Kathy's Kidney

Kathy, with Isaac this summer.

Some questions have been directed at me about what is going on with Chris' mom, Kathy.  Here's a little post about how this all started, and what's happened so far.  A while ago, a friend of Kathy's was in need of a kidney.  Kathy volunteered to go through the screening process.  She did not end up being a match for her friend, and so agreed to go into a paired donation program.  That didn't work out either, as there was some difficulty finding a kidney for her friend.  (By the way, her friend did receive a kidney recently, praise God!)  Kathy felt strongly that God was calling her to continue in the donation process - that if she were willing to give this life-saving gift to a friend, she should be willing to give it to a stranger, too.  This morning, she became an anonymous kidney donor.  She knows her kidney is going to Iowa, but that's it.  

The surgery is over.  If you could continue to pray for Kathy as she recovers, and pray for her remaining kidney, that would be awesome!  Also pray for Chris' sister Emily, who is with her now, for another sister-in-law, Jillian, who will take over her care later this week, and for a good friend, Jill, who will be flying back with Kathy next week.  

As you can imagine, there has been a lot of concern about this.  We were all very worried about the surgery.  I want to share with you a piece of an email written by my brother-in-law, Todd:

"We are concerned for you because you are our mom/grandma/daughter/etc.  But we also know that this will have tremendous impact on another family.  Even though it’s a stranger, it’s a stranger who probably has a mom, dad, kids, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and cousins who are praying and longing for a kidney match for their loved one.  God is using you as an answer to their prayers.  That’s a really great thing to be a part of.  So, we support you and we want to do whatever we can to help.  We will pray for you, and your health because we love you.  But we will also pray that somehow this would have a greater impact than we could ever know on this person’s life."

I do not doubt for one second that Kathy hears from God, and that this is what He has asked of her.  I pray for the recipient.  I pray they will receive this gift, this extension of their physical life.  But more than that, I pray that they will clearly see the hand of a living, loving God who has directly intervened in what seemed to be a hopeless situation.  I pray that if they do not already know about Jesus, and about the even greater sacrifice that he made, to provide an even more valuable life-saving gift for them, that this experience will open their eyes to the bigger picture, to the bigger sacrifice that has already been freely made.