Forever Thankful

Today is National Donor Sabbath and thinking about how important my faith has been to me in my journey. When I was diagnosed my children were very small and I remember wondering if I would have my sight to see them on their wedding day but because of the gift of two complete strangers they gave me the ability to watch my son exchange vows with his beautiful bride,in September. I wanted to have something for the day to remember my donors and the gift they had given me. My mom bought me a tree of life ring symbolizing how organ and tissue donation is life giving. As my son and his bride exchanged their vows I touched my ring and prayed for the families of my donors and thanked them for their gift and prayed that God would comfort them in the loss of their loved one. Their gift to me wasn’t lifesaving but it was life changing and I will forever be grateful.

My daughter, Erica gave me three angels that will be on my Christmas tree this year and have been on the tree since my first transplant, one of the angels has “Give”, to commemorate how my donors unselfishly gave to me the gift of sight, another angel said “Hope”, to commemorate the hope I have for restored sight by this gift, and the last angel said “Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting”. I will never forget and will be forever blessed and grateful to my donors and their families for this gift and my sight.