Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! We were able to celebrate for the first time in a few years with my Aunty Mary and Uncle Dale and all the cousins and kids. It was always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I looked around the room at us all together and I thought, “This feels like Christmas!” The only thing missing was my Dad. Oh how I miss him. My Dad had a very difficult life growing up but he saw how important it was to create traditions and memories with his own family and the best way I can honor him is to continue those with my children.
There are two things we always do Christmas Eve. They have always been special but but now I cherish them in a whole new way. Mike always reads the Nativity and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to the kids. To see all four sitting around him as he read to them is such a gift. One I just took a picture of every year, but now something I don’t want to take for granted. Second, Mike always lifts Anya up to put the star on the top of the tree. She’s 12 and tall so it’s already a challenge. Even though it was hard for him to breath and his muscles were cramping he did it, and did it smiling!!!
As some of you know we had a very long meeting with the transplant team last week. It was a lot of information and pretty overwhelming. A team of about 10 people came in the room 1 at a time to talk with us. Several of them came in and said, “I’ve got to be honest, after reading about your case and everything that happened to you, I didn’t expect to walk in and see you look this good!” Yesterday we got the call that he is a candidate for a kidney transplant and is officially on the list. They even gave him credit for the whole year he was on dialysis, and that began in April 2021. So that’s almost 2 years!! There’s still lots to look at, but they said that with everything Mike has gone through he’s probably had a more thorough work up than most. Next steps, fine a match. His incredibly sweet sisters have already offered to see if they are, and they would have the highest chance of being one. It’s so humbling, the way they just didn’t even hesitate to offer something so huge.
So… I’m going to put this out there. Every doctor has said, “You’re Kidneys will never recover.” They aren’t being unrealistic. It’s true. However, God has told us something different. It’s hard when we don’t know the outcome but I think that’s where faith comes in. So however that looks, we wait, we trust, we hope. Through a series of miraculous events, God led us where we needed to be, when we needed to be there, and who he needs us to become. It’s not always in the way we expect, but it’s always in the way we need it the most. Do I worry? Yes!! Sometimes it consumes me. The world gives us a million things to think about and worry over. Our hearts will break for many different reasons. Surrender the struggle. Visit your sadness your worry your fears but don’t pack your bags and stay there. Thank you for loving our family❤️
