What is the best gift you ever received?

There are so many occasions where we receive gifts.  We give and get gifts on our birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and to celebrate an accomplishment.  Gifts are a special way to show someone you love them or to apologize when you do something stupid.  If you had to think of the best gift you ever received, what would your answer be?  A puppy?  A piece of jewelry?  How about if I asked you what was the best gift you ever gave to someone?  Well, I have a story for you.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl.  She was born into a home full of love.  Her parents would have given her anything to make her happy and healthy, but unfortunately, she had a liver condition called biliary atresia.  A condition that would deteriorate her liver and body and quality of life to the point where she was nearly broken.  What could her parents do?  What could anyone do but pray and hope that things would get better?

Last year, a woman dealing with a tragic turn of events was asking God why she was being faced with a decision she was not ready to make.  Her husband had been brought to the hospital with a headache and nausea.  Two days later her was pronounced brain dead from a cerebral hemorrhage.  Why?  How was she ever going to explain this to her children?  How would they understand it?  Would they ever know the kind of father they had only had for eight and four years?  She only wished there was a way for her tragic loss to have a reason.  Her head was spinning with the medical terminology being used in conversation by the doctors.  Her heart was breaking at the thought of explaining to her children that they had to say good-bye to their dad.  Her stomach was sick at the thought that she was going to be a widow at 41 years of age.  Of all the nurses, doctors, friends and family at the hospital, she was also asked to give her attention to the organ donation staff.  Would she be willing to let her husband's organs be evaluated to see if any were suitable for transplant?  She did not have to think long about her answer.  If there was anything they could harvest, she gave them permission to do so.

That girl received a new liver nearly a year ago.  She is a smiling young lady that is the healthiest she has ever been.  She gets to buy cute clothes again because she is living a normal life for an eleven year-old girl.   Her parents must be so excited to feel that they are going to be able to experience something that could have been taken away from them.  They are going to see her grow up. 

Amid all the stress, emotions, devistation, and despair, that woman cleared her mind long enough to know that the only way something good could come from her heartbreak was to allow the organ procurement team to do their jobs.  The precious gift of life that her husband possessed could become a gift of life to someone else.  Someone received his spleen, his corneas, and his liver.

April 19th, 2013 is Blue and Green Day.  It is about supporting organ, eye, and tissue donation.  Make sure your family and friends know if you want your organs donated.  If something tragic puts them in the position to have to make that decision, make it easier by telling them before it happens.  If for some reason you feel organ donation is, "weird," or, "creepy," consider how you would feel if you (or your daughter) needed a new liver, or a heart, or a kidney, or a spleen, or a lung... 

The best gift you can give is the one someone else cannot live without.  How often do we get that opportunity?  Be an organ donor.  Make sure people know you want to be an organ donor.  If you have to make that decision for someone you love, I think it is always best to err on the side of life-giving generosity.

(Dedicated to Dave, jr.)