Donate Life Month

April is Donate Life Month. National Donate Life Month was established in 2003. Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donors and to encourage more Americans to follow their fine example(organdonor.gov). We are so thankful for Nathan's donor and donor family for making the decision to give the gift of life. I have been thinking about the day that we received the call that a liver was available for Nathan. Many people have asked us what that day was like. I thought that I might tell a little bit about it here.

Nathan had been listed for transplant during the middle of November. He had to be removed from the transplant waiting list during December because of an infection. He had been placed back on the list the week before Christmas. Even though he was listed, we didn't have a sense that Nathan's transplant would be right away. We actually did not know what to think. It really depended on who we talked to as far as being given a time table (of course no one really ever knows). We were told that it could be that day or many months away before a match was found. I tell you all that to say that we were not sitting around waiting on the phone to ring. We tried to go ahead and live life as normally as possible, even though thoughts of transplant did dominate our minds.

On Christmas Eve Nathan did not feel very well. He had very little appetite and had been tired all day. When it was time to go to my parents house for dinner, Nathan was lying down on the tile floor in our foryer, because he did not feel well and did not want to walk to the car. He was receiving IV antibiotics four times daily to help clear up his infection. It was very hard to see him so sick and to see his health deteriorating. I remember hoping that his transplant would be soon because it just felt like we were on the verge of him becoming even sicker. At the same time, I could not imagine thoughts of transplant and actually putting Nathan through such a huge surgery. There were just so many unanswered questions and so many unknowns about everything. We really did have to fully place our trust in God. We knew that only He had the answers and only He knew the timing.

Christmas Day arrived and Nathan was so excited. He had received a guitar and a talking parrot that he asked Santa to bring. We had lunch with our family. We had eaten and opened presents and had just begun to let the kids play with their Christmas toys when Stephen happened to notice a couple of missed calls on his cell phone from a number that we did not recognize. I had left my phone in the car (we really were not expecting a call on this day!). Someone suggested that we might should see who had called since after all, weren't we waiting on a call for Nathan! Sure enough, Nathan's transplant surgeon had been trying to call us himself to tell us that a liver was available. We had just gone outside because Harrison had twisted his ankle in the neighbor's yard. I was going across the street to check on him when Stephen yelled over at me that Nathan's physician was on the phone and they had a potential liver for Nathan. I am not sure how I thought I would respond when I heard those words; but when it actually happened, I felt as if the breath had been knocked out of me. There was such a rush of emotions. I was happy, thankful, scared and overwhelmed. At this point I think I was more scared than anything. It took at least an hour before I could really think about what lay ahead of us and the preparations that needed to be made.

We rushed home and started making calls and packing a few things. The next hours would be a blur. What I do remember is an overwhelming outpouring of love and support from family and friends. People began praying. Once at the hospital, all of our family arrived plus many other prayer warriors who came to offer us support and to pray for Nathan. Although we had tried to prepare Nathan a little, I am not sure that he knew what was about to take place. He was really kind of excited and happy and liked all of the people coming to see him. I am so thankful for the outpouring of support that we received on that night. It helped us to remain calm and to have peace about the whole situation. It also made this time happy for Nathan. He played his guitar for whoever would listen. He gave a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells. It was also very humbling that so many folks had left their family gatherings on Christmas to be at the hospital with us. There is so much more that I could tell you about that night. I wish that I could tell you about all of the people that spent the entire night waiting with us praying. I wish that I could tell you about all of the many kind things that our loving church family did to make the experience bearable for us. But then I would be writing for days.

Nathan was taken to surgery around 11:00 on Christmas night. His surgery was completed around 6:30 the next morning. Most of you know the story from there. His surgery was successful from the very beginning. He has not had one single complication. His liver numbers are all normal now. We have been so blessed. We have seen so many answered prayers and we have seen people reach out to us and be the very hands and feet of Jesus to our family. The fact that Nathan was transplanted on Christmas will always be special to us. Of course Christmas has always had special meaning as we celebrated the birth of our Savior, the greatest Gift of all and the One who came to give us eternal life with our Father in heaven. How fitting for us that we can celebrate Nathan's gift of life on this day that we celebrate Jesus' birth.

If you have read this far, thank you. It was helpful for me just to think through that day again and to put my thoughts down. During Donate Life Month, will you join me in being thankful for all of the donors that have made the gift of life possible for Nathan and so many others.



Lora