COLOMBIA SFH DEAF ADOPTION MATCHING GRANT!

God places the lonely in families. 

Psalm 68:6

We are so thankful to be able to offer another matching grant for the Coleman family for the adoption of a precious deaf boy in Colombia, South America!  For every dollar you donate up to $750, Signs for Hope will match it!!   Read the first chapter of the Coleman Family's Deaf Adoption Journey below:

Hi! We are Jacob and Misti Coleman from Slidell, Louisiana. We have 3 biological children, Anna Beth (7), Lynnsie (6), and Creek (4).

We started the process to adopt from Colombia in January 2013. On our "special needs list" for our dossier, my husband and I both marked "Deaf" as a special need we were open to in our adoption. I grew up signing to music and have always loved the language and my husband had a very good friend when he was a child who was deaf. My husband also currently has a very good friend with a daughter who is deaf - which played a big role in him being open to deafness as a special need.

We were presented with the file of a precious 22 month old little Colombian boy in February 2015 who was diagnosed with profound deafness, following an audiogram in December 2014 and a delay in speech development. Our hearts screamed yes immediately, but we wanted to make sure we had the ability to provide an education for him through our school systems, first. We had already started discussions on the possibility of moving to be closer to the School for the Deaf an hour and a half away, if it was needed. It took 8 months for our son's orphanage to officially match us and send the referral. 

During our time of waiting, we completed several exercises of deaf education, as requested by Lifeline Children's Services, our adoption agency. We immediately began teaching our children sign language through the video series, Signing Time, at our local library and purchased the Learn and Master ASL DVD series for ourselves. We have also met with an ASL interpreter in our community who is willing to come work with our family in our home when we all return from Colombia. We have connected with several Deaf adopting families through Facebook, as well. In addition, our local Deaf action center has a monthly Deaf gathering at a local coffee shop that we plan to be a part of. 

One of our biggest prayers right now is to be able to connect with another Deaf child who is the same age as Silas. We hope that the Louisiana School for the Deaf can assist us in that.

We've also been extremely excited about the support we are receiving from our family, friends, and church family. Extended family and very close friends here are eager to learn ASL so they can communicate and love on Silas. Just yesterday, his future Sunday School teacher said we needed to plan an ASL training for the church volunteers who will be working with him. When I related this message to our preschool minister, she told me she had been praying about this very thing for a long time.