[Archive]

Originally Posted By Cindy

My husband and I feel guided to adopt a child who is deaf or w/a hearing impairment. We have began ASL and are teaching our other children ASL. How do we go about finding a child...although we don't neccessarily see them as "special needs" would we go through a special needs adoption route?

[mommeof1]

I dont know if you have seen this site or not but it is www.adoptions.com you can do a advanced search and specifically search for deaf children from the country you want etc.

[terptobe]

I don't know--I'm looking into that myself. But might I suggest looking into your area's Deaf community services? They have great resources for different options in rasising Deaf children. The culture is wonderful, and it is imperative for a Deaf child to have Deaf adult role models. Get to know one now... learn ASL... read books BY Deaf people (not necessarily just ABOUT Deaf people). Take a class at a community college... learn something about the culture and the community itself before commiting yourself to raising a Deaf child. Yes, hearing parents raise Deaf children all the time, but how many of those children go through life misplaced, uneducated, and mentally isolated due to a lack of understanding? And when you do finally have that child, remember--Deaf people can do ANYTHING except hear.