The cost of Straight teeth

I honestly remember the day Katie's first tooth appeared.  I loved it, it was so cute a single little tooth, that made her smile so much more appealing. 
    Well now I have decided I hate teeth!  If i ever knew that I was going to have to take a second mortgage on my house to pay for those teeth, I would have tried to straighten them myself with some pliers.  Teeth rule our family right now.  Thanks god for the farm, as Thane has contributed to the large pot that is never ending.  All four kids are in a different stage of their orthodontics, Probably the best news of it all is that  Katie is almost done.  Two more weeks and hers come off! 
   I never understood how orthodontics worked, when I had mine twenty five years ago, they put them on and left them on for quite sometime.  I do remember my mom complaining of the cost, but never understood or probably cared how much!  Now if kids need alot of orthodontic work, they do it in two phases.  One phase when they are in the younger years, start about eight, and then 2nd phase about twelve when their twelve year molars come in.  They make the teeth move as they come in and "supposedly" it is more effective.  All I know is it requires alot of mommy time.  I was fortunate enough to get one child that did not need two phases.  JERRA  is the lucky one!  She got Thane's teeth and only even needs braces to make her teeth "perfect", otherwise her teeth line up fine (she will get a prize, for this LOL)
     Hannah on the other hand is a mess!  She doe not have enough room in her mouth for her permanent teeth.  We have been working on keeping space for the ones that she has coming in to fit.  In a couple of weeks the oral surgeon is going to have to remove permanent teeth from her upper mouth, these are impacted, the overcrowding has caused them to not form correctly.  If I let them go it will make her teeth so crooked she may not be able to eat correctly.  I am very nervous for this surgery.  They have to put her out, and she is going to be very sore.  Plus they are taking out two permanent teeth so her upper mouth will be short on teeth, (I had this same problem).  Hannah just had her first phase braces removed, this week.  She will have the teeth removed and then second phase will go on after she heals.  Overall Hannah will probably cost Thane and I six thousand dollars, with Insurance paying about $2000.  All this for her teeth to be straight! 
    Ethan is behind with teeth growth and he is getting his first phase braces on January 10th.  I expect that he will be pretty straight forward, but still quite expensive.  I am actually excited that he is behind, I know have Katie done and he starts.  That helps to limit the appointments to a few per month and not one per week.
     I guess after typing this I hate teeth more.  I just completed my January calender and we have four orthodontic appts in the first two weeks.  We have one oral surgery, and all of us have dental cleanings, (that takes about three hours at the dentist office to get us all done).  AGGH! 
  I have not seen any "final teeth" yet, and maybe that is whey I am so spiteful.  I just know that what I pay for two kids' braces, I could take the whole family to Germany!  Ask me again in a couple years if it was all worth it.  Right now, I will keep paying into my flexible spending, hope the farm continues to be profitable and thank my lucky stars that the ortho office is fairly close to our house. And the fact that EJ loves the video games in the office is a plus!