Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

11. Brendon

Callie was happy all night. She had Patricia to interpret for her so she could talk to people. She met Dan and Nicole and Mike, as well as Spencer and Josh and Pete and Patrick. I pulled out a big speaker and sat her on it while I had music playing. And as usually happens, I sang as well. Patricia was interpreting that for her, too. She was enthralled.

At some point, around eleven, I looked over to the speaker and Callie wasn't sitting on it anymore. I was a bit worried, and looked around until I saw her lying on one of the lounge chairs, fast asleep as the party went on around her. I took a picture, because she was just too sweet, and then let Sarah know I was taking her up to bed. We paid Patricia and thanked her for her services.

"She's very sweet," Patricia said. "And really, really smart. I don't know if you've thought about schools for her yet, but choose wisely. She needs to be challenged. She is just, really really smart."

I smiled.

"Thanks," I said. "If you have any ideas what schools we should look at, that would be helpful."

"One is the Merton School. They're a good school. Check with the Association. They can probably also help."

We thanked her again and went back to the party.

"Where's Callie?" Zack asked.

"In bed," I said. "She fell asleep on the lounge chair."

Zack smiled.

"She's really sweet, guys. She's a good kid. You did good," he said.

I smiled back.

"I agree. So, Um, I was wondering," I said.

"Uh oh. How much, how long?"

"What? No," I laughed. "We have our first sign class tomorrow and no one to watch Callie. We're meeting an artist at 10, but I was wondering if you'd pick Callie up from there and bring her home, so she doesn't have to sit in on our lesson and be bored."

"Well, I was going to ask if we could get in on the lesson, too."

I smiled.

"Take Callie tomorrow and we'll set up lessons here after that. Fair?"

"Yeah," Zack smiled. I gave him the gallery address and he said he'd be there at 10:45.

We spent a couple more hours with our friends, all of whom said they wanted to learn sign language so they could talk to Callie, too. My heart swelled that so many of our friends wanted to be able to communicate with her.

We'd talk to our instructor tomorrow and figure it out.

In the morning, I got up and got ready to go while Sarah went to wake Callie up and get her moving.  She came back into our room smiling.

"'Sup?" I asked.

"I love that kid," Sarah said. "She's awake. She's getting dressed."

"Well, I agree that I love her too, but why is that why you love her?"

"Oh, no. I went in there to wake her up and I just gently shook her shoulder and woke her up and she just looked at me and smiled and signed 'good morning, Mom' and then wrote a note asking how the rest of the party was."

"Cute," I smiled, fixing my hair.

Sarah took a quick shower and went downstairs. I finished in the bathroom, made a quick phone call and sent a few texts before heading down myself.

"Brendon," Sarah said as I came into the kitchen. "Look what Callie did."

I looked up and saw Callie had made breakfast. Pancakes with strawberries and she'd made coffee, too.

'Callie, this looks delicious!' I texted her. She looked at her phone and grinned at me.

'I wanted to say thank you. Again. For adopting me and learning sign language for me.'

I wrapped her in a hug. She's been my kid for two days and I can't describe how much I love her.

We all ate breakfast together before heading out to the gallery. Callie also insisted on cleaning up from breakfast.

We drove to the gallery and parked behind it. Callie looked a little mystified, knowing we were looking into decorating her room.

As soon as we walked in, Anna knew it was us and immediately started signing with Callie. She was blown away. She looked at us as if to say 'you found a Deaf designer?'

She was a little shy at first but started talking with Anna and the two of them just seemed to hit it off. Both of them were laughing and smiling. Sarah had asked Anna to get an idea of what Callie likes, what she'd like painted on her walls. And also something that could grow with her. She's 12 now, but would she still want the same painting on her wall at 14? 16?

It was incredible to watch Callie and Anna. Callie's face just lit up. I had no idea what they were talking about and a couple of times they looked over and laughed.

After about an hour, Callie stopped and looked at her phone.

'Your sign language class started,' she texted to us. 'You're missing it'

'No we aren't,' I wrote back. 'We're having it at the house later. Everyone from last night wants to learn ASL.'

Her face fell with incredulity.  Anna asked her, I assume, what was up. Callie's hands flew as, presumably, she explained what I'd just said.

Anna looked at us, then back at Callie.

"You're learning sign, and all your friends are, too?" She asked, out loud. Anna had explained that she'd been raised in an oral world, and had learned to speak as well as lip read. She didn't learn sign language until her teens.

I nodded.

"That's amazing. Most parents learn sign for their kids, but their friends usually don't. That's really impressive."

"My friends and I work very closely together. They are our family. And they want to know Callie, too."

Anna smiled.

"Callie is very lucky to have such a loving and inclusive family. We've come up with some fantastic ideas for her room. I'm going to draw a few concepts based on what we talked about and if you don't mind, I'll come by next week to go over them with you?"

"Sure. Just text us and we'll figure out a time," I said. Anna nodded and filled Callie in on what she'd said to us. Callie smiled. Anna asked her for a hug and Callie obliged.

"She's very sweet," Anna said to us. "You're very lucky. She's very lucky. I'll be in touch."

We said our goodbyes and headed back home. Callie smiled the whole way home.