I got one. My first email from the website. From a parent of one of my former students. She said simply, "I'm proud of you". Amazing what four little words can do for a beginner, at any age. Message lovingly sent. Message gratefully received. The communication equation. From one to another.

Prose, poetry, graffiti, email, letters, postcards ... word art. Two dimensional messaging. Powerful.
Sign language is three-D communication. An airborne greeting card. A universal power cord that plugs people in. A search engine to connect anyone, anywhere in the world, that transcends all that is written or spoken and transforms the simplest utterance into a song dancing in the air. A song that begins as a solo and ends in a visual chorus. To do it well requires a single effort. Eye contact. The eyes say, "see me" and hands reply "I do".

I wrote a garden page for one of my students. To define him as severely autistic and profoundly deaf is to merely label. To know him as "Michael" is to meet the wonderful young man behind his smiling eyes and to never be quite the same again. Michael is a wonder. His mother is the proudest mom in the room. Always. No matter what. That she is proud of me, is an honor. I have never shared Michael's garden page, but it hangs on the wall in his room. After receiving his mom's permission, I share it with you.