You'd Never Know

The first of December is a meaningful day for our daughter. It was this day, exactly one year ago, when Olivia underwent surgery to remove her hemangioma (a benign tumor, about the size of a golf ball, which had been bulging from the right side of her forehead).

Though she has -- and will always have -- a small, flat, colorless scar right along her hairline, we've never regretted the (elective) surgery from a year ago. It gave our little girl's personality a chance to emerge from the shadow of her rather prominent medical anomaly. It permitted other people to fully see the Olivia that we knew so well. It allowed our lives to become more ordinary...

Or at least as ordinary as possible with an extraordinary girl like Olivia.