Meet the Kids – Olivia!

Sweet and Sassy little Olivia has a lot to say – just can’t say it!

“We were blessed to meet our little Liv at two days old when she was in the NICU at Children’s Mercy, we were blessed to be able to fully adopted her 13 months later.  Liv spent seven weeks in the NICU where she struggled with feeding, maintaining her core temp, breathing and a few other life threatening conditions. Coming home on oxygen and continuous G-tube feed, little Liv fought hard and within a few short months she was able to only need PRN oxygen and only need continuous feeds over night. She had several inpatient stays the first few years of her life, it felt like at least once a month we were at Children’s Mercy for almost a week.

The various hospital stays always left us with something new to overcome. Whether that would be a surgery, new diagnosis, and one time sending us home palliative care. Liv needed open heart surgery in June, 2019 to repair one of her two congenital heart defects. Since then, Liv has had so much more energy and more lively, but the difficult part is that Liv is non- verbal. When she is upset, in pain, happy, hungry, sleepy, or just wants some quiet time – she is unable to communicate that to us, she school team, hospital staff, anyone. So being able to have Liv communicate to us would mean the world and much more.

It’s hard to describe as a mother feeling so helpless not being able to figure out what your child needs because they are unable to communicate their wants and needs. Our family truly believes a communication device will change all of our lives and caring for Liv!”

Variety donors understand the importance of giving a child a voice!  Olivia will get hers!   Help us to ensure all kids have a way to communicate, donate today at VarietyKC.org/donate

Thank you so much!