I was born into a life of drugs and alcohol by Deaf parents who were lost and confused. My Grandmother had many sleepless nights helping to care for my sister and me and praying for the salvation of our parents. My mother had a wakeup call when someone close to her passed away; this was a turning point in our lives. She accepted Christ and we began to attend church and became involved in Deaf ministry. My mother later re-married my step-father who was also Deaf and a leader in his church. Together they built a strong Deaf ministry where my sister and I would begin our signing music ministry for the Deaf.

I remember accepting Christ at around age 6. Growing up in church did not mean I was perfect. I sure gave my parents a hard time and was as rebellious as any other teenager was. I struggled to stay true to God’s calling on my life. When I was 16, I gave my heart to God completely and allowed him to take full reign of my life. By age 18, I was a youth leader for a Deaf church and by age 19 I was the Deaf ministry director of a very large hearing church.

As life began to get busy with a career interpreting and raising my two cousins I slowly let go of God and his plans for my life. I turned away from God but never forgot him. The Lord kept giving my signs that my life was headed in the wrong direction but I kept thinking there was no time to dedicate myself to him. I then met my husband which was a wakeup call for me. The moment I laid eyes on him God showed me this was my soul mate. I realized I didn’t want to be about my career, I wanted to be a wife and mother. I wanted to be the kind of wife and mother that I had growing up; a Godly woman. I cried out to God to change my mind and my heart and move me in the direction I was to go. Once again God picked me up and turned me around. Amazingly, one year later I married my soul mate.

The Lord showed me I would adopt when I was a very young child. My husband shared this desire but no solid plans were in the works. We were suddenly given an amazing opportunity to adopt a 10 year old hearing girl from an all Deaf family that we knew. She was fluent in ASL and would be able to communicate with our family. She had suffered years of abuse and neglect and just wanted to be loved. We fell in love with her and felt God’s calling in her life. We adopted her into our family.

While taking our adoption courses we learned of more children that needed a good home and we felt we had a lot to offer to a Deaf child. We began searching all over the United States and found our second child, a 5 year old Deaf girl who knew no sign language and had no communication. We took a step of faith and made a 24 hour drive to meet her. We fell in love with her picture and the bond we shared upon meeting was spectacular. We quickly adopted her and called her our own. She has surpassed anyone’s hopes for her and is finally able to communicate in sign language!

We may have a lot to offer our children but they have given us more than we could have ever imagined. The love we share is one that I have never known. We recently began our search and are in the process of adopting a sibling group consisting of one hearing boy age 5 and one Deaf boy age 9. Our family will finally be complete when our sons come home. My passion for adoption is what lead me to this ministry. I pray that God uses me to bring Deaf children and Christian families together so that all may have homes. Isaiah 11:6