The beginning is a good place to start...

Hello my name is Andie,I'm a mother to 2 beautiful children who I love to the moon and back. My daughter who is 4 1/2 yrs old and my son is 3 months, both were born with split hand split foot, ( there a more technical term but that's what the Doctors gave us) in general terms they are missing fingers and toes. Their dad, grandpa, great grandpa, and great great grandmother all have had this. When I was pregnant with Claire we were told 50/50 chance, we are batting 100 in this house. Both kids are healthy and that's all that matters! I wanted to start this blog to vent, inform, and maybe help other parents going through similar issues. Ok so the title...I never thought this saying would be sooooooo annoying, 10 fingers 10 toes. It's on every tv show, when any baby is born its automatic ...people say it. Maybe it makes me upset because I can't say it but when I first had Claire it made my heart ache. Because it meant my child was different but I knew getting into this what was ahead, but nothing can prepare you for it. As a mother you want a healthy child and luckily we have that on our side! With both kids we found out around 20 weeks whether or not we would have children with or with out all their fingers. Both were not, and we were referred to our miracle maker in Cleveland! He is amazing... He has worked on our daughter to help grow her bones...how cool is that??! She was born with one finger on each hand and now has 4 on one hand and 3 on the other. Our son born the same way, and he will start his journey here shortly too! Surgeries are hard as a parent and break your heart but they get a little bit easier with age. We can explain it to Claire now, and she can understand it somewhat. But it's a different story when she comes to recovery.....everyone HIDE!!! She is a hell of a trooper I believe she gets it from me...ok and her dad too!  Chandler our son has a temper so I'm sure he will give us a run for our money when the time comes, I am a stay at home mom so when surgery time comes that is very helpful! I'll wait to go into detail, another post. From day one we have tried to show Claire she can do anything if she tries, and that girl is hella determined. She has crazy patience to finish things she starts, and thank god for that! So that's pretty much our back story..