WEBSTER FAMILY NEWSLETTER
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October 2002 Vol. 2 Issue 5

We are very excited to announce that Landon Grey Webster was born on September 27, 2002! Landon surprised us by deciding he was ready to meet the world a few weeks early. We were definetly not expecting him! We woke up at 3:00 a.m. Friday morning and tried to make a mad dash to the hospital. Unfortunately, nothing went as we had planned it. The car would not start so we had to take Chris’s greasy work truck. Halfway there we realized we had forgotten the bag I had so carefully packed months ago. We assumed that labor would last for several hours and so we turned around to get it. We also had to stop and get gas because the truck was on empty. Lucky for us we only live 25 minutes away from Saint Margaret’s Hospital, because Chris almost had to deliver Landon himself. We made it to the hospital and 15 minutes later our beautiful baby boy was born. He weighed 8 lbs and 8 oz and has a head full of red hair, the Laney trademark. It sticks straight up. (That must explain all of Mommy’s heartburn!)

For those of you who do not already know Landon has a bilateral (both sides) cleft lip and palate. This means that his lip and the roof of his mouth did not fuse together completely while he was growing in Mommy’s tummy. By the grace of God, we were given his diagnosis in the 6th month of our pregnancy. At first we wished the ultrasound had not revealed his birth defect because it filled us with fear. Now we feel fortunate since it gave us a chance to become more prepared to deal with the things to come. Most parents are not aware and so it is a total shock when their child is born this way. We were also very relieved when our amniocentesis results assured us that Landon was not affected with any other problems. It sometimes can be associated with a chromosome disorder.

We rode an emotional roller coaster for a while. We went through periods of grief, denial, anxiety, and guilt. We tried to stay positive, but looking back now I can see in some of my journal entries that I suffered some depression. Knowing our child would be born “not perfect” was very hard to accept but our faith in the Lord has helped us past all of that. We immediately set out to find out all we could about Cleft Lip/Palate. We received a pamphlet from our OB doctor, who has been very supportive, that linked us to many sources of information. We also joined a support group called Cleft Talk over the internet. It is made up of parents and families of cleft palate children. They have been extremely helpful in answering any questions we have had. They have also been unbelievably understanding and have sent us many inspiring stories and poems.

Our immediate families have also been a great source of strength for us. Papaw Curtis is so thrilled his first grandchild finally came along for him to spoil rotten. Granny Myra and Mama Carol have been trying to see who can kiss him the most.

Landon is doing great! The Lord has been with us through every obstacle we have faced thus far, He has also blessed us with great medical insurance that should pay for a large portion of any surgeries Landon will need. The first will be a lip repair in about 8 more weeks. We are trying to prepare ourselves for all the obstacles to come.

We feel extremely blessed to have such a special child in our lives. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us. We want to invite you all to come see our little man, while he still has this wonderful grin! If you can’t make it please visit the online scrapbook I have started for Landon. You can check it out by typing this address as your URL: http://cindyreid.antville.org/stories/221599/ . A friend we met on the Cleft Talk mailing list talked me into it. She let us post it on her site. I think it will be a great way to see the progress Landon makes.

Love to all,
Chris, Lisa and Landon