Second Chances

I heard a new motto over the weekend: "live like your donor is watching."

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremonies for the Transplant Games of America. Never in my life have I experienced something both wonderfully joyful and full of life, and at the same time with an undertone of loss and sorrow. My brother sums it up pretty succinctly this tweet:

We attended the opening ceremonies because our cousin is an organ recipient and our family’s miracle. To be honest, I didn’t give much thought to miracles until 14 years ago my cousin needed a liver as soon as possible or she would die; like need a liver in the next 24 hours. My cousin lived in Oklahoma and most of our family lives in Michigan. There was not much we could do as a family being so far away, so we did the only thing we could: we gathered and we prayed.

I cannot tell you what we prayed for because I’m not sure we were praying for an organ, a fully recovery, strength, and a second chance, maybe all of these above. My brothers, my other cousins, and I, we did not quite understand what was going on. We would play outside and every time we went inside we would join hands with our parents and pray together. I do remember constant praying. Then we got the news that we had prayed for: there was a liver. It was a match, it was at her hospital, and it was hers.

This is rare. It is rare for a liver to come into the hospital of a liver-needing patient and even rarer for it to be a match. This was not coincidence. This was a miracle. I learned two things that day: 1. Miracles are real; 2. Prayer is powerful. Not all prayers are answered like this; some are answered with more subtly.

My cousin walking in the parade of athletes.

Flash forward to the transplant games. I was surrounded by miracles. The miracle of life was all around me. It was a moment filled with joy, but it also reminded me that in order for these miracles to take place, in many circumstances, someone else lost a loved one. Happy and sad in once place. To see the parade of recipients full of life and then to see the donor families holding pictures of their loved ones created a mix of tears of joy and sorrow. However, what is amazing is that every single recipient present was mindful of the sacrifice that was paid for their lives.

It’s all very Christ-like. Jesus died on the cross so that you and I might have a second chance. A chance a renewed life. His death gave us a direct line to God who hears all of our prayer. These donors and their families have given of themselves to save the life of another. They have given the gift of life and a second chance. The organ recipients are now directly connected to their donor and the donor's families. The transplant games are a way for those connections to be shared and for the lives lived and  the lives being lived to be celebrated. It is truly something amazing and I am so glad I was a part of it. I will continue to pray for all those who have lost a loved one for comfort in their loss, but I also praise them for their act of love in donation. I continue to pray for all those on the transplant list, for strength and healing. I pray for all those who are not signed up to be donors that they come to realize the gift of life that they can give.

For more information on organ donation visit: http://donatelife.net/