Old photos of Joseph

I've been trying to send some old photos of our Joseph to Jerry's friends who also have a Joseph, and both Josephs have a unique genetic disorder--not the same disorder--each has a genetic arrangement all his own.  The email version didn't work, so I thought I'd try the blog.  Since I didn't start blogging until Joseph was 8 or 9 I've never posted baby photos.  Getting these out reminded me of how far we have come--has it really only been eleven years!  These photos from 1997 seem like a lifetime ago. They are--Joseph's lifetime.   The first is from the hospital when J was born.  The second is a few days after the first clef lip surgery.  His lip is very swollen, but the lip is all sewn together.  As you can see from the third photo, the surgery did a good job!

I remember having the crib set up in the family room so the night nurses could move around, watch TV, get to the kitchen, etc.  Joseph couldn't be left alone--ever.  If the trach would plug, he would not be able to breath.  

A few years later, he looks pretty good, but still has the trach and the hearing aids.  I'm thinking this is 2000? Ah, memory lane.  

And all of this is hard for Alex.  He saw me looking through Joseph's baby photos and he wanted to see HIS baby photos.  We don't really have any.  We have a few from his foster family... and I need to go through that material to find those to put in an album for Alex, but two or three photos compared to two or three albums full of baby photos...  it is hard to explain.