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Tawny’s Story

Site created on June 9, 2020

This is a true story of how amazing God is and that He is in control of our lives. We praise Him for His goodness to us.
As our donor Kim Parker has said many times......Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Tawny’s journey began in October of her 6th grade year. We were almost done with her physical when she mentioned her stomach had been hurting. Her doctor then realized her spleen was enlarged. We then began a journey that took us all over ; City of Hope and Children’s Hospital and UCLA. They thought she had ITP or Leukemia or kidney disease.
(BECAUSE TAWNY HAD BEEN TREATED AT CITY OF HOPE, WHEN EDDIE HAD LEUKEMIA WE WERE ABLE TO GET IT RIGHT AWAY - GOD'S AMAZING)
Finally at UCLA when she was a junior Dr Marvin Ament figured out she had a rare liver disease she was born with called Caroli’s Disease. He told us that he could not explain why she wasn’t very sick but predicted by the time she was in her 30’s she would need a liver transplant. He hoped by then science would have a pill for it. (TAWNY WAS ALLOWED TO PLAY LIMITED SPORTS IN HIGHSCHOOL BECAUSE OF HER RISK OF BLEEDING. MRS. KIM PARKER WAS HER VOLLEYBALL COACH AND FOUND THAT TAWNY WAS AN ACE SERVER. THEY WON A CIF CHAMPIONSHIP WHEN TAWNY WAS A SENIOR - GOD'S AMAZING) A couple years after she graduated Tawny got involved with CrossFit and it changed her life. She got fit and began competing. She also got certified as an instructor. She even started a women’s boot camp.
January 2019 Tawny began to get itchy so we began eliminating certain foods then she saw an allergist that said she had a billion (exaggeration) things she could not eat. (TAWNY HAD HER HOURS CUT AT A SCHOOL SHE WAS TEACHING AT SO BEGIN LOOKING FOR A JOB AND APRIL 1, 2019 SHE BEGAN WORKING AT A LAW FIRM IN LA AND NOW HAD HEALTH INSURANCE - GOD'S AMAZING. Still the itching persisted. Finally a family nurse friend remembered her liver disease and said itching could be a sign of liver trouble
Tawny now had health insurance so she finally saw a doctor and the tests began.
June 2019 Dr Mena in Pasadena said he thought she needed a kidney and liver transplant - yikes!
July 2019. Keck USC said she only needs a new liver - Thank You Lord!
October 2019 Need a living donor since her count makes her low on the donor list and the wait would be too long for her to remain healthy.
Channel 9 helped us get the word out and Family and Friends as well as the RHP and Kare Website.
December 2019 Keck tells us Tawny had over 40 people volunteer to be a donor The largest number of donors in their history - GOD'S AMAZING)
January 2020. We find out they take about a month to test a donor - We did have a concern that Tawny's surgery would not be covered if it happened before April 1, 2020 because she needed to be there a year. (GOD HAD THAT ALREADY FIGURED OUT - HE'S AMAZING)
June 5th, 2020. We find out we have a match and it’s Kim Parker. Kim Parker was our neighbor, was Tawny’s High School Coach, took Tawny’s boot camp and dear friend.

The Drains and Parkers ask for your continued prayers for Tawny and Kim. Our two families have a special bond that spans 5 decades, but never did we expect anything like this. Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil,
to give you a future and a hope.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Maura Drain — Aug 1, 2020

10:00pm This will be my last post of our journey. Kim and Tawny's six weeks of 24 hour care has ended. Ever thankful and amazed at God's wonderful plans for us. Tawny and Kim visited on Friday and took the picture below. Both are still healing and doing well. Both are not to lift much at all. Tawny is a bit more restricted until the middle of September - no laundry, limited driving and will still have blood tests/dr visits weekly which will diminished in frequency in time but will always be in her future to check that new beautiful liver. Pills will be a lifelong habit to keep that liver happy inside Tawny.

Thank you for all your concern and prayers and love and meals and cards etc for Kim and Tawny.
You all truly made our adventure better and our families felt so cared for and loved. You helped make the journey easier for us. God is so good. He has plans for all of us - to give us a future and a hope. 2020 has been a year of blessings for our two families - even through a pandemic God has worked miracles.

And to the Parker family, God used Kimmy to save Tawny's life. We are forever grateful. We love you and thank you for your tremendous sacrifice. What a faith booster to see how it all played out....June 2019 (told she needed a liver) to June 2020 (got a liver).

May God bless you all for your faithfulness to our family.
Maura and Ken Drain

Read More of the journal titled "August 1, 2020"

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