Christmas in September

We got an early present:) Yesterday our agency sent us Kate's Chinese medical paperwork to take to China with us. When it arrived it had a surprise in it - 3 photos of her that we had never seen! Well, actually we had seen one of them in black and white, but she is even more beautiful in color. It is my current favorite photo of her! I think I've decided it was taken between 12-13 months of age.

The other two were evidently taken the same day as the first two pictures we saw of her. We think these were taken in March. So now I am back to staring at her picture all day:) I apologize that I didn't get them posted sooner, but they required a bit of cropping and rotating.

Many of you have asked me about her cleft lip and palate, and I have tried to answer your questions. We have done a lot of research and reading about CL/CP, as well as talking to parents of cleft affected children and doctors. But the truth is, I have only seen unrepaired cleft lips and palates in photographs. However, I thought I would post some of what I know anyway.

For starters, no one knows for sure what causes CL/CP, but it is likely caused by genetics. CL/CP is more common in Asian people, kind of like other conditions are more common in other ethnicities. Her lip was repaired when she was seven months old, but her palate has not been repaired. The palate is basically the roof of the mouth. We think her gumline is also cleft affected because of a photo where she is smiling, but we aren't sure. We don't know exactly what her palate will look like, because they are all different.

Once we arrive home, we will see our doctor at the international adoption clinic. From there, we will see doctors and therapists who will assess her palate, lip repair, speech, ears/hearing, and several other things. We do not know how many surgeries she will need, but we anticipate palate repair, ear tubes, bone grafts to repair the gumline, and lip and nose revision.

For those of your who still have questions, ask away. We are not embarrassed by her cleft or your questions. We do, however, ask that you be sensitive to her when she is home. She may or may not be comfortable with her lip, and she will learn to understand English rapidly. Sometimes kids pick up on subtleties that adults think they will overlook. We think she is absolutely beautiful just like she is, but we want her to be comfortable with herself and happy with how she looks.

For those of you interested in learning more about cleft affected children, here are some links where you can find out more. There are many more out there, but this is to get you started.

http://www.cleftadvocate.org/adoption.html

http://www.widesmiles.org/

And by the way, little Susannah is home now. God is good. All the time.