SPRINGFIELD -- Many parents count the fingers and toes on their new baby to make sure everything's okay. That's because a sonogram doesn't always show if there is a problem.  One mother in the Ozarks is trying to raise awareness about a common birth defect that we don't hear a lot about.

     Angelia Ham couldn't wait to hold her first child in her arms.  The young couple had a name picked and a nursery ready for their baby boy.  The proud parents weren't prepared for what they discovered in the delivery room, however.

  "I think my heart just broke,” said Ham.  “My first thought was ‘What did I do wrong?’”

  Kenny is now 12 years old and loves being a big brother to his sister, Kya, and brother, Elijah.  But he didn't always have a shining smile.

  "I think the last ultrasound was about four months and they did not detect it at that time,” said Ham.

  Kenny was born with a cleft palate -- one of the most common birth defects in the United States – when the tissues in the lip or mouth don't fuse together properly during development.

  "When your child is born and you know there's something wrong, even though it's not life threatening, it's life changing,” said Ham.

  The new 19-year-old mother was overwhelmed with worries, like how to feed her baby.  Newborns with cleft lips or palates need extra tender loving care when it comes to eating because they can't create a seal with their mouths.  So parents learn how to use a Haberman bottle.  When the baby tries to suck, you squeeze the rubber tip to control how much milk or formula they get so they don't choke.

  "It changes how you think, how you're going to raise your child, how you're going to take care of him,” said Ham.

  Since southwest Missouri didn't have a support group, Ham founded Show Me Smiles to reach out to other parents and kids with cleft palates.

  Kenny was only a few months old when he had his first operation to close up the facial gap.  He's had four surgeries and will probably have two or three more.  He remembers how other kids would tease him when he was little.

  "They called me ugly,” he said.  "They laughed because I talk differently and stuff.  But it wasn't a big deal.  I mean, it doesn't really hurt me."

  His sister, Kya, came eight years after Kenny and then came a little brother, Elijah.

  "Then we had Elijah and I found out through ultrasound with him that he was going to have a cleft.  We started that crisis all over again,” said Ham.

  Ham says they have no family history of the genetic defect but research shows cleft palates are more common in boys.  Thanks to their mom's new group, Kenny and his siblings are meeting more kids that understand the surgeries and scars.

  "It's pretty cool,” said Kenny.

  More than a dozen families went to Show Me Smiles' first family festival in Springfield.

  "We had a dad and a son who drove two hours to come, if for no other reason it was worth it for them,” said Ham.

  Kenny says speech therapy is helping him.  The tough sound that he's trying to tackle is “th” right now.

  He has a message for other kids with cleft palates who might be scared about surgery.

  "When you get put to sleep it doesn't hurt but, right when you wake up, it hurts a lot.  But it really helps you talk better.  It really helped me,” he said.