Stephen & Amanda Miller

Yesterday Penelope had her long-awaited final craniofacial surgery! (Pt1 )❤️ (Sharing these photos with Penelope’s permission)

This surgery is actually going to be in 2 phases so she will have one more in a couple months to fully complete it all which was a decision that her team and wonderful surgeon here at Vanderbilt made recently in order to give her the absolute best outcome long term. This surgery is moving her upper jaw forward considerably which will be so very good for her and something that her doctors wanted to wait for until she was fully grown.

When her doctor broke the news to us that he really felt like this last procedure needed to be in two parts so that they could move the jaw more carefully, allow for more bone growth and bring it forward further than if they did only one surgery, we knew it would be a longer and more intensive recovery. However, her doctor told us, “If this was my daughter, this is what I would do to give her the very best outcome.” We are SO grateful to have such an incredible team here taking the very best care of Penelope! ❤️

She has been doing well since yesterday and thankfully not in too much pain. 🙏🏼 She will be on a soft diet for at least 6 weeks (so we made her a delicious meal the night before surgery & had a some special time together as a family) and then she will have the 2nd part of surgery 2-3 months from now.

We are so proud of this sweet girl, for her bravery, resilience and beautiful heart. She told me the other day, “Mom, I want to share this process with others because I think there are probably other kids who will need this surgery and might be afraid and it could help them feel better to see what it’s like for me.” She truly does have such a kind and generous spirit and we’re so happy for our sweet girl to be able to finally be completing this chapter soon! ❤️❤️