New life for Therese
By Denise Crosby dcrosby@stmedianetwork.com April 23, 2011 5:26PM
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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
It was Wednesday of Holy Week, and Therese Solgos still didn’t know a whole lot about the Easter bunny. Nor did she know much about dyed eggs or colored baskets filled with fake green hay and big chocolate rabbits.
She was, however, excited about her pretty new orange and white dress she’d wear on Sunday — first to church, then to grandma’s house in Sugar Grove.
And she knew all about the meaning of this holiday: about the suffering of Jesus and His rising again to new life.
If anyone’s an expert on new life, it’s little Therese Solgos.
We first brought her story to you at Christmas, only a few days after the now 10-year-old arrived in Aurora from an orphanage in the impoverished village of Yako in Burkina Faso. She’d been rescued by Neuqua Valley English teacher Casey Solgos and his wife, Erika, in what is believed to be the first stateside adoption from this West African country.
Therese’s case was unique because the little girl had a congenital heart defect that, left untreated, would be fatal. The Solgos family badly wanted to help this young orphan as their own son Carter, now 6, had also been born with a heart defect, and they had access to some of the best cardiologists in the state.
Now, four months after starting anew here in the Fox Valley, Therese has been given one more shot at life.
On Monday, she’d arrived back home from Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge after undergoing open-heart surgery to correct that troublesome aortic artery that had all but closed up.
The Solgos family had hoped a less risky balloon procedure would be enough to correct the defect, but as her condition worsened over the last few weeks, a team of doctors determined she’d have to undergo the more complicated operation to cut out the unhealthy section and reconnect the artery.
Casey and Erika had wanted to hold off the surgery until May so their daughter could become more acclimated to this new life here. But over spring break, severe problems began popping up, including high blood pressure and numbness mixed with leg pain so painful Therese could barely get out of bed or climb the stairs.
“She never complains,” her mother said, so when Therese told her parents she was hurting, “we knew it was serious.”
The surgery was not without risk, but the young patient was in the capable hands of excellent doctors. And Therese is a survivor in every sense of the word.
“On numerous occasions we thought we had lost her,” said Ruth Cox, director of the Yako orphanage who has known Therese since she was dropped off at age 6. “But she has a strong will to live ... she is a fighter.”
Since arriving here in America, Therese has only increased her legion of fans, including Randy Steinheimer, her fourth-grade teacher at Freeman Elementary School, who helped organize a fundraiser on Valentine’s Day that raised $2,000 for the school at Therese’s orphanage.
Spend even a few minutes with her and it’s easy to see why so many have fallen for this lanky little girl with the big brown eyes and wide-open smile. Just being in her presence for a couple hours, you feel as if you could go out and conquer the world — or at least try to save a tiny piece of it.
“Monday, me go to school,” she stated matter-of-factly. And when her mother reminded her she must get clearance from the doctor, she repeated her goal a little more firmly: “Monday, me go to school.”
Therese is plainly ready to get on with her new life, even a week after the surgery. She’s already counting the days until the fourth-grade overnight trip to Camp Edward in Wisconsin. And she’s begging her mom to go bike riding, with her repeated promises she won’t fall and re-injure her newly constructed heart falling on deaf ears.
Erika Solgos said her daughter “has a stubborn streak a mile long,” — probably from the independence she had to develop in the orphanage. Yet Therese is also intelligent, loving and ever so observant about her new world that continues to unfold here in America.
That’s apparent in the way she appreciates what the rest of us take for granted. For example, flowers arrived all morning on this Holy Wednesday. Some were tied to “Get Well” balloons; other were gifts for Therese’s mom, who was celebrating her 36th birthday. And when these bouquets arrive, the little girl — recuperating in a heart-patterned robe over heart-patterned PJs — was like a kid in a toy store, marveling over the beauty of each floral arrangement as if they were expensive porcelain dolls. She smelled the petals, closing her eyes to savor their fragrance. Touching even the modest buds, she saw the potential.
“Oh my gosh, Mama,” she said, her French accent almost lyrical. “These buds are going to bloom.”
Listening to her chat, long graceful hands moving with the fluidity of a maestro, it’s easy to forget Therese knew only a few phrases of English when she came to this country a few months ago. But she has so much to say. One minute she’s talking about hair extensions a family friend is going to give her (short hair is a stigma because all orphans had shaved heads); and the next, she’s describing the gift she wants to give Ferdinand, her 11-year-old best friend she had to leave behind in Yako.
Now that her heart is fixed, there’s little doubt Therese will continue to blossom much like the Easter flowers in this remarkable home on Galena Boulevard.
“The change in her is amazing,” said Cox, who spoke by phone from St. Louis, where she was attending a conference and visiting family. “Her eyes are brighter; her smile is bigger.”
But Therese is not the only one who has been blessed with new life.
“Because of her, our home has more music, more dancing, more laughter,” Erika Solgos said. “She has definitely made our world a more joyous place.”
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