A day of fun and gratitude…

Today is my kidney’s birthday!  Actually it’s Jaime’s birthday (and I won’t tell you how old my kidney is today but suffice it to say it is a number of years younger than the rest of me!) but since her kidney that’s inside me was born on the same day as she was I decided to celebrate by throwing a party to thank all who have helped me in so many ways through these last three months.  We had so much fun - it was a beautiful sunny day and we had good food to munch on and a cheery birthday cake to mark the occasion.  And I wore my Scarlet Satin Sequined Sneakers and my Loyola Medicine sweatshirt along with my new piece of jewelry, my medical alert bracelet that ties me to my surgeon, Dr. Holt, forever.

I am blessed with such wonderful friends!  I am humbled by my great blessing.

I am also humbled at all that each of them have done (and are still doing) as I’ve transitioned into this new phase of my life.  I have had limitations in how much weight I can lift and so a number of friends have lifted 3 gallon water bottles and other heavy things for me.  While I was recuperating there were times when I needed groceries - many friends took my grocery lists and visited the store for me and then carried them up to my apartment.  I needed help with housecleaning and several friends stepped up to that daunting task either by coming and doing it themselves or providing someone to do it.  It is humbling when someone sees all the dirt in your house and is willing to clean it up anyhow.  All of these friends called often to keep me company via phone in the long days of recovery.  Many supplied wonderful meals.  There were hospital visits and emergency runs to the hospital and all day vigils at the hospital.  There were visits to my home and lots of laughter and fun with those visits.  And there was prayer…lots and lots and lots and lots of prayer by these friends and by tens of thousands around the world (literally - between Jaime and me we know a lot of people who know a lot of other people who know even more people - all of whom are prayer warriors).

And my friends Paulette and Ruth reunited today at the party and they reminded me that they were there with me the very first time I went to Loyola to learn about having a transplant.  That was a very difficult day - one very much like a gigantic slap in the face to bring me to reality - and I was blessed to have my friends with me to stand with me and listen with me and love me through that time.  That was nearly four years ago and today we celebrated the culmination of that first visit.

 I continue to learn about how much the Lord loves me.  I have had many struggles with understanding that in these last several years as I got sicker and more tired and more weary in heart.  But I am incredibly blessed with phenomenally wonderful friends and doctors and other caregivers and today we celebrated what the Lord has done!

Thanks for reading!

  One of the Scarlett Satin Sequined Sneakers!

This entry was posted on 17. March 2008 at 01:13 and is filed under A Kidney for Carol - thoughts on the transplant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.