I'm hoping to provide a little more background as to how all this came to be. Yesterday I covered the "what" that is going on in our lives. As far as "when," the actual procedure is going to be Tuesday, September 27th at 8:00. "Where" is also pretty simple; the surgery is taking place in Newark, DE at a local hospital with a wonderful team of people that I'm sure I'll share about later. "Who" and "why" are both a little more complicated to explain.
As I've talked to various people about this, the first question has always been "who are you donating to?" It isn't uncommon for people to donate to family members or even very close friends. When I first started looking into this, the recipient didn't really fall into either category. So here is the not-short-at-all story of my relationship with the recipient. It's no secret that my husband and I met at University of Delaware as undergrads. While we were there, we got involved with a wonderful campus ministry called Blue Hens for Christ. We met some of our closest friends through this ministry and it has had a lasting impact on our relationship and our lives. Bobby and I were close with both men who served as campus minister in our time there. In our later years, we came to know the second one as a true friend. One thing Blue Hens for Christ offers is the chance to be paired up with and "adopted" by a local family. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me since I went across the country for school. I happened to be paired with a wonderful couple from the church whose son was the aforementioned friend/campus minister.
So with Gwen, the other student the family "adopted" who was also one of my best friends, I got to know this wonderful couple and became close with my adoptive mom. Also during our time there, my adoptive dad (I apologize now for all the vagueness, anonymity and all that) found out he was entering kidney failure. I'm not sure I was in the right place at the time to even consider donation back then but we all kept him in our prayers and hoped for the best.
So that's the who. I know it's a lot, but I feel knowing the nature of our relationship makes the "why" that much more important.
The "why" itself is simple to me, but always needs a little more explanation (hence, I referred to it as complicated above). The reason to me is straightforward: it is what God is calling me to do. Period. That's enough for me. How I feel that calling is hard to explain. Again, our relationship, while pleasant, wasn't one that was super-close and I think the recipient was kind of shocked when I first spoke with him about it because of that. I was kind of shocked myself when God first planted the tiniest seed of an inkling in me. About a year ago I first started thinking about it; truthfully, I don't know why. But I know that God has had His hand in every step of the way. This whole process has been incredibly simple, albeit time consuming. I'll go into that a little bit more tomorrow.
Let's leave it at this: I know this is a wonderful gift that is being given, but to me it doesn't feel all that special. It just feels right. It feels like what I'm supposed to be doing and anything wonderful about it is due to God. He alone has made this possible, and I feel blessed to be a part of what is being done and the future testimony this will provide.
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