Today we went to Shriner’s so that Olivia could have a tour and we could explain her procedure to her with someone that specializes with young children having surgeries.
We wanted to be honest with Olivia, as I feel that is critical in building trust with your child. But we also wanted to be sure that we were age appropriate with what we shared with her.
Jillian at Shriners was so great. Eleana was a life saver translating everything so we were sure that Olivia understood as much as possible. She went through a picture book of all the different things at the hospital and what Olivia would see while here. Then she helped her make a special doll, and they made a soft cast for the doll similar to the cast that Olivia would be getting tomorrow. They let her pick the color of her cast, and of course she wants a almost neon orange… LOVELY.
They let her feel the soft IV catheter, and taped it to the doll and gave her an empty syringe so that she could give her doll medicine. Then Jillian showed her that the baby was hurting and then she gave her the medicine and gave a sigh, like she felt better. Then they gave Olivia a Barbie with wings (she loves barbie’s and princesses).
They also gave our twins a gift so they didn’t feel left out. Then we went home. Shriners called and had a change in schedule and Olivia’s surgery was bumped up from 1:00pm to 9:00am. This was great news since Olivia typically doesn’t want breakfast too early, I knew getting her to 9:00am with no food would not be a problem. But getting her to 1:00pm, would have been a huge struggle. The hospital wants us there at 6:00am…
yikes. Olivia played with her doll for quite some time, and loved giving her the injection and making the same sigh of relief. It was very cute. We still are not sure that she really understands what will be happening tomorrow. I am also a little worried that she might have heard people in Kazakhstan talk about their belief that American’s adopt children and sell their organs. (yes sadly this is a belief their) I don’t want her to wake up and see that she has been operated on and believe that this is what we have done to her. Then again we don’t want to mention it if she hasn’t heard it. I know that most the kids in the older orphanage have heard this rumor, but hope by the fact she is in a baby house still that the gossip is kept to a minimum.
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