 Helen Takes a Bath - September 2007
An excerpt from the Olson Zoo Blog on July 15, 2007:
We are delighted to announce that Helen Grace ZhanAn Olson has 'arrived' and is part of the Olson family!!
At 3:45 this afternoon (July 15, 2007) at our hotel room in Nanchang, we got the knock on the door we'd been waiting for. All of us (Jeff, Rachel, Laura, Ross, & Karin) were in the room. Helen was put into our arms right after we answered the door. She was very quiet and cautious, and she did not cry at all (as I was expecting). We told her that we were her Mama and Dada, and that the cute red-headed girl was her new big sister ('jie jie').
...It seems a little bit like a dream so far, but there's no mistaking that our family is now 33% bigger than before!
Another excerpt from our blog on September 10, 2007:
As many of you who are reading this may know, our newly-adopted daughter Helen has a heart condition called VSD (ventricular septal defect). We had an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist in late August at the Children's Heart Clinic in Minneapolis, and after taking a careful look at her heart and discussing options, we agreed that she will have open heart surgery. It is scheduled on Sept 12th at 1:00 pm. Please pray for little Helen and for us as we care for her. We have been told that she will be in the hospital (Children's Minneapolis) for 5-7 days after the surgery. Rachel will probably stay at the hospital most of the time. Jeff will take some time off work but may go in to work some days (we'll see). Laura will spend some of her time with her grandparents and/or aunts and probably some time at home with Jeff.
This is not really a surprise...we've known all along that Helen would probably need surgery to repair this defect (which is a hole between the two ventricles in the heart). The surgery is not without some risk, although it's a procedure that is done quite often and the surgical teams are very skilled. We really don't have an option to not do it...without the surgery her heart would keep working harder and harder and eventually she could have congestive heart failure and permanent lung damage. So we leave it in God's hands and trust that he will take care of little Helen and make her well.
Thank you for your prayers.
And finally, from September 12th:
We are very relieved to report that Helen's surgery today was very successful and her prognosis is very good. She had the surgery at Minneapolis Children's Hospital to fix her heart defect. She had a ventricular septal defect, which is a hole between the pumping chambers.
...We appreciate all the prayers that have been spoken on our behalf. Thank you so much! Please continue to pray for a quick and event-free recovery for Helen. She will likely be in the ICU for a couple more days, and then spend another few days in a regular nursing unit until she is discharged, sometime around the middle of next week if all goes well.
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