Your Dream Inspires: Bulenga to Bhubaneswar : Reya's Story

Families sat and waited in rows of chairs for their turn to be screened for surgery. Amongst the sea of anxious faces, one little girl’s bright smile immediately caught my attention. She smiled one of those smiles that would melt anyone’s heart—smiling through her cleft lip as if it weren’t even there.

I blew bubbles into the crowd and the most amazing laughter floated up at me. I looked down and saw the most beautiful smile. As soon as I blew that first bubble she took off giggling and popping them all. From there on out it was all fun and laughter for Reya and the volunteers.

Reya is a happy, curious, and beautiful little girl. Despite her wonderful smile, Reya has extra cause to be weary of the world – her facial deformities – a cleft lip and palate have made the world a not-so-beautiful place for Reya and her family. Screening was the first time Reya had seen another child with a cleft and she felt normal and completely accepted for the first time in her life.

Her father recalls the first time he saw his daughter and the pain of the memory is tangible and displayed across his face. Reya’s cleft came as a surprise to the family. They had never seen a cleft before and they were both frightened and guilty – blaming themselves and their actions, sitting outside during an eclipse moon, for their firstborn’s deformity. Because the moon was not full, they reasoned, Reya was not completely formed; like the moon a piece of her was missing.

Despite being shocked at the sight of his daughter, Hernata, fell in love with Reya immediately. He knew he had to do whatever it took to repair her cleft lip and palate. The doctor present at her birth assured the family the deformities were easy to fix with a simple surgery. However, his heart fell because he knew he could not afford the surgery that would change his daughter’s life. When an announcement was made in his village that Operation Smile would be hosting a medical mission providing free reconstructive surgery for children like Reya he grabbed his chance. Although he found out about the mission four days prior to its start, he acted quickly and the family boarded a bus that would take them 13 hours away to an unknown city for a new chance at life. His love for her was evident throughout the week.

The morning of her surgery Reya bounced around playing in the child-life play area. She grew tired as many patients do before surgery without food or water and slept peacefully on her fathers shoulder. When it was her turn for surgery, he handed her to Jennifer, a volunteer student sponsor, and watched as his daughter was carried into the operating room. It was not until later that I discovered how much strength it took him to give up his little girl for surgery. One year ago, Reya’s little brother passed away. The family knows vividly the pain of loosing a child yet found the courage to hand their daughter to surgeons and trust completely in them to take care of her and change her life.

After being brought into surgery the family waited outside. If they saw me walk by they anxiously grabbed my arms looking at me for any information I had about Reya. I assured them that she was well taken care of and would be out of surgery soon. When Reya’s father saw her for the first time after her surgery he struggled valiantly not to cry in front of us. He succeeded until he held her and tears streamed down his face. After Reya woke up, I went outside to get her mother. She looked up and saw me, her eyes grew big, her face lit up and she hoisted her Sari up and ran towards me, towards her daughter.

After leaving the recovery room to find Reya’s grandmother she grasped me into a tight hug and exclaimed over and over again, “Thank you, Thank you.” We walked down the hallway and she repeated her thanks, hugging everyone she saw in the hallway.

We handed Reya a mirror after she woke up and she grabbed it, pulling it towards her as she stared at her new, transformed smile. She was transferred from recovery to the post-operative ward in her father’s arms. Her mother held his hand grinning a smile we had seen mirrored so many times on Reya’s beautiful and joyful face. Reya leaned forward and whispered something in her father’s ear. An incredible moment that took on new meaning when I talked to her family later that day.

A few months before her surgery Reya began asking her parents to fix her smile before she began to school. Her dream was to attend school and fit in with her classmates. She did not want to be viewed as different or teased by her peers. As her father carried her down the hallway, she whispered to him, “Papa, I can’t wait to go to school.”