Where do I even start? Goodness, so much has happened in the last 36 hours! As with most miracles, it started long before we even realized it was happening.
Friday the 23rd started like any other Friday- Pierce off to school, Bryce went in to dialysis. He called me about 12 and said “Ashley (our transplant co-ordinator’s assistant) called and said they might have a kidney for me. They have to wait for the bloodwork to arrive. She said they should have more info for us in about 4 hours.”
Deep breath. Hold the excitement. Okay. So we wait. And make plans for a series of events that might not happen. Sounds familiar. We sent info on to our families and a few close friends to have on alert in case we heard anything.
At 1:30 I went to get Pierce from school and when he got in the car I explained to the kids that we got a call about a maybe kidney for Daddy. They all got so excited. In my efforts to temper their expectations I reminded them it was just a maybe and that it might not be a match for Bryce which means it will go to someone else. I then explained that this kidney was coming from someone who had died; We didn’t know if it was a man or a woman, a mom or Dad or brother or Aunt. I asked that in our prayers we would remember the family and loved ones of this donor. It was one of the most sweet and tender moments of my life to listen to my children pray for blessings of comfort, love, and peace for these complete strangers that were making such a selfless sacrifice and changing our lives. Their simple and complete faith gave me strength and so much peace.
I spent the afternoon trying not to think about it and keep myself busy. I did okay for a little while until he arrived home around 4 and said Ashley had called him back and said they still didn’t know more. The blood work hasn’t arrived yet and was coming from out of state. She said shift change would switch to the weekend on-call nurse at 6 and we should get a call about then. We started to go a little stir crazy so we took the kids out to dinner at Blaze Pizza to try and distract us before coming home and watching some Olympics.
By 9 o clock he called them and left a message for the on-call nurse to call us back. At 9:20 she called and said everything on the initial blood work looked good. He was given instructions to go to the IMC in Murray at 8am the next morning for final blood work and some other last step tests.
I was hosting a baby shower the following morning at 11 and since we were afraid to get our hopes up and plan on it too definitely, we decided I would stay and do the shower while Bryce attended his last minute testing and would have Moff (his sister) with him. We were told if he was given he green light for the transplant then the surgery would take place later in the afternoon. We felt confident this would allow me to fulfill my obligation of the baby shower and still be able to be with Bryce should the surgery take place. Since we only have one car I was planning to ride the train up with the kids to the hospital (the train goes right to it) but at the insistence of JoDee (our friend from Bryce’s hometown who was in Provo visiting) she said she would come and get the boys during the shower and then take us all up to Salt Lake.
It was hard- I wish we had known from the beginning that it was going to work out because then we could have enjoyed it more. Instead we had to lower our expectations at every step in case it didn’t pan out. We’ve spent so much of this time worrying that it won’t and bracing ourselves for the worst that it’s robbed us of a little bit of joy. But such is life sometimes. I’m sure there’s a lesson and analogy in there somewhere but I can’t connect the dots right now. Regardless of it having a little less happiness than we want, we are still immeasurably grateful. So many hundreds of little miracles and small pieces had to fall into place for things to work out the way they have. We know it’s not just a coincidence and no one could convince us otherwise.
For today I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
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