A Divine Appointment

I've mentioned twice before about "Divine Appointments". The first one was years ago when we met a couple at Lowe's who had a son with a cleft lip and palate. I refer to that as our Divine Appointment at Lowe's. And then there was a shift that I was working a few months back whereas I worked with a nurse that had had a cleft lip and palate and numerous surgeries. I refer to that as my "Divine Work Day". Today, while my Mom and I waited in the waiting room for Rachel's Post Op appointment, I had another Divine Appointment.

*****************************My Mom and I were sitting, waiting for Rachel's name to be called. Mom was knitting, Rachel was playing on Gramma's iPod Touch. And I noticed a young mom, who was also accompanied by her Mom, sit down across the room with a baby. I whispered to my Mom that the baby appeared to have a cleft. I could tell from across the room that her lip was taped and might have even had a NAM device in her mouth.

It was hard not to stare. Not because the baby had a cleft lip, but because me and that Mama, we shared something. We were walking the same journey of having had a baby born with a cleft.

My Mom encouraged me to go and talk to her. I couldn't at that point. All the emotions of last weeks surgery was too fresh. The emotions of knowing this was a Divine Appointment was almost too much to handle.

Shortly thereafter, some seats opened up right across from us. I watched the Mom holding her precious cargo motion to her Mom that they should move seats. I whispered to my Mom that it looked like they were moving over, and she referred to it as a "Divine Set Up." The Lord was going to open up the doors to talk this Mama after all.

And that's what happened. We made eye contact and started talking. Turns out, she had recognized me and Rachel from having visited this blog!

Her baby girl is six months old and has a bilateral cleft lip, and Is currently driving over 75 miles one way every week to the dental school to have her NAM adjusted. She was seeing Dr. Martin today in hopes of getting surgery scheduled for her lip repair. She's been told Dr. Martin's surgery schedule it full until March.

The other thing I shared with this Mama - she and her husband did not learn of their baby's cleft until her OB was performing a C-Section! None of her ultrasounds done through her pregnancy ever focused on the baby's face, only her major organs and measurements. Her story was like ours.

It's always nice to meet other Mom's traveling the same journey. Makes our little 'cleft world' seem a lot smaller than it is. And I'm always thankful for the divine appointments the Lord sends my way.

It's always been my goal in keeping this blog to offer hope to parents just starting out on their journey, to help give information from a family that's already walked the stretch of journey they are currently walking. And today, with meeting Melissa and Aubrianna, it gave me great pleasure to know my blog had done just that once again...