Blessings

I thought I would share a story with you from this week. On Tuesday night I had the opportunity to go to the UAB Townhouse apartments and visit with some of the families that are staying there. Since I first heard about this ministry a while back I have wanted to take part. The Medical Apartment Ministry is a service provided by the Birmingham Baptist Association. The apartments are for patients and families who are receiving medical care in the Birmingham area but who live out of town. I had heard that there were many transplant recipients and those waiting for transplants who are staying there. I know that there are others as well who are receiving long term care of some sort, whether it is cancer treatment or something else. I feel that our family has been so blessed to have Nathan's transplant here in Birmingham. This has allowed us to stay in our own home near our families and support system. We have been able to continue working and really to live our lives rather normally. But many folks, particularly those who may experience complications post transplant or those who need to be near the hospital in order to wait on transplant, have to pick up their lives and leave their family, friends, church family, jobs. I can only imagine how hard that must be. So long story short, I wanted to visit with them and maybe offer encouragement to someone.

As I sat down to eat dinner, the man sitting next to me asked, "Are you a recipient or family member?" It caught me off guard a little bit because my plan wasn't really to talk too much about myself and our story. So I proceeded, "Well, I am here with.....but I am a family member of a recipient. How about you?" This wonderful man and his wife then proceeded to tell me about their son who died unexpectedly 2 years ago at the age of 18 from a brain aneurysm. He then went on to tell me about how his son was an organ donor and he was so proud and honored. You may be thinking, "Well why was he there?" because I was thinking the same thing. This mom and dad were there to support the recipient of their son's heart who has been staying at the apartments since her transplant almost 2 years ago. Can you imagine? They have also met the recipient of their son's lungs, pancreas, liver and one of the kidneys.

Now for another part of the story. I have wanted to write Nathan's donor family. Many of you know his donor was a 16 year old boy who died on Christmas day. I have thought about what to say. I have pondered over it. There are so many emotions. For one, it is almost impossible to express our extreme gratitude. Our gratitude for the gift of life. The gift that saved Nathan's life. Think yourselves for a minute about trying to put that into words. It is no easy task! Aside from our relationship with our heavenly Father I can think of no greater gift. On another note, there are also thoughts about how the family might perceive the letter. Will they be happy to hear from you? Have they been waiting? Will it bring back sad memories for them? Will it be hard for them to hear about how well my son is doing? Or, will it bring them peace? Will they feel a sense of pride and joy that their son brought life to someone else?

Last Friday night I sat down on the couch and decided to just write from my heart. Stephen was gone and the boys were busy and I decided it was time. So I wrote and I cried as I remembered the day he received his new liver and a new chapter of his life began. I cried as I thought about this family whom I don't know, and whom I may never know, who so unselfishly gave. And then when I was almost done, Nathan asked what I was doing. I told him I was writing the family who gave him his new liver. He wanted to write a letter also. He got some paper and in his 7 year old, second grade writing he wrote the sweetest few sentences. He was so excited to write and he knew what he wanted to say. We talked about buying some pretty paper to rewrite it on and then mailing our letters together. On Saturday, he couldn't wait to go to the store and pick out stationary to rewrite his letter on. But, even after all of that I still wasn't sure about mailing it just yet.

Back to Tuesday night.......This father shared with me about how much it meant to them to hear from the donor families. They wanted to know what the recipients were doing. They wanted to know that they were doing well and that they were well cared for. He said they have found all of the recipients but one and he said it is his mission to find that person. He also talked about how he felt he had found his calling in life sharing with others about organ donation. He speaks at local hospitals. He talked about how he was never much of a public speaker, but he can now get up and speak about his son and about how donation has been such a blessing for his family as well as those who receive the life saving transplant. I felt so humbled to sit next to this family. It was as if I could have been sitting next to Nathan's donor family. As I left I thanked him for helping me. He hugged me and told me to mail my letter that the family was waiting to hear from me.

I have to say I feel like God was speaking to me Tuesday night. It's funny, I thought I might be offering encouragement to someone else, but I think I am the one who came away extremely encouraged and blessed. I was reminded that we are never placed anywhere by accident. God always goes before us and has a plan for us in each and every situation. I am so thankful for this family. Please pray for them and for the many others who are staying in the apartments. Many are healing and have had very long journeys and still face long journeys ahead. There are 2 who are waiting on transplants now - one for a heart and one for a lung. Within the room I could tell that there was such hope but also hearts that were hurting and in constant anticipation of an unknown future. I know a little about that. It is a very hard place to be. Of course none of us know our future from one day to the next but I think you probably know what I mean. Our journey to transplant was short but for others it has been years in the making. They need our prayers.

Pray for Nathan's donor family as well. I often wonder how they are. Our lives are getting back to normal now. I wonder are theirs? Join me in lifting them up in prayer today.

Blessings,
Lora

Organ Donation

I saw this video (just click on the link) posted on Liver Families today and thought that I would share it with you. It is about a young boy in Dallas who received a liver transplant from a young drowning victim. Maybe it is not the most upbeat of topics but it was certainly a reminder to me of Nathan's gift of life. At times it is hard to think of the loss of life on the other side of transplant, but it is a very real fact that another life was lost so that the life of my child (my Nathan) could be saved. I think that it takes amazing courage for donor families, who undoubtably are facing the hardest moments of their lives, to choose to give life to others. In many instances, maybe the family knew the wishes of the donor. But even so, I still imagine it is a hard decision. In Nathan's case, a 16 year old young boy (16 seems younger and younger to me as the boys get older) died in a car accident on Christmas Day. Can you imagine? I don't ever want to forget the sacrifice that they made for Nathan. I want to remember every day. Each day that he can get up and do normal things like play with his new puppy or go to the library, play with his brothers, eat ice cream or ride a bike is because of an organ donor. And of course because of our great God who is so faithful. If you have ever considered being an organ donor, tell those you love. You might just have the opportunity to give life.

Organ Donation Video

Stephen helped me put together a short video for a talk I am giving on organ donation. I thought that I would share it with you. You will need to mute the sound on the play list at the bottom of the page in order to hear the music with the video. Have a great day! Lora

A few facts on organ donation...

Just wanted to share a few facts about organ donation -

As of today, there are 98,619 people waiting on the national transplant waiting list for an organ donation due to end stage organ disease...

There are 16,390 people waiting nationally on a liver...

In Alabama (as of 03/21/2008), at UAB where Nathan had his liver transplant, there are 3,158 people waiting on an organ donation...

At UAB there are 88 people waiting on a liver...

January - December 2007 there were 28,353 transplants nationally...

In the year 2007 there were 14,394 organ donors who gave the gift of life to others...

Each day approximately 77 people receive organ transplants...

Each day 19 people die waiting for a transplant...

The above information was obtained from the following sites: http://www.optn.org/data/
http://organdonor.gov/

I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you. The first is a picture of Nathan before his transplant and the second one is a recent photo after transplant (he is about to blow out a candle on his birthday cake).



Can you see the difference? I know it is hard to tell from a picture, but there is an amazing difference in Nathan. Like many of you, I never gave much thought to organ donation before we were faced with the possibility in our own family. It is not that I was against it in any way. I have always thought that organ donation was a great thinng, I just didn't think about becoming an organ donor myself. Nathan is the picture of organ donation.

Would you consider becoming an organ donor today? If you would like to register to become an organ donor, you can go to http://organdonor.gov/donor/index.htm and click on your state to register. We will forever be grateful to Nathan's donor and donor family. In the midst of their grief, the family of a 16 year old young man chose to give the gift of life. There are not words to convey our gratitude. The only thing that I know to do, is to try to show others how this gift has changed Nathan's life and our life as a family. That is what we will do.

Video of Nathan

I have created a video slide show of Nathan from about this time last year through transplant and a few days after. I hope that you enjoy it. You will need to mute the sound on the play list at the bottom of the page in order to hear the music with the slide show.

Make a slideshow - it's easy!