Twelve years ago, Abbie’s life changed forever when, during her routine 5am morning walk, she came across a pram abandoned on the icy pavement. Inside were infant twins, left with nothing but a half-empty tin of milk and mismatched blankets. After notifying the authorities and watching the children being taken into care, Abbie and her husband Steven – who had been struggling with infertility for years – felt an irresistible bond with the little ones. Despite their modest income and the shock of discovering the twins were profoundly deaf, they did not hesitate to begin the adoption process; they decided the girls were not a burden, but a long-awaited gift.
The early years were a whirlwind of exhausting changes at work and steep learning curves, whilst the family devoted themselves entirely to American Sign Language (ASL). Neighbours and strangers often looked at the twins with pity or curiosity, but Abbie and Steven firmly refused to view them as ‘less than’ and insisted that they were simply deaf, but no less valuable. The home was filled with a new form of communication – visual, tactile and expressive – whilst the girls, Hannah and Diana, developed their own personalities: one a talented artist, the other a brilliant engineer.
At the age of 12, the twins turned their personal challenges into a source of creative energy and worked together on a school project to design adaptive clothing. Hannah was responsible for the aesthetic vision, whilst Diana designed functional solutions – T-shirts that do not interfere with hearing aids, and sensory-friendly seams. The girls saw their work as a way to make life ‘less troublesome’ for children like themselves and never imagined that their school project would catch the eye of the major children’s clothing brand BrightSteps.
The family’s world was turned upside down once again when a company representative rang Abbie to propose an official collaboration. The brand didn’t just want the girls’ ideas; it wanted to launch a whole range of adaptive clothing based on their designs and offered a licensing deal with projected earnings exceeding $500,000. For a family that had spent years teetering on the financial brink between medical bills and working in the rubbish, the news was staggering. The girls, once abandoned on a cold pavement, were now set to become successful designers, even before finishing secondary school.
Today, this financial boost promises a future full of security and opportunities, but for Abbie and Steven, the real victory remains the bond they forged during those early, quiet months. The twins’ success is a testament to the power of love, where a person is seen and heard – and in their case, signed. As they prepare to meet with lawyers and interpreters, the family remains rooted in the promise Abbie made over a decade ago to two small children on the side of the road: that they would never be alone again.
