Today is the due date for Michelle Wards/Green Pepper Press Street Team's Crusade number 22. I have been pondering for a while and now is my last chance to do this. This month's crusade is about gratitude and paying it forward.
The thing I am most grateful for is the life I am living today. The life given to me by my loving husband, Bill. A little more than three years ago he selflessly gave me one of his kidneys. Not a second thought went through his mind, no doubts, in fact he got himself in the best of shape so that he could be my donor. No family members could donate as we all (my Mom and siblings all have/or had the dreaded kidney disease) and those who don't have it need to be aware that it could happen to them down the road. The doctor's have finally admitted that this could be hereditary.
As miracles do happen, Bill turned out to be a 100 percent match for me. So much that I never needed to take steroids. And the odds of that were one in a million.
Now for the pay it forward part. I like to participate in helping with others causes...sending pink socks for Michelle's Pink Wink, sending in my pink squares for Monica's Love Squares doll, ect.
But mainly I feel it's my responsibility to do my best to promote organ donation. And I do so whenever I can. I have tried to educate myself in order to answer questions when they arise about the donation process. People have misconceptions about what actually happens. Yes, you can still have a normal funeral and you can specify which organs may or may not be used.
In this age of recycling it makes total sense to me to recycle yourself and save lives in the process! And you or your loved one will live on....in the bodies of others. This to me is comforting.
