Dear Potential Live Donors…Four of You and More in the Wings,

I cannot express to you how much it means to me that you would even consider being a donor and go through the personal invasion of privacy questionnaire let alone be willing to go through testing and surgery to donate an organ that has been perfectly happy in your body.

I sense that you have an inkling of what it means because you see Gage living a life and you know what he means to me. You know that he is part of my soul and part of the soul of this family and life without him would be unbearable. To know that you have the chance to give him a "normal" life with a new kidney is so overwhelming. I can’t imagine what it will feel like to know that a friend, that I likely met through God’s will at a small church we would come to attend after years of passing by it on the street, or feeling a strong connection after meeting through a mutual friend, or even meeting your wife early in my career, would help my son live. And the crazy thing about it is that had not all of the events in all of our lives met up with God’s grace, knowledge and intervention this would not be a possibility. It’s a powerful gift you are offering and a humbling one. Even before transplant occurs the power of the offer is changing me. Profoundly. Spiritually.

See…with the helplessness that has come with the knowledge that as parents we are unable to donate has come a wavering in my faith. What has happened during your willingness to donate a kidney is the renewal of my hope. I have hope again. For the first time in weeks there’s a stronger belief in my heart that Gage will survive and live the life he deserves. 

I thank you and I love you. Even before this incredible offer. But I hope you already knew that.

Julia

Proud, tired mom to a wild boy who has not let dialysis stop him one tiny little bit.