To our dearest donor family…
I don’t even know where to begin to thank you for the gift you selflessly gave to our family this past June. As I sat across from my son at Thanksgiving dinner this week, all I could think about was your family.
Our family has a Thanksgiving tablecloth. Each year, everyone in attendance at Thanksgiving dinner writes what they are thankful for. Over the years, it has become a beautiful history of our family as it has grown and we’ve witnessed God’s miracles in our lives. This year, all I could write was that I was thankful for the gift of organ donation.
But really, I just mean you.
And the gift you gave to our family.
I know Thanksgiving can’t have been an easy holiday for you this year. I’m sure your table felt a little emptier, and it may have been hard to think of things to be grateful for this year.
I want you to know you’re in my prayers.
Not just on Thanksgiving, but every day.
Every time I watch my son hit a new milestone we never dared to hope for before, my joy and pride are always tinged with love and sadness for your family.
But in this season of thankfulness, it seemed the right time to reach out to you and say thank you. The words seem hollow and tiny compared to the gift you gave us, but truthfully, there are no words that would encompass what we feel.
I just want you to know what a profound difference your choice has made.
Because of your decision, for the first time in his life, our 14 year old son doesn’t have to choose his activities based on what he’s physically capable of. After feeling for 14 years as though “there was an elephant on my chest,” he can breathe freely when he walks and runs.
Because of your decision, our seventeen year old daughter got a lifetime of memories to make with her little brother.
Because of your decision, for the first time in his life, our son knows what it’s like to have a whole heart pumping blood through his body. He was born with half a heart, and before his heart transplant, he had undergone 6 heart surgeries that re-routed his blood flow so that his half a heart could sustain his entire body. But that half a heart was never meant to sustain the entire body. (Yes, this means he was born with half a heart, and not even the good half! He only had the right half, which is only meant to pump blood to the lungs. The left half, the workhorse half, built to pump to the entire body, just never developed. At all.) And on top of his missing left ventricle, he had inherited a rhythm disorder from my husband, so had been pacemaker dependent since he was two months old. Needless to say, his heart was a bit of a mess. And his whole body knew it. He did the best he could. But now, for the first time in his life, he has a body working the way it’s supposed to. It’s as though his whole future is suddenly wide open.
Before transplant, our son couldn’t keep up with his friends. His friends understood. They would slow down and wait for him. But he was always behind. And he noticed. Competitive sports were entirely out of the question. Even recreational sports were a challenge for him. And he tired out so easily. He couldn’t say yes to things his friends did. Because he knew his body couldn’t do them. He knew he needed rest. His entire life had been that way. So for him to be able to keep up now is nothing short of a miracle. His friends noticed almost immediately once we returned home from his transplant.
And I want you to know a little bit about the life you so selflessly saved. Bodie is an extraordinary kid. He will tell you he’s not, and he’s really uncomfortable when people make a big deal about him. He’s a really humble kid. He’s very smart, but will also tell you he’s not that either. He’s extremely funny, and has had a great sense of comedic timing from the time he was little. Maybe it was from spending months in the hospital as a baby, or being in and out of medical appointments as he got older. But whatever the case, he’s a really funny kid. He can deliver one liners like none other (that’s actually how I knew he was going to be ok in the hospital – when his sarcastic zingers started coming back to him). He’s the most fun person to get gifts for, because he gets so excited and is so grateful. He’s quiet and unassuming and he doesn’t open up to everyone. But when he does, you see this amazingly funny and vibrant kid. A teenage boy who loves Minecraft and videogaming and Legos. And has a soft spot for animals and will adopt every single one if you’d let him (we currently have 5 cats, 2 dogs, a bunny, a turtle and lots of chickens and ducks, if that gives you an idea).
To say that your gift has made a difference doesn’t even scratch the surface. You have profoundly altered the course of our son’s life, and the life of our entire family and the community.
I don’t know if you know this, but when our son was listed for a heart, he was on life support. Everything happened so quickly. He went from graduating from 8th grade to being in full blown heart failure and on life support within a week. He was only on the transplant list for 16 hours, and his body took to this new heart almost immediately. Everything happened so quickly we barely had time to think. But what we know for certain is this. It was so abundantly clear that our son was where he was supposed to be exactly when he was supposed to be there. We didn’t know it at the time, but God was orchestrating our miracle. A miracle that unfolded in front of hundreds of thousands of people following his journey. The video of him waking up and learning he had received a new heart has been viewed by over a million people! And this miracle was only made possible by your generosity.
Dearest donor family, I don’t know what the future holds, But I do know that my son has had this new heart for 5 months now, and his body really likes it. He’s grown almost 3 inches and 3 shoe sizes. His life is completely different than it was 5 months ago. And his future is so, so bright.
Thank you so much.
In your time of grief, you made the most selfless decision. And whatever our son does with this new life, please know that he will take this precious heart with him, and use this second chance at life to leave a lasting impact.
Thank you for our greatest gift.
God Bless You.