Hi,
My name is Julie and I am the mom of 3 cleft affected children; Claire 10 (UCLP), Aiden 7 (CBCLP) and Duncan 5 (CL). Our first 2 are biological and the third adopted. As cleft affected babies are our only experience; my husband & I became certified foster parents (for CA kids) they tried to have us take any 'medical fragile' child; because they had only 2 CA in 30 years. Well, 2 weeks later we got the call about a newborn left at the hospital - and that is how we ended up with three.
Life is certainly an adventure. 2 years ago Aiden was in Kindergarten. The kids at school were asking "What's wrong with your lip?" When Aiden told them that he was born with a cleft, the 5 year olds didn't understand.
He came home and asked me if I could read a book to his class about clefts. We couldn't find an appropriate one; so he said, "then you write one, Mom." A Special Smile was (self) published in October!
We feel this book is a great tool for parents, teachers and friends of children with differences or a special smile. It helps explain in young listeners and young reader’s words what a cleft lip and palate are. My hope is that this book is used before the cleft affected child is asked that natural question, “What’s wrong with your lip?â€