I’ve wanted to paint our house since we moved into it five years ago.

Jim hates to paint, so I’ve always been the painter in the family. But I just have not been able to paint. There is always too much other stuff to do. But the walls have been getting worse and worse and… worse! So I started praying about it. And then we found… Buddy!

Buddy is awesome! Buddy is also deaf. The children just love him. He is so expressive and manages to communicate with the children so well. For the three days Buddy worked on the boys’ room, they would constantly ask him (by hand gestures) – “We” “Sleep” “There” Tonight”?

He’d shake his head over and over (remember, there were 5 boys asking him). Until finally he gathered them together and gestured – “You” Sleep” “There”! At which point there was much cheering and screeching.

Then there was the day Buddy was painting the front door. Everyone kept forgetting and grabbing the door and ending up with paint on their fingers. Buddy would go around inspecting everyone’s fingers for paint and giving them his fake, stern look.

But the funniest and most embarrassing thing happened the day that one of the children knocked the carbon monoxide detector out of the wall. It let out an ear-piercing screech to which Buddy jumped. Yes, he jumped.

I looked at him and asked him, “You hear some?”

It turns out that Buddy can’t hear words, but can hear a certain indistinct amount of loud sounds.

Uh oh. I immediately started to think back over the last few weeks about the few times I’d yelled at the children, thinking to myself – good thing Buddy can’t hear this.

Buddy confirmed it. He pointed to the children and made gestures indicating that they are all very loud – which they are. Then he pointed to me and mimed putting ear plugs in his ears.

I was mortified. I got busted yelling at my children by my deaf painter.

How embarrassing.