Renewed interest in ASL

Yesterday I met a sweet mannered little girl with a calm demeanour. Even though I knew her mom and remembered when the baby had been born, I could not, for the life of me, place the little girl in my memory....

As it turned out, I had never met her face to face. I'd seen her baby pictures and followed her mom throughout updates via the community chain, but I'd never met the little miracle baby who was born despite the odds...

I remember her mom telling us all about the little girl after she'd been born, when the little girl was still in IC at the hospital and we marveled over how tiny yet beautiful she was.

Anyway, yesterday I met the little girl in person and when I realized who'se baby she was, it finally clicked. "So...this is M, eh?"

She was so quiet, abnormally so and I couldn't remember what was up...then it occurred to me. The girl was deaf! Sure enough, I asked her mom if the girl was speaking yet and she told me: M is deaf so she cant talk.

I said, "but you sign with her, dont you?"
"Yep," mom assured me. "We work with a woman from the state and learn sign."
"Then...cant she talk...with sign language?"
"Oh, yeah! I guess she can."

Anyway, talking with the mother for a while and observing what a calm and beautiful baby she was I knew, just knew that I had to push myself to learn more sign langauge, more seriously.

I followed the story of her birth eagerly a few years ago and exulted in the ups and downs her mom reported to us. I had looked forward to meeting the little girl in person and I'd totally forgotten that several months after she was born, they found out she was deaf. And, because I hadn't seen her in person before, I had soon forgotten the fact.

Anyway, her mom is so supportive and openminded about her daughters deafness that it inspired in me a new interest in the language. Oddly, I dont feel sympathy for the little girl at all. I was sorrier to hear she has vision troubles in one eye than deafness, but inshallah even her vision problems are nothing to worry TOO much about. Because when I was looking at that little girl I know she is indeed whole. There isn't a thing wrong with her. As we talked I recalled several things I had read online about PODC (parents of deaf children) and how many of them never learned sign or wanted their children to learn to sign. I wished that I could've rememebered one of the stock phrases I learned a year or more ago to say something to the little girl before she fell asleep.

I refrenced the mom to a good site about the ASL (http://lifeprint.com/asl101) to help her with additional grammar. It was the site I was using before I all but dropped my ASL studies. I'll probably find a way to study ASL again before the end of the semester. I really would like to be able to speak with the little girl, she's absolutely adorable!

Her little brother, who is hearing, and only 8 weeks old, but his mom has been signing to him since birth so hopefully he will be fluent in ASL also. Anyway, the point is, I'm re-interested in ASL again, like, majorly!

I eventually got discouraged from ASL because I was trying to learn a language that I couldn't check and couldn't speak with anyone I knew and I couldn't find anyone in my area who could sign! I eventually let it slide but this time I think I will stay more serious about it.

I'm going to the library to check out the old ASL for kids to get me started reviewing the 70+ signs that I knew, then I'll probably return to ASL university and try to do 2 lessons a month, yeah, that sounds like a good plan. A real good one, take it nice and easy... :)