I woke up on my morning shift and found a stroller on the sidewalk with two babies not attached. After calling the police and social services, I still couldn’t forget their faces, and together with my husband, I decided to try to become their foster parents. A week later, the girls were brought to our house — it turned out that they were profoundly deaf and needed early support and sign language learning.
The first months were chaotic and difficult: sleepless nights, extra shifts at work, and sign language lessons at home. But the girls quickly became part of our family — Hannah became interested in drawing, Diana loved to design, and a close creative bond developed between them. We defended their rights at school and sought translators so that they could fully study and express themselves.
At home, my husband Steven was recovering from surgery.
One day, a competition was announced at school, and the sisters prepared a project for adaptive clothing — comfortable, functional and thoughtful for children with special needs. Their ideas led to the fact that the local company BrightSteps contacted us: a creative collaboration and an offer to pay a fee with projected deductions estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The news turned our lives upside down: we started planning where to invest money, thinking about college for girls and improving conditions at home. But the most important thing was not wealth, but recognition — their experience and caring for other children gave them the opportunity to help many families.
