WATERLOO - Isaac Brandt is a blessed child.

From the beginning, it didn't seem like life would be easy for Isaac. He weighed just 1 pound, 14 ounces when he was born in Iowa City, and he spent the first year of his life in four hospitals.

In his 10 years, he has had as many surgeries, three of which have been on his left ear. Isaac always struggled with hearing loss due to his premature birth, and at the age of 6, doctors discovered that a cholesteatoma - a skin growth that occurs in the middle ear behind the ear drum - had destroyed the delicate ear bones that conduct sound.

To reconstruct his ear, doctors used prosthetics and muscle from the area just above Isaac's ear. He may have another surgery to further improve his hearing again, as soon as the coming summer, but his mother, Kelley, isn't worried. Neither is Isaac - and he has two reasons.

"One, I know I'll come out in one piece, and two, I know God is on my side," says Isaac matter-of-factly.

This is where the blessing comes in. For all the physical ailments Isaac has experienced, his faith and spirit have not faltered. They've only grown stronger.

"Anyone who knows Isaac, knows he really is such a neat kid," says Kelley. "He's come through a lot of things, and it's never once stopped him."

Isaac has a big personality and even bigger plans. Visitors to the Brandt home will be greeted at the door by Isaac, shortly before he takes them on a tour and shows them his newest light saber. "Star Wars" is a big deal in the Brandt house, as is "Deal or No Deal," the Iowa State Cyclones and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

If he can't be a Jedi, says Isaac, he'll settle for an actor or a pro football player. But take one look in his determined eyes - he may just find a way to fight storm troopers for a living.

"Despite his hearing loss, he is such a normal kid," says Kelley. "He plays baseball, basketball, every leisure sport there is. He wants to act. … He takes it all in stride. He never thinks of it as a handicap."

Kelley tells a story about attending a concert with 7-year-old Isaac and trying to sit in a front section reserved for hearing impaired audience members.

"He read (the sign) and was appalled. He went to the back of the room and stood there," she says. "He may have hearing loss, but he doesn't miss much."

Any additional surgeries Isaac undergoes will improve his hearing, says Isaac's physician, Dr. Jose Manaligod. Manaligod is associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

"The goal with (the former) surgery was to get a safe ear that is free of infection and cholesteatoma. Things like reconstructing hearing, we do on an elective basis," he says.

For now, Isaac's hearing has been improved vastly by his new hearing aid, which he received about two months ago. Before his ear reconstruction, Isaac's lack of ear drum bones made wearing a hearing aid impossible. The device changed his life.

"The day they turned it on, he jumped around saying, 'I can hear! I can hear! … I can hear the wind. I can hear the cars outside,'" says Kelley, adding his teachers at Walnut Ridge Baptist Academy noticed a difference, too.

When he first received his hearing aid, Isaac and Kelley gave a presentation to his fourth-grade class, complete with a puppet show and a reading of "Oliver Gets Hearing Aids."

"We wanted them to know it's not something we're sad about," says Kelley. "We look at it as a blessing."

Contact Kelsey Holm at (319) 291-1464 or kelsey.holm@wcfcourier.com.