Online Cleft Convention

Things are pretty quiet surrounding Rachel's Journey. It's hard to believe, but this last week marked 11 years since her bone graft surgery!! 

Rachel still has braces on, and see's the orthodontist every 6-8 weeks. And we are anticipating her next big surgery perhaps next summer. 

I follow a few different Cleft organizations on social media and recently came across information for a Cleft Convention. Where it was to bring together people of all sorts of ages and backgrounds who were affected by a cleft of some sort. I asked Rachel if she was interested in attending and she was! 

Today was the online Cleft Convention hosted by Smile Train. We received a box in the mail yesterday of all kinds of swag - a shirt for her and a shirt for me, a note pad, an insulated tumbler, a charging pad, stickers, a pen, and a little bag of art supplies for a project they would complete during the convention.

The convention was most of the day and it included speakers of all ages. And different sessions Rachel could attend based on the subject, etc. 

There were kids/people with all sorts of varying clefts - unilateral, bilateral, just the lip, the lip and the palate, the lip, the palate, and the alveolar ridge(which is what Rachel had). Kids with years of speech therapy, kids with more surgeries than Rachel. There was so much information! There was even a little segment on dogs who'd been born with clefts!!

This is what Rachel had to say about the convention in her own words, shared with her permission:

"My first ever Cleft Con was a huge success! I learned so much and heard so many amazing stories from cleft affected people. This virtual conference helped me find new ways to tell my story and help spread awareness of cleft lips and cleft palates. Looking forward to meeting more cleft affected people and hear their stories.

Every smile has a story!"

I'm so thankful for having found this opportunity for Rachel to attend and to learn how to help spread awareness in her own way. 

Keeping this blog for the last 17 years has been my way of spreading awareness, keeping family informed in those early years when it was a very active season in this journey. But I'm glad Rachel is finding her own voice, and her own way to share with others this journey the Lord gave to her.