My Aunt and Uncle

(My mom, my Uncle Rich and my Aunt Jerri ~ Christmas 2007)

Around about Christmas, my Aunt Jerri got sick ~ VERY sick. About a month later, she was diagnosed with cancer of the gall bladder and I think the liver. They couldn't do chemotherapy and told her that they couldn't cure her, but they would do everything in their power to make her comfortable. She went through 30 days of radiation, and they said that it didn't help. She's doing pretty good now - she has her good days and her bad days. She is 82.

Tonight, me, Chloe, my mom and a bunch of my cousins and a couple of Aunts and Uncles went to my Aunt's house to play games and just hang out for awhile. Thankfully she was having a good day! We were sitting around getting ready to play a game, when my other Aunts cell phone rang.

Let me back up a bit. My Uncle, Rich, has diabetes, and bad kidneys and goes to dialysis once a week. A couple of weeks ago, when he went to dialysis, they put the needle in the wrong place, and he ended up with a hematoma in his arm. His arm basically burst open, I know, pretty gross, but this is what happened. He joked about how is arm looked like Popeye's! He was talking tonight that he was going to need surgery on his arm. About 30 minutes later, my Aunt Monty's(Rich's wife) cell phone rang. It was the University of Chicago. They have a kidney for my Uncle. I cannot begin to tell you about the chills that ran through my body. I immediately began to pray. She went into the basement (so she could hear) to get all of the information, and then came upstairs to tell us the good news! The kidney was coming from Wisconsin, so they had to head home, pack some bags, and then call them in 30 minutes. We all gathered around and prayed for him. An hour or so later, my cousin Kim (Rich's daughter) called and said that they were on their way to the hospital and that surgery was going to be at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow!

This is all just bittersweet for me. Here I have an Aunt who is essentially dying, and an Uncle who may be getting a start at a new life tomorrow! He's been waiting for a new kidney for 5 years.

Please keep both my Aunt and my Uncle in your prayers. They are both so special to me, and we have had so many good times with them! Also keep the donors family in your prayers, because I'm sure that their hearts are breaking, because they just lost a loved one.

**I've made mention of this blog before, but I want to mention it again, because I think it really pertains to this post. Check it out!**