MoAna is the youngest of 5 children. From the time we learned that she would join our family, she has been a little blessing. She brightens the lives of everyone she meets, and people always say, “She’s so cute!”
MoAna has had quite a journey in her first few years of life. At 20 weeks gestation, MoAna was diagnosed with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. She spent 10 days in the NICU learning how to eat and she won the hearts of all her nurses. When she came home from the hospital, she required nursing services to learn how to eat and she thrived and grew quickly. At three months of age, she had her first surgery to repair her lip and place her first prosthesis. Her second surgery was performed when she was just a year old, to repair her soft palate so she could begin to speak, and she had tubes placed in her ears.
After nearly two years of surgeries and medical treatments for her cleft palate, MoAna began receiving services from Kids Who Count to help her develop speech and communication skills.
MoAna loved her speech therapist, Darla. There was always something that held her interest, and MoAna was fascinated by the words Darla used. Sometimes Darla sang, sometimes Darla used silly words; always, MoAna tried to mimic her. In just a few short months, MoAna’s vocabulary of fewer than 10 words increased to hundreds of works! Today, she is talking all the time and she loves to sing.
Our experience with Kids Who Count has been amazing. I was nervous about transitioning MoAna to preschool, but Kids Who Count made the transition easy and supported MoAna and our family. I would recommend Kids Who Count to other families who are worried about their child’s feeding, speech or sensory issues. Thank you, Kids Who Count!
