The Allen family is adopting again! This will be their 2nd (& 3rd) adoption of a deaf child. Their story really began 21 years ago, when Jamie went to college to be a Sign Language Interpreter, but then became a stay-at-home Mom; always wondering why she was given such a passion for the Deaf community. Eleven years ago, John and Jamie met. When they married a year later, they were immediately thrown into the life-long task of 'blending' their family, since John had 2 children and Jamie had 3. Through 4 additional years they added 2 more biological children to their blender. Fast forward to 3 years ago, when John and Jamie went with a group from their church to an orphan care conference. During that conference, John & Jamie were both lead to adopt. They thought God would want them to adopt through the US System. It became apparent that God wanted them to go to China to adopt a particular little boy, who was deaf. Tobias has been home 16 months now and is thriving! They are going back to China to adopt Terah, a 5 yr old girl, and Tai, a 13 yr old boy, who are both deaf. Deafness is a special need that seems to cause undue fear in people, which is apparent in the amount of waiting deaf children in China. They weren't sure which child they should bring home, knowing both needed language as soon as possible. God has opened the doors wide to adopt both children at once! Their family all knows American Sign Language to some degree, which will give both of the children the ability to communicate. They will finally have language, a family to love them, laugh with them, and blend into!
