Monday morning, Steve and I drove four hours to Chapel Hill, NC where Kelly, a woman who attends our church, was having surgery to give one of her kidneys to her 6-year old daughter, Sophie.
Is she cute, or what?
This family knew back when Sophie was still in the womb that she had serious kidney problems. In fact, the doctors actually told Sophie’s parents that her kidney problems, in addition to some other health issues, were so severe that Kelly should strongly consider having an abortion. After making the choice to go ahead with the pregnancy, they waited for six years for the right time for the kidney transplant to take place.
And this past Tuesday was it!. Sophie had been on dialysis for several weeks leading up to the surgery because her one remaining kidney was in very poor shape so the surgery came just in time.
We were at the hospital at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday to meet the family as they arrived and then were back with them in the pre-op area to pray with them before the surgeries began. It was such an honor to get to be with them on such a momentous day. We stayed at the hospital until about 4 p.m. when the surgeons finally finished up with Sophie.
The surgeries went great and the best news is that Sophie’s new kidney is already working like a champ, lowering her creatinine numbers to the lowest levels they have been in her whole life!
It was such a joy to be part of their journey and to witness the miracle of medicine. It was also wonderful to be able to join a church and a community in praying for them and in celebrating this incredible gift of love that a mom gave to her daughter.
Sophie is the same age that Sarah was back when she was having her cancer surgeries and so spending the day at the hospital with Sophie’s family brought back a whole bunch of memories of our long hospital days with Sarah.
But now? We can be grateful that Sarah’s hospital days are behind us and we can join Sophie’s family in being grateful that her hospital days will be behind her soon!
Two daughters. Two hospitals. Two bright futures!
Sarah is spending the whole day at the larger High School in our county shadowing three of the English teachers there. Her school requires all seniors to spend a day shadowing someone in the field that they are interested in pursuing. Sarah was pretty nervous this morning as I drove her to the school but I know she’ll do great and have plenty of stories to tell tonight at dinner time.
I’ll close out with a few recent pictures I took of my (past) cancer warrior and my (future) English teacher daughter.
Two before/after edits.
In this edit, I just now realized that I forgot to take Sarah’s left hand “out” of the brick wall. Oh well. An interesting effect, right?
So proud of our girl and so excited about the future in front of her.
The pictures of Sarah are breathtaking! She is such a beautiful girl – inside and out!!
I’m glad she has the opportunity to shadow the English teachers. I would encourage her to take any opportunity she can to get into the schools and experience the “real life” of teaching. If possible it would be helpful to do an internship or volunteer to come in and tutor students who need extra help. When I was in college there were a couple of students in my senior year that got all the way to student teaching and then realized they didn’t like teaching or being in the school. It’s always better to figure out a career isn’t for you before the final semester of your senior year!
Courtney,
You are absolutely right about that. Sarah said that even during the one day spent shadowing yesterday, her eyes were opened to several things she hadn’t realized before. One of those things was when a teacher told her that teaching is not a job you can leave behind you when you go home–you are thinking about it, preparing for it, or working on it even during weekends or during “off” time.
As for tutoring, just recently Sarah was honored to be chosen to be a part of a tutoring team that is available to help underclassmen with writing projects that they’re struggling with. That’s been a good experience for her and gives her a taste of teaching.
And yes, I agree. The final semester of your senior year is NOT a good time to realize you don’t like what you’ve been studying! 🙂
Lovely pictures of a lovely lady. What is that contraption above Sarah in the hospital picture?
What a beautiful story about your church family, God is good!
Joleen,
If I’m not mistaken, I think that contraption is a scale that can be used without the patient needing to stand up. After a surgery, a daily weighing is important to make sure there is no unusual weight gain due to fluid retention. There are probably other reasons for the weigh-in but that’s the main one I remember.
I did not realize that Sarah wanted to be an english teacher. What a perfect profession for her.
Lesley,
Yeah, she just started talking about it in the last six months or so. Of course she still wants to be a writer but she’s realistic enough to know that that won’t pay the bills over the long haul.
Becky, Did you notice one of those nurses actually has on a nurses cap?! So rare these days. Praying for continued healing for Sophie and Kelly, also the rest of their family and all those involved in their care.
Mary,
That’s funny you should mention that; I remember 11 years ago when that photo was taken that I was amazed, even back then, that she was wearing a cap. I think she was the only one I saw who had one on!
This is one of those times when I think Sophie & Kelly should go back to the doctors and said to abort and introduce Sophie to them. I truly believe that God has the master plan and if he blesses us with a baby God knows the plan for the baby. Great pictures of Sarah.
Becky,
God truly had a plan for sweet Sophie’s life! What a joy to see her becoming strong and healthy.