15. January 2008 by Carol.

As most of you know, Barb is my sister.  We grew up in the same household but our experiences in that house were nearly total opposites.  You could say we grew up at the same address but in very different houses. But we both survived the madness and lived to tell.

Barb came down from her home in Minnesota the week of the surgery to be there with me in the hospital and to help me the week after the surgery.  A huge chunk of time from her very busy life.  What an enormous gift to me.

Let me tell you about my amazing sister.  She is clearly the most capable woman I know.  She can do it all and do it VERY well.  She cooks and cleans and organizes and reads voraciously.  She dresses just right for every occasion, she’s beautiful and patient and incredibly intelligent.  She takes amazing care of her family, does all the right things for every occasion and holiday AND she works full time!!!! 

Barb was there at the hospital every single day.  She took care of all the details that I wasn’t “with it” enough to think about.  She toted all my stuff because I couldn’t lift things after the surgery.  She walked all around that huge hospital, she kept in touch with everyone who wanted to know how I was doing and she did it all with a cheerful disposition and a smile on her face even though I knew she was exhausted.

THEN when I was sent home she went to work around here helping me with everything because there wasn’t a lot I could do for myself.  We laughed and got soaked the first night I was home as we attempted to wash my very dirty, grungy, bed head hair.  She helped me get up from my chair and out of bed even in the middle of the night when I need to use the facilities.  She brought me food and drink and whatever I needed. 

And while she was taking care of me and my house and all that was a part of getting me taken care of,  she was baking dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies.  And not just simple little drop cookies - these are beautiful cookies with many steps to the baking process and frosting afterwards and rolling some in nuts and others had hidden mint surprises in them.  They were equally as tasty as they were beautiful.  She is the most amazing cookie maker I’ve ever known.  We had an Aunt Martha who baked wonderful cookies but I think Barb has Aunt Martha topped!

So I watched my sister in this whole process (after all I didn’t have much else to do but sit and observe!) and marveled at her ability to accomplish so much in one short day.  She is an amazing and extremely capable woman and I am proud to have her as my sister and so very grateful for all that she did for me.

This is my tribute to my lovely and wonderful sister.

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15. January 2008 by Carol.

Those of you who know Jaime know what an incredible woman she really is.  She is beautiful in every way - body, soul and spirit.  She has a wonderful, cheerful spirit and she’s LOTS of fun.  She is incredibly generous.  And I’m pretty sure that “courage” is her middle name.  She has lived and/or visited places all over the world.  Her sense of adventure comes pouring out of her.  And she has a faith that is deep and encouraging.

I realize I’ve never told the whole story of how this all came about.  Jaime and I worked together at Awana.  She was in one of my first classes that I taught and was very nice to this scared new teacher of computers at Awana.  My first few months there I really wondered what I was doing trying to teach others how to use their computer when I was still learning myself.  But then I realized that because I was learning it and then teaching it that it made it less scary for those who came to me for learning.  I kept telling them if I could do this then they could too and so many have found that to be true.  Jaime came to a class that was really a little below her skills but she patiently listened to me lecture and followed along with the exercises on my screen and asked good, challenging questions (which also scared me! :-)  ).

But I knew from that first day that we would be friends and that she was a kindred spirit in many ways.  And I also knew that I wanted to know more about what made Jaime Chambers tick.

In the ensuing months we had opportunities to connect at various Awana functions and have some VERY funny stories to tell from those encounters.  Also in those same months it became apparent that my kidneys were continuing to go down and that it was likely that dialysis was looming as a choice I had to make.  I finally “showed my hand” at Awana and asked for prayer about this struggle in my life.

A week or so later Jaime stopped me in the atrium at Awana HQ and said to me, “I feel that the Lord wants me to be tested to give you a kidney.  Ken and I have been praying about it and feel very strongly about it.”  So I said “Wow!  Thanks!” and gave her a hug thinking about what a nice person she was and what a generous thought she had but never thinking she was really serious about it.  But as time went on she kept asking me when we were going to get tested and after asking me that several times I realized she was serious and started doing what I had to do for us to go get our blood tested together.

In the meantime, Ken took a job in California and they packed and moved.  Hmmm…a fly in the ointment…a duck getting out of the row…a question about whether this would really happen.  But Jaime was not deterred by the distance and she was coming back a few weeks later for a meeting and we decided to go for “blood and breakfast” one of the mornings she would be here.

I learned that the matching is done on six genetic markers.  If the donor was an identical twin then all the markers would match.  If the donor is a sibling or other close family member then perhaps there would be three or four of the six markers that would match.  But most of the time non-family donors don’t match at any of the markers or maybe one if you’re lucky.  So when our blood cross typing came back, the folks at Loyola kept asking each of us if we were related…were we sure we weren’t related???  Because we match at 3 of the 6 genetic markers!  Wow!  Now I knew even more that this was such a clear doing of the Lord.

Jaime and I would giggle about being long lost sisters or twins (LONG gestation period - we’re 7 years apart in age and, yes, she’s the youngster - she’s want me to make that clear!). 

But all of this is to show you what a remarkable woman Jaime is.  For her to choose to go through major surgery, have a major organ removed from her body so that I can have it, her courage and her generousity and her cheerful spirit and encouraging faith when I was getting so scared - all of these things are a enormous gift to my life.  I am eternally grateful for this wonderful woman in my life.

So this is my tribute to Jaime.

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15. January 2008 by Carol.

I have SO MANY people to thank for helping me get this far along in this process and those will come but I first want to write about two amazing women that the Lord used in huge ways to make all this possible.  So read on and bless these women with me.

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15. January 2008 by Carol.

Yesterday, Sunday, it was exactly one month since Jaime and I were joined at the kidney.  Whew!  It seems like years ago and at the same time it doesn’t seem like it’s happened at all.  I am quite convinced that the reality of this - that I have a kidney that was born to someone else - is now in my body.  I can say it intellectually but I think emotionally and in my soul it has not hit me that much yet.  I am guessing it’s just because I’ve been so cocooned in this healing process that reality just isn’t completely there.

Oh don’t get me wrong - there have definitely been some realities in this though.  There’s the reality of the pain which is finally subsiding.  There’s the reality of 50+ pills down the hatch every day.  There’s the reality of a 10″ scar that wasn’t there 32 days ago.  There’s the bruises from all the blood draws and the collapsed veins because of all the pokes and sticks it has taken to give the IV’s I needed in the hospital and the blood tests to make sure I’m remaining stable.  There’s the incredible amount of tiredness that has prevailed in my body.  Naps are a daily necessity these last few weeks.

But thanks be to God I am remaining stable and the kidney and my body continue to seem to like each other (I’m glad for that because Jaime and I continue to like each other too and it would be sad if my body and her kidney just decided to have a fight!).  My staples came out last week and since then the incision doesn’t hurt at all except around the area that is still open and draining but even that is healing up much quicker than expected.  Again I give thanks to the Lord!

I have eliminated my isolation this week.  I started driving again on Saturday.  It was weird at first but since I’ve been driving for nearly 40 years it came back pretty quickly.  Today I even drove myself to Loyola and stopped at the grocery store on the way home.  But that was it for me.  Time for heading home after that!

I have also been released to work limited hours from home starting tomorrow!  I am grateful to be able to give it a try.  But I still need to get my head and my body to synch for longer periods of time than it has been the last few weeks.

So now I have the rest of my life to go.  Where before all this I was planning my funeral and pretty much just riding it out until I would be with Jesus, now I have to think about what appears to be a future longer than I had before.  What does the Lord have for me?  I keep asking “why me?” and why not someone else?  That clearly tells me that the Lord is not finished with me left.  I am constantly humbled by this and in that state I want to make sure I am listening carefully for how He wants me to move into this new found future.  For that I covet your prayers.

So that’s the update for now.  I have several tributes and other things I want to write and will begin them this evening.

Thanks for reading. 

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