My goofy nut! And he totally is! Otto loves to make people laugh and feel good. At therapy today, there was a little boy crying and Otto walked over to the boy and offered him one of his pretzels. So sweet.
As I reflect today on our precious boy, so many wonderful attributes come to mind. And I think what makes it all that more amazing to me is that they exist despite the many trials Otto has faced in his short little life. Despite it all, Otto is a very trusting, loving, little boy who lives for people! He loves to be with people! He is aware and concerned for your state of being as well. Are you happy, sad, mad, etc? He wants to know and also how he can help. When we came home to visit in January, Otto was in social heaven! Every single day was jammed packed with visits with friends and family. He was so happy and living it up that week!!!! One day right before going down for a nap that week, he asked me (with anticipation) who he would see after he woke up from his nap.
As you can imagine, he loves school! When he's home, he's always asking when he goes back and is always talking to his friends from his class while playing or is pretending he's his teacher. He is such an inspiration to me. What he's overcome and continues daily to overcome. He is an example to me of God's compassion and love for people and also of God's strength and mercy. Otto's perseverence to survive and thrive spur me on.
Please pray with us for God's absolute best for Otto and that Otto would reach the ultimate potential that God's already planned for him.
I'll share a poem I wrote for Otto before we had him that we recite often with him....
"Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago,
God thought of a little boy, his name was Otto.
He knew the place and time, when you would arrive,
He planned you all along, from the beginning of time.
On November 23rd, a little cry was heard,
Otto Gabriel was born, and the world you did adorn!
Aaron has a friend in Matamoras, Mexico. He and his wife live there and are missionaries. They run a preschool and also tutor older kids in English. They had a group come down this week to volunteer and work, and the group was a little large for the projects they had planned. So his friend wondered if we could take about 9 of them and find some work for them to do. Of course! There's always work to do! The village we work in, Revolucion has many things that could be done to bless people. The church building we are meeting in is one room. Recently they have added on a room to the back of the building so the children could meet there during the service. It has been done for a while, done meaning "roughed in", all cement block. A family we know from Michigan donated all the money needed to buy stucco to finish it (it wasn't going to be finished for awhile til they had more money). So the men worked and finished the inside before the group came, and the group did all the painting. They painted a Noah's Ark theme. I don't know if the pix do any justice but it turned out sooooo cute! And the kids love it! Under the rainbow, we had them do handprints with their names and they just loved it! The group also brought crafts to do with the kids and we ran the after school program extra long and both the days the group was painting. So the teenagers in the group helped the kids with the crafts, sang all the songs together with lots of energy, and practiced their Spanish most of them were taking in high school! :-) Our kids got to practice their English introducing themselves and asking some intro questions like "how are you," "how old are you," "what's your name." It was great practice for them to speak with other people besides us and practice. And the teenagers were great with them! What a fun time for all!
