14 Apr Emma’s Story

BY KRISTIE SMITH

The petite second-grader sits and reads with her classmates in a Forney ISD elementary school. A common scenario? Yes… and no. Emma’s story is somewhat different. Her classmates are fluent in print, but she reads in Braille.

Emma Stephens is blind.

Flash back to 2006. Forney residents Jason and Mistie Stephens began working in a weekly Sunday school class for children with special needs. One Sunday, a small blind girl in foster care entered the program. Mistie remembers the first time Emma walked into the class. She was tiny, underdeveloped, and looked more fragile than the others her age. But she demonstrated a strong will and funny personality. Jason and Mistie both fell in love with the little girl immediately.

Every Sunday, the couple waited anxiously for Emma to arrive for her weekly Bible lessons. The couple was so taken in with the little girl that they began spending six hours at church every week, just so they could spend time with her.

Before long, Emma began making home visits and spending the weekends with Jason, Mistie and their children Kolby, who was in high school at the time, and Mason, who was in elementary school. The whole family dreaded Emma’s leaving every weekend, so—after crossing many barriers—the Stephens finally adopted Emma in a celebratory ceremony.

Only one more change was needed. During the adoption process, the Stephens changed Emma’s middle name to “Faith”. They chose the name very early in the journey, before the adoption took place, when Mistie drove by a sign that voiced what her heart already knew: “Faith is believing what the heart can feel but the eyes cannot see.”

Now the once-vulnerable little girl is confident, social, and making a difference in the lives of everyone she meets. Because of her severe visual impairment, a vision teacher works with her daily to help her develop Braille skills, learn technology for the blind, and work on other areas in the expanded core curriculum.

Emma is an A+ student. She excels in all subjects, surpassing many in her grade level. Even more remarkable is how well she performs in the very difficult skill of Braille. The Braille code, with its more than three hundred configurations of tactual dots, requires much memorization to understand, read, and write.

“Emma is so smart and creative,” Mistie remarks. “When she does not have homework, she makes up her own games. For example, she Brailled words twice, placed one set in a bowl and kept the others in her hands. She would then reach into the bowl and take out one word from the bowl and find its match. She is always coming up with inventive ways of learning.”

Kandice Burke, Emma’s vision teacher from a few years ago, has been amazed at her brilliance. When Burke asked Emma about a picture she had drawn of Jesus in a swimming pool, Emma had responded simply, “Because, Jesus swims, too!”

The beautiful little girl has defied all odds. Although her eyes do not see, she walks by faith, without sight, changing the lives of many.

Through tears, Mistie sums up the miracle. “God led Emma to us and turned a tragedy into a blessing for all of us—a future that will have more vision without her sight than the life she would have had with it.”