Karl...

Everyone meet Karl...

He is around 10 months (I believe) and he is a cutie.

Karl has a cleft lip and cleft palette. When he first arrived to Starfish he had a lot of problems with drinking his bottle due to his cleft palette but as he has gotten older his eating has improved tremendously. 

Karl is a huge flirt. He's a sweet natured baby because he will smile at almost anyone. Which means when volunteers come into the home and make the most outrageous noises or gestures to try and make the children smile, Karl is always there to give a sweet sympathy smile to anyone that needs reassurance. 

Karl has just recently gotten 3 teeth on his top jaw and he has been drooling like a mad man as we assume that he is still teething! But Karl also has issues with his ears. While living at Starfish I have learned a lot of things concerning complications with cleft lips and cleft palettes but sometimes if the child's cleft palette is very severe they are born without ear drums or due to their deformation of their mouth cavity their ear drums are out of position in their little bodies. If you ask me why, I couldn't tell you but I know that most of our severe cleft palette babies have a lot of issues with their ears. When they feed, due to the whole in the roof of their mouths their milk often gets built up in their ear cavities which cause a very stinky and irritating ear wax for these children. You are a brave soul if you go around smelling babies ears around Starfish because sometimes the smell is enough to turn your stomach upside down. But when Karl receives his cleft surgeries (which should be in a matter of weeks) hopefully his ears will clear up once again.

But Karl also has a backwards comb over. Which is the cutest thing ever. He has a great head of hair- which is a commodity around Starfish but along with all of his hair he has patches of really long hair on the top of his head. So if he was balding, he has the perfect setup to where he could just have the long hair create a very tasteful comb over (if there is such a thing) but instead he has a head full of hair and then hair that is significantly longer on the top as well. 

But we love him none the less. Crazy hair and all. 

Ways to pray:

1.Please pray for Karl's cleft lip/palette surgeries that are coming up within the next few weeks. Please pray for a smooth operation and a quick recovery.

2. Please pray for Karl while he is teething. As with any child the teething process is a painful and sometime long process. Karl is one of 28 babies living in this apartment and they all range from 3 months old to 19 months old. So everyone is constantly teething. Mom's can you imagine 28 babies all teething at one time? I t can get a little crazy around here. But especially with cleft babies the teething process can be even more brutal due to the deformation of their little mouths. So please pray that Karl's teeth would come in quickly and painlessly.