I've gotten some pretty strong feedback about the pictures I posted of Adeline. Some hope she never reads that I thought she wouldn't look cute. Even her Daddy thinks it is a bit harsh to have that out there in cyberspace.
For clarity's sake. . .
I have loved that child since day one. The NICU was an unexpected and very difficult road. Adeline was born very under developed. She barely resembled a baby when laying in an isolette next to her sister that was double her size. Adeline spent weeks and weeks on C-PAP (far more than the average 27 weeker) which squeezed her head to the point of malformation. I still remember the day the nurse took off Adeline's hat and mask so we could actually see what she looked like. It had been nearly five weeks since we last saw her naked face. We were stunned at the toll the mask had taken. It was pretty hard to think that there wouldn't be long lasting effects.
Regardless of looks, at this time we were still hoping Adeline would walk and talk. I was praying for her to make through life without a wheelchair. I had such visions in my head that were a far cry from normalcy. My heart was broken from what I envisioned her having to endure in school and later on in society.
The prospect of profound disabilities coupled with an extremely malformed head (so much so that I never shared the picture we took that day) left me pretty hopeless in the looks department. It certainly wasn't top of my list but I can't deny wishing that she would be cute if she wasn't going to be "normal." I just figured it would make others more accepting of her in school. Vain I know. I never admitted to being of sound mind when my babies were in that NICU.
Fast forward to now. I am sure you can imagine how overcome I am when I look at a picture of Adeline like the ones I posted last week. I never imagined her being beautiful, and beautiful she is.
