having a family who all sign can truly bring you closer together whether hearing or Deaf.
If you are looking to fix this poor little Deaf child, please don't.