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The concept for this endeavor arose from our desire to combine our skills and passions to create something totally unique. We bring with us our love for the Deaf community, our love for animals, and a strong desire to work outside the box to build a space of belonging, kindness, collectivist action, compassion, and exploration. We use our organization as a vehicle to strengthen the Deaf Community through animal rescue, care, and adoption and the numerous programs, activities, and opportunities this work creates.

Nancy Romer, an interpreter raised by Deaf parents, spent 30 years interpreting in the classrooms of K-12 mainstream schools. She is a committed activist finding ways to make a difference for DHH kids. She served as a member of the National Association of the Deaf’s Educational Strategy Team. She loves animals and is a vegetarian.

Jessie Romer, originally from Boston, grew up with dogs and cats and has always had a love for animals. Her experience at summer camp working on the farm helped shape her decision to make animals a permanent part of her life. She became a vegetarian at the age of 14 and is now vegan. She has worked as a vet tech and gained skills which she brings to caring for senior foster dogs in need. Jessie decided to pursue ASL when she was 21 and quickly fell in love with the Deaf community. She has been working as a freelance interpreter since 1997 and has worked full-time at home as a corporate staff interpreter for Convo Communications since Oct of 2020.

We have been together since 1999 and have 2 kids, Travis and Katherine, both grown and beautiful, and one granddaughter! We have numerous rescued dogs and cats in our pet family who bring us much joy everyday!

History
In 2009, after 4 years of being a foster home for dogs and cats through a local nonprofit rescue organization, we decided to found our own 501(c)(3) rescue organization, Bliss Animal Haven (now Five Freedoms Farm), which we operated at our home east of Atlanta on 3 acres. To date, we have rescued and cared for 747 animals in our home. In the final few years of operating Bliss, we shifted our mission to focus solely on saving senior, special needs, and medically needy dogs at risk of euthanasia at local animal control facilities. Our time as directors of Bliss Animal Haven was incredibly fulfilling and challenging and gave us many of the tools we needed to prepare for the transition to Five Freedoms Farm. We expanded to farm animal rescue in 2015 and now live on a 14 acre sanctuary in the foothills of the Northeast Georgia Mountains.