The great thing about the periods between surgeries is that you can pretend, for a while, that your child doesn't have anything out of the ordinary to deal with. Conall is 5 years old right now and that means we have 5-7 years to go before his bone graft where bone is taken from his hip and transplanted to the roof of his mouth. Luckily, Conall doesn't have any speech problems, so the only time I have to confront the reality of his cleft is the yearly trip to meet the cleft team. We're booked in a few weeks. All the emotions are rushing back and I'm starting to feel badly for Conall (and myself).

Here is a recent picture of Conall on the beach in Dominican Republic. He is so beautiful and joyful! I'm so glad he's part of my life. Even if it means feeling sorry every once in a while, I wouldn't change a thing.