My friend Amy, who is nearest and dearest to me, has a cause that is close to her heart. Her husband, his father and his siblings all suffer from polycystic kidney disease (PKD). This condition is hereditary and there is a good possibility that one or more of her children will be affected as well. I’ve known about this for years but hadn’t discussed it with her in length until recently.
Last December, after being placed on the transplant list 6 months earlier, her brother in law received a kidney from living donor. It was a unique story and prompted a lot of questions from me about kidney donation in general. We talked about it several times and in her passion to help me understand the importance of living kidney donors, I began to think that this may be something I would consider doing.
Two months later we were away on a girls weekend trip, sipping wine and playing cards, when I picked up my phone to scroll through Facebook. There was a post from a previous neighbor of mine, Marie, that said she was being placed on the kidney transplant list. I may or may not have freaked out a little bit. Amy was sitting next to me and I told her right then that she needed to hold me accountable to follow up on this.
Unfortunately, the Facebook post didn’t give a lot of extra details about how to help. I checked back regularly to see if anything had been added in the comments, but nothing had. I wondered what God wanted me to do in all this so I continued praying.
About a month later a new post arrived. This time, she did give details. As I read it, my heart began beating faster and faster. Was this the answer I had been looking for? Should I actually pursue this? Am I completely crazy??? My prayers hadn’t given me a definite answer. I didn’t feel a strong pull in either direction. So what’s a girl to do?
The first thing I did was talk to Jeremy. And let me tell you, that’s an interesting conversation to spark up out of the blue. “Hey Babe… how was your day… yeah mine was good… by the way, I’m thinking about giving away a kidney…can you pass me the salt and pepper?” Truthfully, we discussed mostly the what if’s but it didn’t take my husband long to realize that I wasn’t going to rest easy unless I at least made a call to the transplant center.
Still waiting on a green light from the good Lord I made one more desperate plea as I dialed the phone: “God, ya gotta let me know what You want me to do. If this is not for me, then I need to know that. But if you want me to give my kidney to Marie, then give me some sort of sign. Anything!”
I spoke to the kidney transplant coordinator who scheduled me for a phone interview the following week. The next day the bank needed me to come by and sign some papers. It just so happens that my bank is not far from my very favorite little grocery store, Trader Joe’s.
We went inside TJ’s and my kids scattered in an effort to find Rocky (the stuffed lobster that stays hidden in the store until kids find it and when they do they get a piece of candy… anyways…). Next thing I know they run up to me saying, “Mom, your friend is here! Look!”
Now, you have to understand that I’m in a town where none of my friends live. I asked the kids who it was and they were like, “We don’t know, but she said she knows you.” So I round the corner of the produce aisle and come face to face with none other than… MARIE!
Y’all, Marie and I used to be neighbors. She lives REALLY far away from Trader Joe’s. She’s a teacher and it’s the middle of the afternoon on a week day. The last time I saw her was after we moved away, I ran into her at Walmart and Emery was still young enough to be sitting in the basket on the grocery cart. I felt like it wasn’t real. I mean, how are you supposed to act when God answers your prayer by placing the person you are secretly praying for directly in front of you? I handled it by stuttering and stammering all over myself, looking like an idiot who could barely carry on a casual conversation.
I tried to save face by telling her what I was up to. Obviously she was surprised to learn that I had an interview already scheduled. I was surprised to learn that just like Amy’s family, her family deals with PKD. We vowed to keep in touch, letting each other know what was happening and when.
(Stay tuned for more to come…)
