Annabelle’s Journey

 I have had my days of hard parenting moments but yesterday takes the cake for being one of my most difficult days of being a Mom. The morning was spent with Annabelle helping me pack our hospital bags and showing Annabelle some of the activities we had to keep us busy at the hospital. She was so excited to go to the ‘YMCA hotel’ as she called it- the hotel with a pool. We packed Ellie her doll and all her hospital supplies and we picked out the best snacks and juice boxes. We were finally packed. Sean had vacuumed the car and removed Fiona’s car seat. We were ready to go.  And then we got the phone call- an hour before we were scheduled to leave.  Karinna is Dr. Kelley’s secretary and has been so wonderful at keeping us in the loop with regards to surgery time lines and responding to my very many emails and phone calls. I saw the No Caller ID and knew something was wrong.  Karinna informed me that Dr. Kelley was not well and would not be able to operate. The surgery...

Yesterday was a hard day. Annabelle and I left early to head to SickKids to get her covid test done. She’s a pro at them now so it was no big deal. On our way home we stoped at Toy’s R Us to pick out an operation doll. Before we went in I pulled Annabelle on my lap in the front of the car and told her why we we’re getting this doll and that in a couple of days we would be going back to the ‘ big city’ as she calls it to see Dr. Kelley and he was going to help her leg grow big and strong. She took this pretty well but I’m sure the fact that I did it in the parking lot of a toy store has a big part in that! While we drove home we talked about her friend Addie and how Addie had this operation. I also told her that there was a special package at home that Addie sent in the mail just for her. After Annabelle played with her new doll and we had lunch and haircuts it was time to open Addie’s gift. Lisa, her mom told me she had asked Addie what they could do to help Annabelle with her surgery ...