In November 2008 I received an email from Ella, a woman in Indonesia who’d recently had a baby with a unilateral cleft lip. We wrote back and forth for a while, and I sent her a box of stuff that included Soft Sipp bottles and Dynacleft tape, which unfortunately didn’t get to her until after her son’s surgery in January.
I hadn’t heard from her in a while and was getting worried, when the other day I got a package in the mail that contained some gifts from Indonesia and a lovely hand written note from Ella. She hasn’t had Internet access for a while, which is why I haven’t heard from her. She sent beautiful dresses for the girls from Indonesia, a hand painted sarong for me and some little toys for the girls. It was just amazing to receive this gift of friendship from a woman so far away. Ella will be publishing a booklet about feeding and caring for babies with cleft lip for the people in her community – this is quite amazing, since her culture does not readily accept children like her son and she had to hide his face prior to his lip repair.
Ella, I hope you can get to a computer and see this post! I plan on sending a thank you card, but who knows how long it will take to get there. Here are some pictures of Emily in the dress you sent – THANK YOU!!
Emily was more than happy to pose for this picture.
Looking demure…
Such a ham!
