So hard to believe that this happened three years ago today.  We love you so much Abe!

My mom sent this John Piper sermon this morning.  It is titled "Why Was This Child Born Blind?"  and it was very powerful!  Several of his words spoke to me.  My favorite line was If you want to be one of the most remarkable kinds of human beings on the planet—a Jesus kind—see people with disabilities. See them. And move toward them. God will show you what to say.  Wow.  Think about that.  "A Jesus Kind!"  I have written here before about what it does to my heart when people talk TO Abe.....just gets me, big time.  


Here is a bit of my email reply to her...."Just made me cry and really thankful for the special people that look at Abe that way, with love, grace and treat him as Jesus would.  Though it remains hard, and will most likely get harder as he gets older and bigger, I'm just humbled and grateful that He chose me, us, our family to get the daily blessings that little man gives to all of us."


That really is my heartbeat.  He is simply a good and perfect gift.  One that teaches all of us that are privileged to know him well.


My sweet mom sent this reply, "Knew you would find it personally powerful.  I too love that line.  Abe has helped me look at all people with disabilities in a different way:  as "uniquely & wonderfully made" by our Creator.

Tomorrow is Birthmother's Day.  I simply don't have words to adequately express how my heart feels towards the women that carried and deeply loved my sons.  We have had the pleasure of getting to know Abe's birthmom and will never have the opportunity to know Eyasu's.  Either way, they will forever have a place in our family.

I have shared this before.  It is pretty raw and difficult, yet I just don't know of a better way to show you how in His marvelous creation, He could weave the lives of two moms together so perfectly.


ethiopiasmile 2010: Reunion at KVI Orphanage from Kurt Neale on Vimeo.

Little late on recap of our weekend with Hoffman crew............it was awesome.  Just so refreshing to spend time with passionate people.  Felt like we had spent many weekends together already, it was THAT easy.  Hope to do it again soon, next time with all 4 Hoffman's.  Praying sweet M home with them........love looking at her face on my fridge each time I open it!

We celebrated Abe's birthday with a low key backyard bash. He loved it, until everyone clapped after singing Happy Birthday.  That, he didn't love. :(  Sweet boy.

Someone is pretty excited about being a big 3 year old!!  Hard to believe.  We love you buddy and are SO proud of you!  Thank you for teaching us so much on a daily basis.  You are a great gift.

Abe has been killing it in therapy this week!  One of the many joys of parenting a special kiddo is watching them progress.....sometimes it is simply slower than others.  Sometimes it seems as if things aren't moving forward at all and then BAM!, huge strides will be made.  Just love getting to witness it all.

He is baring so much weight on his arms now and gaining better head control. All of his therapists have mentioned how great he has done this week.  Way to go buddy.  Keep it up.

To those of you praying for Abe, keep it up!  We SEE the results daily and are simply blessed to not be on this journey alone.

Still processing the massive amounts of information we heard at Idea Camp!  It was extremely challenging, inspiring and humbling to be there.  So many people with such passion for changing the plight of the 147 million orphans in the world.  As I process, I will share.  For now, here is a story that happened today.

Eyasu has never asked any questions about Abe, until today.  He always has referred to him as a baby. "Abey can't eat that, he is a baby!" and so on..... Abe has always been a baby to Eyasu and I guess it simply has never occured to him that Abe is a mere 15 months younger than he is..........so today, seemingly out of nowhere, Eyasu asked me when Abe was going to "grow up."

I asked him what he meant by "grow up".  He said, you know learn to walk and talk.  My heart hurt a little.

We had a precious conversation about how God made Abey's brain special.  How he can't walk and talk YET like most 3 year olds.  His next question, "did God make my brain special too?"  Oh sweet boy, he sure did, but not is the same way that Abe's brain is special.

I further explained to him that we are faithfully praying for healing, that we trust he will one day indeed walk and talk.............to that he said, "he will talk mommy, he will talk."

The things to learn from a 4 year old.  Thank you little man.

Woke up this morning all ready to do a cute little Valentines post and kept thinking of her..........I have debated whether or not to share this video for several reasons.  It is raw, it is very emotional, it shares details about Abe.........but ultimately it is a story of love.  A story of two women deeply in love with their boy.

This is from our trip in October to Addis.  We saw Abe's birthmother. Her heart was broken and we pray somehow healed a bit as she knows he is one loved little boy.  It was a rare and precious gift to have shared that moment with so many of my dearest friends and family.


ethiopiasmile 2010: Reunion at KVI Orphanage from Kurt Neale on Vimeo.

Abe got to test the coolest new toy today.  It is a DynaVok speech aid. They put a small dot on his forehead that controlled the mouse on the device!  The rep said that he had NEVER had a child so young figure out the mouse so quickly!! That's my boy.  The world awaits you buddy.  :)

This cute guy has another MRI scheduled for tomorrow am.  Bright and early actually.  Cooks just called to let us know we need to be there by 6 AM.  Really?? He will also have botox injected into his shoulders and arms to try to help with his spasticity.  His sweet neurologist didn't think it all that humorous when I said that I would be happy to step in at the last minute as I'm sure that their will be some left over.  I thought it was clever, apparently not so much. :)

Would you pray that the sedation goes well, the procedure gives them the information they need and Abe recovers well?  Thank you for continuing to walk the road with us.

It is hard to believe that it has been two years since this precious child was placed in our arms.  Two years since we first stepped foot on Ethiopian soil.

So much has happened in these two years and there is so much more ahead.  Abe had his 6 month check up with the neurologist today.  I left feeling as though a glass of cold water had been thrown in my face. Another MRI to schedule, more talk of future, more tests, new meds, more talk of reality...........and honestly I felt down.  I am so thankful that the Lord was quick to reveal Himself to me, so quick to remind me who the Great Physician is, so quick to remind me of the gift that we have in Abe.  He brings so much joy in the midst of the hard.  It is difficult to explain, it is just the impact of sweet baby Abe though.  Ask those that have met him, his smile is magic.

Do we wish he could walk, talk, play with toys, feed himself? Of course we do. But it doesn't seem to be the Lord's plan for him today. We still pray for a miracle, for him to one day be fully healed and we would covet the continued prayers from you, but I am not so sure that Abe is not the miracle. We know that the Lord has used Abe to break us, to shape us, to humble us and to teach us like nothing I have ever experienced.  How could we not be grateful?

I lose count of the numbers of times his older siblings smother him with kisses each day, call him a number of hilarious nicknames, tell very elaborate tales of Abey adventures, and consider him their greatest joy.  We are so blessed that the Lord saw fit to place Abe on our team.
Enjoy the trip back!! Thank you Kristin for using your gift.

I posted yesterday encouraging you to watch the story on the Orphan Summit. While the actual clip on the Summit was excellent and had me "amening" (is that a word?) through it all, I simply wasn't prepared for the exchange between Pat Roberston and Terry Meeuwsen. As Mr. Robertson began to speak, it became clear to me that he was trying to not only caution those listening to be aware of the "risks" of adoption, but was actually trying to discourage it!This is Hailee, eating her very first cake EVER! Can you seriously say she isn't WORTH it?

They are worth it, the "hard" is worth it, losing sleep is worth it-- you know why? Because Christ looked at imperfect us and shed His own blood to redeem us, to call us His own, to give us a hope a future. It is worth it because He is glorified in the process. I'm just not sure how Mr. Robertson doesn't see it. Maybe if Abe flashed him a big ole grin he would.........

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We had our fitting for new equipment for Abe and it was so exciting! To see how happy he was made all of us so proud. He worked so hard in both the gait trainer and chair. Prayerfully we will get the new equipment sooner than later, he is ready to go! :)

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Little buddy is working SO hard. Making such great progress these past few weeks. He is just making us so proud. His speech therapist had him pick out a picture from 3 cards this morning and he got 22 out of 25!! Yahoo. He missed dump truck (not sure we have talked about those much with him), school bus (we home school??) and swimming (but as soon as we said "pool" he went striaght for the card!) We were all cheering!

This is Callie (with Avery and her bf Abbi) and she is unlike any other 17 year old girl that I know (or have ever known)!! She is mature beyond her years and our family is blessed to have her in our lives.

Abe gave an exceptional performance yesterday a.m in OT. He was using big brother Hill as his stairs! (I tried several times to edit to make it shorter, but couldn't get it to work)

He was super determined and not nearly as miserable as some of the faces he managed to make. Pay special attention to his left leg and arm. It takes so much to get them to move, but every time that he does- new connections are happening!

Thank you Mickey, Hill, Wick, Issy and Avery for all of your help. :) We are so proud of this little guy. Keep praying- we SEE Him working daily.