Maya's Smile

Maya has always had a beautiful smile.  A smile that starts in her huge brown eyes, then wrinkles her little nose, then turns into a huge grin.  A smile that lights up the room.

Her ENT defect made her smile super-wide, and she loved to pull some crazy faces...

At the start of this year though, Maya went into hospital and came out with a whole new look.

           

The experience was not much fun at all for Maya.  Painful, uncomfortable, scary and unsettling.  Tough for a little lady who loves to be on the move to be confined to a hospital room, sometimes hooked up to an IV and not able to explore.  Tough for a big eater to be on a liquid diet for two weeks.

It's hard to tell how much Maya understands about how her mouth has changed.  She's certainly aware that it's different, and she's happy to give people a peek at the stitches.

   

It was never about 'fixing' you Maya, your smile was beautiful before and there was a reluctance to see it change.  It was all about enabling you to do the things that you couldn't do before.  Like blowing out birthday candles, blowing bubbles and drinking through a straw. Most of all, being able to make the full range of sounds so that you can finally learn to talk. We hope you'll soon forget the pain and enjoy your new smile.  May you always have much to smile about.