{"id":12517,"date":"2025-10-18T21:52:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T04:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2025-10-18T21:52:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T04:52:57","slug":"worth-the-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/worth-the-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Worth the Wait"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Right around noon on Thursday, Alyssa returned to school from yet another visit to the orthodontist &#8211; but this time, instead of suffering through the rest of the day in pain, she was smiling. After two-and-a-half years, she had her braces removed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul&#8217;s first pic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1022\" src=\"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-1024x1022.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-1024x1022.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-768x767.jpg 768w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-1536x1534.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb-640x639.jpg 640w, https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lyssNoBracesTwo_editweb.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And today I got to do a little photo shoot. Alyssa is not a fan of photo shoots, but I managed to coax a few smiles out of her anyway to show off the gorgeous results of her long and torturous orthodontic ordeal. And of course, Paul had to photobomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n<p>Then we went and got her some Cali Tacos for her troubles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a beauty.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div><p id=\"pvc_stats_12517\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"12517\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p><div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right around noon on Thursday, Alyssa returned to school from yet another visit to the orthodontist &#8211; but this time, instead of suffering through the rest of the day in pain, she was smiling. After two-and-a-half years, she had her braces removed! Paul&#8217;s first pic: And today I got to do a little photo shoot. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_12517\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"12517\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"iawp_total_views":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,26,50],"tags":[162,47],"class_list":["post-12517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adopted-joy-blog","category-family","category-milestones","tag-braces","tag-portraits","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12528,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions\/12528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adoptedjoy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}