The Reminder is Gone...

I received an email from a friend yesterday. She was telling me that she had checked Rachel's Journey, and complimented on the recent picture of Rachel and just how beautiful she is. She closed her email with asking how I was doing. That really touched me because not many people have asked me how I'm doing with this journey. Perhaps some of you who check this blog regularly have wondered the same thing.

When Rachel was born, dealing with the cleft was really, really hard. It was such an emotional time following the days of her birth. For months, right up until her lip repair, there were many times during the day I would be so sad that Rachel had this journey to endure, not only sad for her, but sad that I didn't have a 'normal' baby. There were several times during the week all it took was looking at Rachel to break into tears. Her cleft lip was a constant, visable reminder of this journey. And now, since her complete lip repair in January, that constant reminder is gone. Yeah, Rachel has a funny looking nipple on her bottle, but in this day and age, there are all kinds of weird shaped bottles on the market. There is no longer an everyday constant reminder of her cleft.

Since Rachel's complete lip repair, just a little under 2 months ago, I am doing really good. Like I said, that constant reminder is gone. She still has a cleft palate, and a cleft aveolar ridge (her gum), but her lip has been repaired. Her repair was such a success, she looks awesome. With as successful and smooth as the repair went, it gives me nothing but positive thoughts for what the future holds when it comes to Rachel's journey. Of course, I give all the glory for how well things have turned out thus far to the Lord. He's the one who's answered our prayers and touched Rachel.