Green Angels

I can hardly believe all the love and support that has been shown towards our family.  Especially in the way of donations for the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation.  My sisters did put on an amazing card making fundraiser and we had a good turn out.  There were people who came that none of us even knew.  Talk about amazing!  From the website donations and donations made at the card making event I am super excited to take $844.00 to the hospital tomorrow.  I am also aware of one $200.00 donation made by my husbands employer over the phone during our interview.  We met our goal, over $1000.00 was donated in Matthew's name.  Thank you everyone.

It wasn't a big secret that I was nervous about doing the live radio interviews and I didn't end up getting a preview of the questions that would be asked.  Once checked in and sitting down at a table clearly marked reserved for live families.  I was quickly told that the first radio station was ready for us and had me uncomfortably close to a huge microphone.  The radio lady, Lexi was super nice and we jumped right into things.  I was more choked up than I had planned and I felt it came across that way.  It was a good interview and I was able to get a glass of water before my next show time. 
That one was fantastic.  The biggest difference was just as I sat down in front of this mic in the corner of my eye I saw a "sea of green".  No I wasn't given a sedative, it was ALL of Matthew's dental team.  Just as they did back in August of 2009, those friendly, comforting, smiling faces were there.  They lifted me and gave me the courage to tell the thousands of listeners all about Matthew and the amazing people that have forever changed our lives.  After wards they waited by the entrance to the blocked off area and I couldn't help but hug and cry once again on their shoulders.  This time it was tears of great appreciation.  God sent these amazing people into Matthew's life and I truly love this hospital and everyone that is a part of Matthew's care. 

Matthew had an appointment with his dentist just a few days earlier and we did find out that Matthew has some issues concerning his bite.  Not a huge surprise for bilateral kids, or for Matthew as you can already see where it has effected his appearance somewhat.  It also has effected his ability to eat some things.  It just was something that burned a bit to hear. 

Here is the story that was shared on the Radiothon website:

During a routine ultrasound, Amanda and Cesar learned that their baby boy would be born with a cleft palette.  They were understandably upset and emotional but were determined to tackle what had to be done.  They had appointments at the Cleft Palete Clinic at the Alberta Chidren's Hospital before their baby was even born where they were assigned a social worker, learned about the procedures and surgeries that would fix their child’s palete.  They were even given special feeding bottles. Amanda remembers a nurse trying to reassure her at the time by saying, “I think cleft children are beautiful and you’re going to miss it when it’s gone.” She remembers feeling reassured by that kind of compassion, but thinking I’ll never miss a cleft palete.  Matthew was born with a bilateral cleft (two slits) in his lip. The gaps in his nose and palete were very severe.  And Amanda thought her son was beautiful.  The nurse had been right.  Matthew would now endure a 4 1/2 month correction that would consist of wearing a NAM device – an oversized retainer – for 24 hours a day.  The device would push his lips, palette and nose closer together so surgeons could then perform the two operations that would give him a “normal” face.  The first surgery was a lip repair at 5 months and the second was to close his palette (roof of his mouth) at a year old.  Today, people can’t tell that anything was ever wrong with Matthew.  Amanda thinks back to the days of him having trouble feeding as a newborn because he couldn’t make the suction action, and then finally progressing to solids with every spoonful coming back out his nose.  If he sneezed, food would literally go everywhere.  The family put a funny spin on a situation that could have been sad and overwhelming and Amanda will tell you that the people at the Alberta Chidren's Hospital helped the whole family to cope with all that had to happen.  Matthew will need at least one more surgery when his adult teeth come in which will require a bone graft from his hip to rebuild the gumline.  His mum says that no one at the Children’s is allowed to retire until these surgeries are complete!!