We learned to know Paola through Luis (a deaf man). He told us one day that in his neighborhood there is a deaf girl that is about 3 years old. We went to visit her and invited her to a getting acquainted activity that we had planned with all the deaf children that we knew from the area.
She came with her dad and sat the whole time, on the lap of a girl who had come to help. She seemed very timid and we felt that it would be wise to wait a while before she started to come to school.
Three years later, we again went to visit Paola. We found out that her dad had died and her mom had gotten married again.
We talked with her mom and she consented to having Paola come to the school; but the most interesting thing for us was to see how enthusiastic her step-father was in wanting her to come to the school.
We discovered that Paola was not at all timid but very active and even a bit hard to control. But she soon adapted and then started to learn. We soon noticed that she is very gifted in math.
Paola is a living example, of the fact, that it is easier and faster for a young child to learn sign language and also academics.
Praise God, that even though her dad died, her new dad loves her and supports her in her learning.
Paola is now 7 years old and this is the second year that she is in school.
~Becky Aguilar