I adopted my 2.75 year old daughter from China in January. She has a cleft lip and palate, both repaired. I also have an older daughter, Katie, age 4.75. Sarah still has trouble speaking, although she does babble all the time. This past weekend Katie told me, "Mommy, I think Sarah is speaking SPANISH!!" The next day Grandma was speaking to Sarah. Katie told her, "Grandma, Sarah can't understand you. She speaks SPANISH!!" Katie was pretty proud of herself for figuring that out. Pretty funny!!

My son was born with soft palate cleft only - no lip involvement.
I tell people and that's the usual response. I then have to explain the type of cleft he has.

The question I'd get quite a bit when people would see her in her arm restraints following a surgery. While it was a completely innocent question, it was annoying to be asked if she'd broken BOTH her arms.

"...she could have been born with something serious, non fixable, more severe."

'Oh, they can fix that these days... I wouldn't worry too much.' - just about everyone we meet passes on this little gem and it's definitely in the 'annoying' category.