[lishbug]

I was wondering how common it is to find a deaf or hard of hearing child to adopt internationally or domestically? We have a 10 yr. old daughter who is deaf. We are considering adopting from Mexico

[Chelle01]

There is a site that posts nothing but hearing impaired/deaf situations. I'll try to find it and put it here for you if you're interested in adopting a deaf/hearing impaired child again. Lord knows, there's a need for parents who already know sign, etc. Good luck.

[lishbug]

Thanks for contacting me! I would love to have the link to the hearing impaired adoption site!

[Chelle01]

OK, I'm technologically challenged so I don't know how to make a link youjust click on but the site is http://users.erols.com/berke/deafchildren.html
There's also a site for child amputee network which seeks families for hard to place children with missing/malformed limbs if you know anyone who feels called in that direction. Best of luck on your journey. Keep me posted.

[terptobe]

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help myself--please don't group Deaf people with people with missing limbs... they aren't handicapped, they just can't hear.

[mac1227]

so true. Heck my daughter is deaf and does more things that my two boys, one is hearing, the other is hard of hearing. She is quite the pepper and princess all at the same time.

[ManyTimesBlessed]

Just in case anyone else is interested in adopting a deaf child, I wanted to chime in. We are adopting a little girl who is deaf from Liberia. She is in a deaf orphanage and there are about 40 other children who are also deaf in the orphanage. I only know of one other child from that orphanage who is being adopted besides our Lillian. There is a huge need here!

[radish-mom]

but if you look around and that is really the type of child you want to help, I'm sure you can find one

[momraine]

Excuse me, but my daughter was born missing parts of both legs and some fingers. I don't consider her handicapped either. She does tap, ballet, jazz, hip hop, cheer leading and tumbling. She attends regular classes where she gets good grades. She is just a normal kid who happens to use prosthetic legs. We are adopting again, and this time we are getting a little boy who is missing both legs completely and one arm. Again, he is no different than any other child, he will just use a wheelchair and be more creative about how he does things. My dh is losing his hearing and so we are also learning sign. Many of the children who are missing limbs are not at all handicapped. My friends little boys is missing a hand, he does everything his brothers do. We do not consider him handicapped. He does not use any prosthesis or anything. So he is probably better able to function than my husband who must use hearing aids or sign. I do not consider my deaf friends disabled and I don't consider my daughter disabled. My son, perhaps because he will use a wheelchair full time. I am sorry if I offended everyone, but many people don't know much about children with missing limbs. The schools have all sorts of protocall and information on helping deaf children, and there are many organizations, but for children born missing limbs, the schools often don't know what to do with them. Most of the children available for adoption on the limb different list that was mentioned have very minor issues and will need little or no treatment. The parents who adopt these children will need little training on how to help them. Very few are as severe as my son. Most are only missing one limb and can function just fine without it.

[Lylac]

I know it's late posting to this but, I completely agree with momraine. Although my daughter has all her limbs, she has paralysis in her left arm/hand. And by a doctors defintions she is handicapped. On paper. She does things that other kids do too. To us she's normal.. to her it's normal. Is there a right or wrong way to do things? My opinion: nope. It doesn't matter how you get the job done, what matters is that they get it done.. in the only way they know how... which is normal for them.

[cali2il]

I know this post is old but I got to on a sreach from ask so I am sure others will too. I want to say that in my view that handicap just means life is a little harder than most other peoples for one reason or antoher. I have worked with children with all different kind of handicaps. I would say they all are like other kids or people.