#cleftpalatelife

-
Baby I

This afternoon, the baby who got to come to Horita Feliz was based entirely on who was awake when I went upstairs, and my determination that the rest of the room should stay asleep for as long as possible. And when I grabbed him, getting him out of the room of moody, sleepy toddlers before they woke up and chaos ensued was my only thought.

 What I'm saying is, I didn't even think about the fact that he had an open cleft lip and palate.

 Or the fact that I was taking him to a room full of the Casa kids, who have a joint appreciation of continuous, never ending questions.

 Or the fact that it might attract some stares from the mothers there.

 Seriously, I just wanted the kids to stay asleep. For everyone's sake.
---

 "Tia, que es?! Porque es así?!"

He must've asked me 3 or 4 times.

 "He was born like that, but it's okay - the doctor will sew it up soon."

Then he asked again, (what did I tell you?) and I changed my answer.

 "He was born like that, and so were you..."

 He looked at me, like he didn't believe a word I said.

 I took my phone out and showed him a picture of him when he was a baby, that his lip doctor had shown me.

He pointed at Baby I first, it did look just like him. But I shook my head.

 And he pointed at himself, and I nodded.

 I touched his now closed lip, and explained that the doctor fixed his lip, and that soon he would fix Baby I's too.

 He moved his finger back and forth across his own lip and began to smile.

 He reached out and touched Baby I's hand.

 Then he smiled again, the biggest grin, emphasising that adorable wonky nose he has, a reminder of something he doesn't even know happened.

 And then he went back to colouring in.

 #cleftpalatelife

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the ache.

-
This post isn't about one child. It isn't even really about me. It's about people all over the world, joined together by a pain, by a longing, an aching. People who have loved children unconditionally, children who were not theirs. Children who were not theirs, but who felt like theirs. Who they chose to love like they were theirs, who they chose to love like this wasn't a short term thing. Even though they were warned over and over not to do it. You see, though we come from different countries, though we speak different languages - we ache the same. We ache for children who are no longer ours. Maybe we're still in their lives, maybe we're not. Maybe we're happy with the life they have now, maybe we're not. Each of our situations are different, but they hurt the same. But here's the interesting thing, it's an ache we wouldn't give up. An ache we wouldn't give away. Because what that child got in return, well that's w
Read more

Almost 8 years in the country, gringa still doesn’t speak Spanish properly.

-
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - British woman, resident in the city for almost eight years, continues to offend and confuse locals with her questionable Spanish abilities. Sarah Allen, 30, has been living in Cochabamba since September 2014 and claims to have taken classes from local language schools and completed considerable amounts of independent study - something that she does not display in many of her interactions with locals. A former landlady of hers told us, "The day we met Sarah, she told us that she had gone to the US for treatment for extreme constipation. We were very concerned for both her well-being and the well-being of our facilities here. To travel all that way surely meant a very severe condition. However, we came to find out what she meant was training. I don't understand how you get those two mixed up." We also talked to a mother whose child was in Sarah's class. "We went to a Mother's Day party, and after an emotional moment watching a video of ou
Read more

#sleepover (one week later).

-
Image
I wrote this last week, and maybe forgot to post it. Apologies - but the photos are too cute to miss. So, when #braveheart was in hospital he asked me a couple of times where E. was, because he missed him. This is miraculous in and of itself since usually they're fighting. E. missed C. too, so we decided to bring him over for a sleepover. C. has a lot of rules for what he can and cannot do (all of the things a normal 4-year-old would want to do are not allowed...) so we've been pretty strict with him and the normally very torpe  (rough) E.  Also, neither of them speak the best, but they understand each other perfectly - Hannah and I have no idea what they're plotting or planning. Pray for us. (Edited: they did not kill us, thank the Lord.) Reunited, and it feels so good. Movie time before bed. (Don't tell them, but I might have fast forwarded through an hour of it to speed up bedtime.) E. took over my bed... C. had to sleep on the floor, so
Read more