Is It Just Another Empty Promise?

Months ago, before the fury of the Iowa Caucuses John Edwards stumping for his canidacy for president came across James Lowe, a 51 year-old man who had been born with a cleft palate. A cleft palate that he could not get repaired because insurance would not cover it and his family could not afford the corrective surgery to repair it.
Well, that was 50 years or so ago and while things have changed dramatically in regards to repairing cleft lip and palate, they have not changed as much with the insurance side of the picture. We wonder if John Edwards, who talked about Mr. Lowe every chance he could
knows about how wonderful the NAM device is for babies born with cleft lip? We wonder if he knows that it saves surgeries and improves the outcome of the surgeries needed? We wonder if he knows there are little boys and girls like Mr. Lowe and our little Tessa whose lives are changed because of this? We wonder if he knows if the NAM, which our craniofacial surgeon deems medically necessary, is in most cases not covered completely if at all by most insurance companies?
We wonder if Mr. Edwards knows that parents like us struggle to provide the best for our children but are left out in the cold when it comes to insurance coverage for this amazing device? Mr. Edwards can you tell us if you intend to help change things to help people like Mr. Lowe and our little Tessa even though your candidacy has ended? Mr. Edwards is quoted about this situation in Time Magazine as saying "We have to do something about this! This is not okay!" the candidate said. "How can we allow this to happen, that James had to live 50 years without treatment? Are you listening? This is America's problem. And let me tell you, as long as I am alive and breathing I'm going to do something about it!" Well Mr. Edwards we are all waiting. Will you still step up and help us make a change?

Tessa's Wonderfully Wide Smile

We decided to capture Tessa's big, beautiful first smile in some professional photographs a couple of weekends ago. She loved getting her picture taken for the most part. She smiled and laughed and cooed for the photographer and her assistant. We had her pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. They were very professional, courteous, and well-mannered. I made sure to take the time to explain Tessa was having surgery soon and we wanted to capture the moments before it so she could see her smile prior to surgery when she is older.