Update on our family, and a Big Prayer Request

Abe has been in our family for three and a half months now. The summer was a mix of great things and challenging things. Some of the great things:   Every meal with another kid at the family table was great! Seeing the kids play together, seeing Abe grow and GROW!, leaning on God's strength, recieving wisdom from Him, and recieving so much kindness, food, money, prayers, and all other sorts of goodness from our family, church, and friends was AMAZING! We are blessed far beyond what we would ever expect or ask. The Lord, and his children, are good.

The challenges were plenty- losing sleep, potty training (went well, nearly done), teaching basic boundaries, and so on. Abe can reach a lot, but doesn't need to pick up, pull out, or relocate everything he can reach. He is slowly learning that, and we are supervising almost constantly to keep him (and our stuff) intact.  It was good to 'hunker down' at home and let him attach to us and see us as his family, but hard to spend less time with the rest of our family and our church.  Every week is better, and we can think back and be amazed at how well Abe is doing and at how many prayers are being answered. 

With some great advice from the international adoption clinic we helped him get past some food anxieties that were troubling him and making meal preperation hard for us. The doctor said to let him eat as much as he wants, and always have food available, so we did. The doctor also said she wanted to see him grow- that he was way too short for his age (which we knew). Those two things worked together: he is much less anxious about food/mealtime, and he is growing like kudzu. Since June 1 he has grown 3 inches (from 30 to 33 in.). That is a huge difference. Since we got him in mid May he has gained almost 10 pounds (from 21 to 30.5).  He loves being picked up, but he's getting much harder to lift!

BIG PRAYER REQUEST:  Tomorrow, Aug. 29, in the morning Abe is having surgery to close 3 holes in his palate (the roof of his mouth).  Because of those holes, there are several sounds he cannot make ("B", "P", "T", "D", and maybe others).  He is understanding a lot of English now, and he wants and tries to speak, but he can't.  Another doctor will come in after the palate guy is finished and put tubes in his ears- the ENT doc tells us he has a lot of fluid trapped in his ear and his hearing is about half what it should be.  After the surgery he'll have to learn how to talk, and that may take some time, but he will be ABLE to.  And he'll be able to hear.  This will make a HUGE difference in his life, and if his ability to connect with our family and other people. 
Please pray:
for Dr. Grant the palate doctor
for the ENT ear tubes doctor
for the nurses and assistants
for Abe during surgery
for all of us during recovery.

Thanks so much!  Everyone who has prayed has made a big difference in my son's life, and I can't even beging to express proper thanks.

These pictures are 2 weeks to a month old- can't get to my more recent ones right now.

Smiley- 2 weeks ago...

 

 

 Dancing with a crazy lady!

                    One bad dude...