"Momma, my tummy's rumbling for cake," Gideon said, pushing his spoon through his baked apples and creamed carrots.

"Then we need to sit down and have a talk with your tummy because he needs to eat vegetables first," Ruth said, struggling not to laugh.

"You better enjoy the fresh vegetables while you can," Kid said. "Fall don't last forever and then it'll be nothing but dried, canned, and pickled vegetables."

Mercy, bless her heart, never complained about what she ate though it was easy to tell what she liked and what she didn't from the expressions on her face. Isaiah was eating the apples but short of pinching his nose and shoveling it down for him, no coaxing in the world was going to make him eat it. She and Kid both had learned that a long time ago. Gideon was an easier sell. "Put it this way, son. No vegetables, no cake."

That prompted him into eating though he acted as if lifting his fork were an effort Sampson himself couldn't have tackled and the way he chewed one might get the idea he was chewing on rocks.

It was a Saturday, and Mrs. Price had invited the whole Cole family over to celebrate Lavina's birthday. Finished with the midday meal, they set off with Gideon wondering what kind of cake it would be and worrying over if it would be enough for everyone.

It was a vanilla cake bigger than any Gideon had ever seen much to his delight and strawberry punch, but what stuck out to Ruth was all the joyful conversation, silent and spoken that went on at the table.

The best part of the party, however, came when Angel pointed to herself, then she made a fist over her heart, and finally she pointed at her mother.

Rhonda Price had learned alongside her children after that first day of learning sign, and though she wasn't as fluent as her children because of her age and it not being her first language, she was proficient enough. She fell to her knees and repeated the statement before engulfing her in a hug. "Gilbert, she told me she loves me."

"Well, of course she does," Mr. Price said. "You're her mother, aren't you?" The words might have sounded sharp, but the tears softened them.

Rhonda hugged Ruth next. "I don't know how I can ever thank you for finding a teacher for our children." She had developed the habit of using her hands and voice when the children were in the room. She moved to Alice. "And thank you for teaching them."

Rhonda went over to Gideon, nudging him to get him to express his thanks.

"Thank you, Miss Knop. I may have been hasty in my judgment of you, Sister Ruth. You might or might not be able to heal, but it's plain to see you care about people, and you have helped them." Not overly glowing praise, but she could see she had redeemed herself in his eyes at least a little.

Angel repeated the "I love you", but this time to her father. With Rhonda's help, Gideon said it back. He could see that though they were beginning to learn to read English and though they would soon be trying oralism again that this sign was their natural language, their first language and how their hearts communicated. "Miss. Knop, do you think you could teach me a little of that sign?"

She affirmed she could.

There was a flurrying of I-love-yous that erupted throughout the family. When it was over, Ruth added "God loves you," and pointed to all the children.

"Who is God?" Calvin asked.

"The One who created the world. He is the Father of us all, and He loves us."

It wasn't a shocking statement to the younger children so much as they had known a little of God through their parents' love though the concept of God was somewhat new to them.

For Lavinia, the eldest, it was the piece to the puzzle she'd been missing of who had made the beautiful world around them though she'd felt instinctively that there was a higher power and that people learned about Him at church. She signed, "I go to church, but I don't learn about God."

Ruth had known it to be so, but it was heart-breaking to hear it from her. "I will tell you all anything you want to know."

"Who made God?" Elizabet asked.

"No one. He is outside of time. Everything in our world had a beginning, so it's hard for us to understand, but God didn't. He has always existed."

"Where is He?" Cordelia asked, looking as if He might appear in the room while they spoke.

If you looked the world over for more curious children who asked more questions, you wouldn't find them. They were eager to soak up the knowledge long denied them. "No place can hold Him. He is everywhere, but we will see Him with our eyes in a place called Heaven, but in the meantime, He gave us His Holy Spirit to be with us and help us tell others about Him and so we wouldn't be lonely for Him. He'll live inside us if we ask Him. And one day, we'll live with Him in Heaven if we love Him and ask Jesus to help us there."

"I thought God didn't care about deaf people," Lavina said with wonder rather than self-pity.

"Oh, but He does. When Jesus lived with men, He gave a deaf man his hearing, but He loved him while he was deaf. It was God's plan to make him so and to heal him. God's plan for you is different, but it will be just as wonderful."

"I know He does care now," Lavinia said, "because God gave us you and Teacher Alice, so that we can know Him. I believe He loves me."

There wasn't a dry eye among the adults. It wasn't just a physical birthday for Lavinia but a spiritual one as well.

With Alice helping her, she told them the old, old story of how much God had loved them enough to give them His only Son and how they could be saved. They craved it, and she couldn't remember when she'd had more attentive listeners.

Real Universe

Sister Ruth and Kid Cole applauded as one of the ladies of the church came up to recite a poem she'd written. Ruth realized while she was doing it that clapping her hands together was a little silly. Some of the others had engaged in a silent cheer with their hands, and she switched to their way of doing it.

The woman's voice was very different. It was the sound of someone who couldn't hear themselves anymore but spoke with an ease that proved she'd been able to hear when she was young.

"Yes, build for us a fane,
O friends! that may remain
A noble token of your heaven-born love;
Where, gather'd in that fold,
The wanderer may behold
The path that leads through care to bliss above.

Where we, the silent ones
To whom sweet nature's tones
Are like a sealed book to the curious eye,
May learn, with thankful mind,
Those cheering truths to find,

Whose power can draw the sting from sorrow's sigh."

It was a lovely, lengthy poem about the church. Ruth realized afterward in a way that she hadn't quite thought of before that being deaf was not a curse though perhaps a symptom of the Fall. Instead, it was an opportunity for the glory of God to come shining through as it was shining through the life of this woman, not in spite of her deafness but because of it. She did not pity these brothers and sisters, but she wanted to be a part of their ministry here to ensure those who couldn't hear with their ears heard the gospel with their heart.

"I want to donate a portion of our funds to this church," she whispered to Kid.

"I think it's a worthy cause, baby. You have my blessing."

The service ended with a hymn written by the reverend, and Ruth thought it summed up all their Christian walks quite nicely be they hearing or deaf, consumptive or whole.

"Through all my pilgrimage below,
Whate'er my lot may be,
In joy or sadness, weal or woe,
Jesus, I'll turn to Thee."

The End

A/N: Rev. Galludet was a real historical person as was the lady who wrote the poem for the church's anniversary. St. Ann's Church for Deaf Mutes was the United States' first deaf church and remains an active church today.