To participate in Pour Your Heart out, just click the button. For WW, you know what to do!
Some of you already know that I have entered a Fathers Day T-Shirt design contest. I am totally going to pimp it out until June 9th. Yes, it would be nice to win the iPad and other prizes and I wouldn't turn them down. However, there is another reason that I designed a shirt focused on Organ Donation. (Here is where the WW comes in) The reason is the little girl in the pictures below.
My little Monkey wouldn't be here today without Organ Donation. She received her Liver transplant on November 18, 2008. Ever since then she has been a completely new baby and now toddler. I can't imagine my life without her. It is difficult to wrap my head around the fact that there was even a possibility that we could have lost her. At the time I didn't realise how very sick she was. She was happy. She seemed to be relatively healthy, aside from her yellow skin. She did sleep a lot, but we thought that we just had a good and very laid back baby. Our world turned upside down when we were told that she did indeed have liver disease. She went through a surgery to try to help her liver, but it failed almost immediately. Then she had surgery to place a central IV line because I was tired of seeing my little baby be tortured just to start an IV. It was one of the best decisions I ever made for her health during that time. Then came her transplant. 6 1/2 hours of sitting and waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting for the nurse from the OR to tell me how my baby was doing. Waiting to see her afterwards. While we did take pictures of her in PICU afterwards, I didn't want pictures taken of her with the ventilator in her mouth. If someone did take them, I don't want to know. I'm weird like that. The other side of transplant is an amazing place.
I can't help but think that if I can get the word out there for people to go at least look at the shirt, if not vote for it, they would start to think about the message it presents. If I can touch all of my followers on here, all of my followers on Twitter, and my friends on FB, then I have done my part for Organ Donation today. No one should ever have to lose their loved ones because an organ wasn't available to them. I have witnessed quite a few liver babies pass because of this. It always breaks my heart. We were extremely blessed with Monkey's wait. She waited for 22 days on the transplant list. A family who lost their child gave us the most precious and wonderful gift anyone could have ever given us. Their child now lives on through Monkey. So please, at least go look at the shirt. Consider what it stands for. Please take the time to think about making the decision to become a donor if you aren't already. If you choose to vote for the shirt, I appreciate it. If you choose to become an Organ Donor, you will forever be my Hero. And please, spread the word.
