I use the term “Cosmic Forces” for those of you who may not believe in the Spirit. I for one believe that everything happens for a Divine reason, even when I follow along kicking and screaming.
In the previous post entitled Universal Ignorance I mentioned that “Steve is fortunate to have one wonderful lady, same age as I, who volunteered to interpret for him in a hearing ward within our Stake boundaries.” Karen has lived in this community for as long as we have (12 years). We found out about her 3 ½ years ago. (See blog post Stake Conference) She could have been interpreting for him several years prior to that conference if we had known about her. For some reason, we had to wait until that conference to know she existed.
Last summer we found out that the wife of one of my many nephews knows Sign Language. They have been married about ten years. She has been teaching her kids Sign Language. How did we find out about her? Facebook! I had to explain to Steve who she is.
In one of my comments on Universal Ignorance, I wrote, “Steve is the only signing deaf person, as far as I know, in this community.” Apparently I am wrong. Our new Home Teachers told us there is a signing deaf man and member of the Church who lives in this community. (I should note that this community is small; however, it is growing fast.) Why does it have to take 12 years to find this out? Maybe he hasn’t lived here that long. It makes me wonder how many more deaf individuals live around here.
We recently found out that Andrea Ploehn (Signing4Baby.com) moved into our ward and lives a few houses down from ours on our street. How did we find out about her? She “just happened” to walk by our house when Steve went out to get the mail. According to him, she volunteered to interpret for him in our ward.
I know I should be grateful for all of these people, and I am, much more than I express. It’s hard to understand however, why it has to take so long to learn they exist and why we often learn about them through “Cosmic Forces”. My only conclusion is that when flawed human beings do not take care of our needs, God does. He tests our patience and humility in the meantime.
Filed under: Communication Issues
