The past 48hrs following my blog post about my wife needing a kidney transplant have been a little overwhelming, but not in a bad way. As of right now we’ve had 44 people signup to be tested to see if they would be a possible match for my wife. We aren’t talking about saying “hey, I’m rooting for you”, these are people saying, “hey, I’ll give you one of my organs from my body!” — this is the part that’s a little overwhelming for me, how do you say thank you to someone willing to do that for you? The words “thank you” just seem a little inadequate… I hate to admit this, but prior to our current situation with my wife’s health I’d never considered donating an organ to someone because I’ve never been close to anyone that’s ever needed one. I did agree to be an organ donor a long time ago and it’s on my drivers license but that’s about as far as I’d ever traveled down that road, definitely never considered being a living donor.
Another thing that has really caught us by surprise is how much love and support we have received. Our friends and family have always been very supportive but we’ve been hearing from people we haven’t talked to in years that wanted us to know that they’ve been praying for us. Today as we walked into church services one of our friends, a local judge here in Conway, grabbed us before we got to our seats and gave us a hug. I can honestly say we’ve been able to feel the prayers that people have been saying on our behalf too. We should probably be a lot more stressed out than we are –but we have our faith, and through that we have peace.
From this list of 44 people that signed up online to be tested there are people from 9 states. I have a friend from school that approached us before we started this recent decline and said she wanted to be tested –this was while we were still at around 20-30% kidney function. She said that she just felt like the Lord had put it upon her heart and she’s determined. Again, how do you say thank you to someone for that? I have countless other stories just like this one of people that have approached me with the same intent.
I try not to be an overly-sensitive person, okay I might have watery eyes in a sad movie once in a blue moon, but lately I’m finding myself having to hold back emotions based on everything that’s going on. I’ve known that people were generous and cared about others, that’s how we try to live our lives and teach our son by example, but we never expected this outpouring.
I have a friend who is a pastor at a church here in Conway, a really great guy. He asked his congregation this morning to pray for Donna and mentioned that she needed a kidney transplant. Following his service he had a man approach him to let him know that he’d already been tested to see if he was a qualified donor and passed. He was interested in being tested to see if he was a match for us. I also received an inbox message from a local radio personality that has a huge following, another great guy. He wants to have Donna and I on his radio show to share his story this week to see if one of his listeners might be a possible donor. We also have a great friend that’s really talented offer to do a video for us to help get the word out. Please keep in mind that all of this has transpired in the past 48hrs.
I also just learned that one of the stars of a popular television show shared my blog on her facebook wall and one of the people on our list of candidates came by way of her post. When I posted the blog I honestly didn’t expect it to have the impact that it has had. We were hoping to have 20 people at the most come forward to be tested but we are not going to stop asking because aside from my wife there are 179,000 people waiting on donors in the United States, one of them is one of my best friends from High School. Yes, our primary goal is to get a kidney for Donna so she can live a healthy, normal life and be around for our 4yr old son –but we have been blessed with a platform from which we can be advocates and encourage others to consider becoming living donors and that’s what we are going to do.
We have a friend who recently donated one of his kidneys to a high school friend. He approached us after church today and had Donna not told me his story I wouldn’t have ever known by looking at him. I’m hoping to have him come with us if we are able to do the radio show this week to provide some first hand information for potential donors.
In closing, I just want to say thanks. I wish there was a better way for me to express my gratitude than that one simple word. If I see you, I’m probably going to hug you, that’s what we do –hope it’s not weird for you. Most importantly, I want to also thank all of you that have been praying for us and sharing our story with your friends. I think my blog post had close to 400 shares on Facebook already. That’s amazing.
I’m also going to attach the signup form to this post if you, or someone you know is interested in being tested…
Questions or Comments?