deafness.

i am currently taking a sign language class at my school...it's 5 hours a week and it's 5 credits. i have never loved a class so much in my life. i am learning loads of vocabulary, but i am also learning a LOT about deaf culture, and it fascinates me.

people don't really know anything about deaf culture. most of it is not intuitive or common information. it requires energy to study and read about and become informed about. yet...people don't take the time to do this. deaf people are treated poorly in our culture. most people avoid them and never take the time to get to know them.

there are a few deaf families at my church and i have been so very blessed to get to know a little bit about them. r and h have 2 sons who are deaf, and they are an absolute delight. we have an interpreter at my church who interprets the service, and find students of asl to interpret for the children so they don't have to sit through the long service.

i also work at a restaurant where we have deaf people come in relatively often, and my coworkers use me to interpret for them {i've only been studying asl for 6 weeks, though...haha} or i teach my coworkers basic signs to communicate. yet every time we have a deaf family come in, my coworkers freeze up. they treat the family coldly and act as if they are somehow less intelligent. it kills me to see this. "how dare they?" i ask to myself...yet i realize that i may have been the same way a few years ago.

honestly, i don't know what i'm getting at. my heart has begun to resonate with the deaf, but i don't know what i'm supposed to do with that. i don't know if i'm supposed to move forward with asl and become an interpreter or what...i'm trying to figure it out now.

my heart has begun to beat for deaf culture.
for deaf children.
for deaf families.

it's getting to the point where i'm looking into adopting a deaf child someday. i don't know if that's even possible for me. i have to do something, though. somehow, i have to make a difference.