The Next Stage

Today we had an appointment with the oral surgeon who will be doing Miah's bone grafting.  He said thing are looking great and we booked the first step in this process which is to remove 1 or 2 baby teeth that are erupting in her cleft line.  This is booked for October 12th.  It is an early morning procedure in his office done under a bit of sedation. He said she would not remember a thing.  Poor girl does have to get an IV though.  After that we wait for her mouth to heal up nicely and then he will schedule her grafting for early Spring 2013. He stated that this usually involves a 2-3 night hospital stay, mostly for pain management of the hip where they remove the bone.  How I will miss seeing that cleft of hers. I wish she could just keep her beautiful smile and that none of this would be necessary. 

Dance Recital-Wiggle

This past weekend the girls participated in their year end dance recital. The show was called Wiggle and was based on a children's book "Wenda the Wacky Wiggler."  It was a busy week full of late night blocking and a dress rehearsal.  They were tired but had so much fun!

Mackenzie played one of the characters (the Artist) in the show.  She also danced in 4 dance pieces so she had to master the art of the "quick change."  She did great despite having a high fever all weekend.  it wasn't until Monday when some suspicious spots surfaced....yup-chicken pox!  At least we know what was causing those fevers!

 Both sets of grandparents travelled to town to watch the big show!  the girls were spoiled with three bouquets of flowers and some stuffies after the show!

Happy Mothers Day

This morning at Preschool Miah's class sang a few songs to the moms in honor of Mother's Day. Miah was so excited about this day to show me the songs they have been practicing. After their mini performance we decorated cookies together and Miah gave me a special necklace she has made for me. All the moms wore their necklaces with pride!  I am still in awe that I have been chosen to be this girl's momma. She is a pretty special (and often crazy) little girl.

Cleft Clinic Visit

Yesterday we spent the morning at the cleft clinic. During our four hour appointment we saw many specialists and then had the opportunity to sit down with all off the doctors together in order to coordinate a plan for Miah's upcoming surgeries.  I love the fact that they all get together in one room to talk about the best plan for her.  She had a hearing test while we were there and it appears that she does have some hearing loss in her left ear (the same side as her cleft.)  While not alarming, we were told that she may have difficulty hearing us if there is a lot of background noise.  I guess she wasn't just ignoring us in Disneyland :)

As for the next steps in her cleft repair, they are planing to remove an adult tooth that has decided to erupt into her cleft line.  This will be taken out sometime this fall and then they will proceed with her bone grafting/cleft repair in the Spring of 2013 at the age of five and a half.  This is much earlier than we thought, but they all agree that it is in her best interest.  Then, about 6 months after the bone graft (Fall 2013) the plastic surgeon will touch up her lip and nose again and anything on her palate that needs to be touched up.  Also during this time she will start her orthodontic journey by getting molds made of her teeth and inserting a palate expander.  This includes the use of headgear during the night to pull her upper jaw forward.  He says it will all move pretty quickly into the proper position because she is young, but warned that kids with clefts often have to repeat this as their palates tend to migrate back to where they were.  He also warned that the palate expansion could stretch the bone grafting and cause some problems in that area.  With all the possible complications, they still think it is best to start this earlier than later.  He explained that even up to five years ago, they used to perform the palate expansion first before the bone graft, but the problem was that the cleft becomes to wide and that the bone grafts don't take as easily.  I would love to hear from others that have had their bone grafts done around age five and how they have worked out.

Easter 2012

Day One Resurrection Day Series

Today we started Day One of the Sense of the Resurrection series.  In this series we will be making or doing things that will help us to remember an aspect of the Easter story. Over the next ten days the girls will explore the story of Easter through smell, touch, taste, sight and feel.

Today we focused on the beginning of the story, when Mary anoints Jesus for burial. Mack and Madi each read from both John 12 and Matthew 26.  Jesus is at Simon's house when Mary enters with an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume.  She breaks the bottle and pours it on Jesus's feet.  Judas and the other were angry that she would waste such expensive perfume when there were poor to be fed.  Jesus told them not to bother her and that she did this to prepare him for burial.

The girls made their own perfume jars.  They decorated the jars, poured some perfume into them and added reeds to diffuse the perfume.  John 12:3 says "And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." We talked about remembering Jesus' burial when we smell the frangrance of the perfume in our home....and might I just add....you might not want to come over if you have a perfume allergy...

Visiting A Friend

While we were in California we met up with Miah's friend Tian from China and spent the day at the Santa Monica Pier. The girls has fun playing in the sand, splashing in the waves and exploring the pier.  These two girls are just so cute together.  They pick up as if no time has passed, playing and laughing together.  I love how they hold hands as we walk along.