In July, Vivien sent me a picture of a cake that looked like the American flag and told me that was what she wanted her birthday cake to look like. Though I couldn't send an actual cake I did send a sugary, flat replica of one. Though it was all edible when I made it (corn syrup makes great glue), I'm sure it was pretty solid and would break teeth if she had tried to eat any of it. I had complete confidence that she would not attempt to eat it because she lives a much healthier lifestyle than the high fructose corn syrup Americans.
For the activity the boys put in glow stick masks and jewelry as well as glow in the dark fingernail polish. We figured since she was already hanging out with her friends at night in the closed playground that they could all do it while glowing and spark some UFO rumors. If a security camera happened to spot them their glowing masks would protect their identity. It might not be quite as much fun as playing Bang in the Rexburg Walmart but it was the best we could do for an activity shipped overseas.
For the gifts we put in some slippers that looked like shoes. Her shoe addiction is so strong that we knew it would be a hit. We also included a "wreck this journal" book which had ideas of things to put on the pages (like taping gum wrappers or tearing a page out to make an airplane or writing a list of what is under the bed). And finally, we gave her a yearbook of her ten months spent in America. The only frustration I had with that was that there were no new pictures to include. All of the pictures of Vivien with our family have stopped. We have new ones of her in Slovakia and new ones of us in Idaho but none of us together. Hopefully, we can have a couple of months in the summer to make new memories, take new pictures and do another yearbook.
Shortly after her birthday Vivien was admitted to a hospital in the mountains for a couple of weeks. Unlike our American hospitals, there was not a private room waiting for her with hours of quiet and TV. She was in a room full of kids (nearly all of them younger that her) where she endured many sleepless, interrupted nights, volumes of noise and a major lack of privacy in the public bathrooms. They had school time, music time, walks outside and all of the blood tests, breathing tests, annoying tests that any one person should ever endure. I was so glad that I could keep in touch with her via texting. Most of the time she just wanted to go home but near the end of her stay she had made a couple of friends.
She and one of those friends broke into an office to find a chair, snuck into the kitchen to get a knife to mix the hair color with and colored their hair in the bathroom. Not what I had imagined her doing in a hospital but I'm glad she found/made some fun.
Finally, she was released, more tests were done and she has actually had a few weeks of feeling better. Healthy (non-American) food, swimming, yoga and her own room have been good for her. Unfortunately, she missed most of the first semester of school and has spent the last month trying to catch up and just as the new semester has started she has been sick again.
I miss her! I miss her laugh, her smile, hearing her down in her room, seeing her shoes in the mudroom. I miss that look across the table that we would share when the boys were being ....boys. I miss seeing her hanging out with her brothers and all the craziness and laughter that it caused. I miss our light chatter and silliness sitting in the family room with both of us working on our computers or reading while the guys watched a guy movie.
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