I can’t believe I haven’t posted since MAY! Emily has grown a lot this summer, as evidenced by the fact that none of her shoes fit her anymore. We took her to the dentist yesterday and she has one tiny cavity. Well, it’s not yet a cavity, it’s like a pre-cavity, cavity. The dentist called it a “pit” – so we have to get that filled, but I accidentally scheduled her appointment on 9/10 which is the same day as her next appointment at NYU. Oops.
I’m in the market for a new insurance provider (yet again). It seems like health insurance plans have gotten more expensive, but cover less stuff, than they did five years ago when Emily was in the midst of all her treatment and surgery. I’m looking at a plan by Blue Cross/Blue Shield which has out of network benefits but costs about $900 – $1400/month (it depends on whether or not I’ll include Em’s dad on the plan) and then we’d still have to meet like a 6K deductible for any out of network benefits. For us, NYU is out of network so that means we’ll be paying thousands before we see any reimbursement for anything at all, whether that’s orthodontia (which she’s due to start this year) or surgery (which will hopefully won’t happen until she’s closer to 9).
I guess this is the next part of our journey – insurance woes. As a self-employed person, I am really feeling the pain of poor health insurance coverage. Every single thing this family needs is an expense that comes out of pocket because we can only afford high deductible plans. I just got glasses (for example) for over $500. The girls both had dental checkups yesterday which cost close to $300 (we may get some of that back). It’s a real problem which I feel sort of powerless to fix.
(deep sigh) well, enough griping. Here are some recent pictures of Em from this summer. She’s getting so big!! They both are (another sigh)

Ana and Emily – one early June morning (2010)

Supergirl! (this was from a visit to my mom’s house in July – we’re at the Jersey shore)

The girls at the beach (from that same NJ visit in July)

Mmmmm! Emily’s favorite food. This is from a 4th of July event on, er, the 4th of July!

Emily at the edge of the Big Deep (in August) – a wonderful swimming hole in Woodstock, NY

Emily, Kennedy, Ana and Sydney – from our visit to DC at the end of July. Sydney was also born with a cleft and that’s how we met!
I have so many more photos from the summer and I hope to get on in a week or so and post a few more. Soon I’ll be posting photos of my very own first and fourth graders! Time does fly…







































