2:00 p.m. Tuesday: Flor Maria’s puckish smile was impossible to resist. We traded teasing glances as I looked over from my desk in the pre-op room. Flor Maria spoke little because of her cleft palate, but her expressive face really spoke to me. Her wait in pre-op was long enough for us to have some fun. At one point I went over, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed and I gave her a high-five. It was still another 30 minutes before the anesthesiologist arrived to take her away from her father and into surgery. Twelve year old Flor Maria walked bravely away, hand-in-hand with the doctor. As she passed near me, she stopped, looked up, smiled and threw her arm up to give me a high-five.