Charlene C. Slaats-Gray

994658_10151707785751504_1469459412_nI am an adoptee who located my birth family when I was in my late 30’s . When I began my search I had the basic “non-identifiable” information and aside from a non-profit organization there were no other services available to those in the adoption triad.  After  my search began I became active in the support group and a result was a member, co-chair and chair or over 35 years.

I believe in what I do because I have lived it and believe that if we choose to we all have the right to search.

As well as being a Adoption Liaison my life as I now know it is as a Certified Independent Sign Language Instructor and aside from being an entrepreneur I also work in an industry that services the culturally Deaf, oral deaf, deafened and hard of hearing community. Over the years I volunteered at a local deaf school and in doing so I saw any deaf children with hearing parents and siblings, and noticed the need, and desire, for hearing parents to bridge the communication gap between themselves and their child.  It was when I saw the advanced communication of the hearing siblings that  I began to research why and how this came to be.  That is where my journey with American Sign Language began and has since completely taken off and taken over my life.  But there’s so much more to me that came before these experiences and have made me who I am.

My blog will vary in posts but I suspect will lean to my passions of Adoption travel and cooking.

As a dog lover I currently own 2 deaf Weimaraners that are constantly being trained in agility and we have so much fun doing so!  It’s such a great experience to see that their being deaf just doesn’t impede them at all.  I just think it’s so great how they can completely transition and are so eager to learn and please.  I would be remiss in not mentioning my old gal “Chelsea’ who passed a bit ago and was in part my muse for website surrounding signing with dogs.  Ironically enough though she’ wasn’t even deaf!  😉

As an educator I love what I do and am so fortunate to be able to offer the gift of communication to those that otherwise can not communicate through verbal language. 

 

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