#cleftpalatelife

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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.
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 "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

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