She's free!

So I have been worried sick over this stent removal thing for months. With them being sewn into her nose and then being cut out during an office visit with no sedation ... and well ... with Sunshine being traumatized by simple doctor's visits let alone being restrained to have silicone things cut out of her nose ... ugh, I'm sure you imagine where I'm going with this.

By the grace of God, she didn't even cry ... not one tear! Such a brave thing she is, I cannot get over her! We brought in someone to hold her legs, I held her arms and head and the nurse worked quickly on getting those nasty, very-grossly-filled stents cut out of her. A few snips, and she was free! It was quick and painless, what a blessing! And boy was Sunshine ecstatic they were gone! She kept squishing up her nose in disbelief ... LOL. After 3 weeks of being stuffed up and not being able to breathe. Oh, it was the cutest!

So once we were home (and I had some window light!), I finally got some good shots of Sunshine while testing out my new 24-70L f/2.8 on her. My trusty red wall didn't let me down :-) So here is our pretty baby girl with her new smile, nose-stent FREE! Oh I could just eat her ... seriously, she is edible! And stunning ... wow, she's gorgeous!

And just so you can see the stunning power of the 24-70L ... below is the SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) image, absolutely no editing. This was 1/250th, f/2.8, ISO400. Crystal clear and oh-so-sharp. Yes, I am in love. I only cleaned up her skin a bit and brightened a tad.

I am still in complete awe at Sunshine's transformation. Although I truly do miss her big clefty smile, wow she's just so beautiful now too. And I think over time, people will barely even be able to tell there's a scar and that there was ever anything different about her. I mean seriously, the surgeon and his cleft team ... WOW! I'm in awe. He is doing God's work every day ... acting as His hands for sure. Nothing we could ever do will thank him for what he's done for our girl! Take a look at Sunshine's transformation ... here is a "before" shot, taken right before her first lip surgery. My, how she has changed! I fall more in love with her every single day. God is so good!

We start her lip massage next week to help stretch out that top lip. Speech therapy will also help to give her more mobility. And the scar will stay red for an undetermined amount of time (could be as long as a year), but will eventually fade and just kind of blend into her skin. She's more red right below her nose because of irritation from the stents, so I expect a lot of that will go away more quickly.

I think the biggest issue (aside from her upcoming palate surgery) will be her nose. The surgeon told us it would likely drop/fall but couldn't predict how much. About a week ago I could see that it was already starting to fall a bit, so unfortunately I think we'll be looking at a nose revision when she's about 5 years old. We were hoping to get her to 16 without a nose surgery, but baby cartilage is thin and Asian cartilage is also thin ... so working with it is unpredictable. Who knows though, maybe it will just stay where it is! We'll just cross that bridge when the time comes.