My niece, Gabby

BTW: The story above is an actual posting by me to another person's blog. She asked me to send a story detailing my family and what being a cleft palate has done to me or for me. She has a little 4 year old son with a double celft palate and they are having problems coping. Her husband has abandoned the family so she is relying on her own parents and siblings. I have always considered myself very lucky and this lady really reminded me of that today. I never see the glass as half empty...to me, the glass is and always will be half full. I have been a supporter and a member of the Cleft Palate Foundation. Often giving donations as I could. In years past, I communicated with some of the members often giving my perspective of what life is like having been born with a cleft. I had not been asked for my input for a long time so I was honored and humbled to do so today for the one lady. When I lived in San Antonio, I was asked to meet with children with clefts and to meet their parents or to speak in front of a group; I miss those days and maybe I just might get back to doing something similar from here.
If you want to donate or just research what the Cleft Palate Foundation is all about, go to: http://www.cleftline.org/ (they have the cutest cleft teddy bears). I have kept my membership for all these years for obvious reasons and to also show appreciation of Gabby; that her own cleft situation was not so severe.

(way to go, Gabby..."Tia Dora's little helper" pic taken on 09/06/2006)