A smile says it all.

Parker's first smile

Parker's smile today

I am a relatively new blogger but have been looking at blogs for quite a while. I sometimes hop from blog to blog from friend's blogs. Today, I landed on a blog from an incredible family who will be fostering a child from Guatemala while he receives surgery for a Cleft Lip. I started thinking if I blog hop then others do as well. I was so touched by this, I left a comment on a complete stranger's blog then thought about sharing our story because you never know who might be reading it and needing inspiration. Parker Elizabeth was born July 29, 2003. I had a very good pregnancy for the most part, she was stubborn and did not want to be born but the Doctor's made her when she approached 2 weeks overdue. She was born at 2:14 am after a very long labor, we did not know she had a cleft until we saw her for the first time. Baby's are supposed to be perfect and we had no idea what a cleft lip was or what we could do about it. My OB was awesome in giving us as much info as possible about clefts and assuring us it was only her lip, no palate issues. When the pediatrician came in around 7 am, he too assured us hers was very minor, a 2 on a 10 scale. He gave us the names of a few plastic surgeons in the area who did cleft repairs.

Parker was a trooper from the beginning, she never had any feeding problems. I was able to nurse her and she could also take a bottle. This can be incredibly difficult in cleft babies. We took her to see the plastic surgeon at 4 weeks old, he recommended her first surgery at 10 weeks. We are so fortunate to have a great children's hospital in Memphis, LeBonheur. At 10 weeks old, we arrived at 6 am for surgery. She was gone from us for 4 hours before the doctor called to tell us all went well. When they brought her to her room, she was restrained and the nurses taught us how to feed her with a syringe. Even through all the pain she must have been in, swollen and all, she managed to smile when she saw us.

She had a revision surgery in November 2006. This one was an outpatient surgery, she was up playing the same afternoon. She will most likely have more dental surgeries as she gets older, right now, all is well.

It is so amazing to us to see her smile, her so-called birth defect is the very thing that draws you in. For some reason, I thought I needed to share this today. As you can see from her snow picture a few weeks ago, Parker loves life and knows she was born special.