More to donate??

I'm on a roll, I just found out last week that Arkansas now has a Cord Blood Donation Bank!

When we had Will, we looked into private banking, but it's just sooo expensive!  And who knows if you'll ever even need it, and when do you make the decision to stop payments and wash it down the sink??  At that point there was no public bank you could donate to.  We wondered why...

But now, little ol' Arkansas has their own donation bank right here in Little Rock!  Once they get enough donations they'll be linked to the national donation bank.  And it's free, so if you need it, it's there waiting, but if someone else can use it, it could save a life of a stranger!

To learn more, go here!!

February!

Be the match

Several years ago, I was made aware of a family whose precious little baby was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 8 weeks.  They moved to Memphis and were patients of St. Jude's for over a year.  During this year, we prayed, raised awareness, and had a bone marrow search drive. 

I was so hopeful about the drive.

I think this family and all the supporters across the nation added over 10,000 donors to the official Bone Marrow Registry list.  None of them were even close matches.

Their baby boy lost his battle shortly after his first birthday.  

Since that encounter, I have been aching to be the match for someone.  

I donate blood (when I'm not pregnant) but people don't die because they can't find a blood donor...

Did you know that less than 40% of the population is eligible to donate blood?  And of that number, only about 5% of them donate?

I would donate an organ to anyone who asked, especially a family member.

But today, I was contacted by the National Bone Marrow Registry as a possible match for a patient.  I was so excited, hopeful, anxious...then it hit me.  I'm pregnant!  No doctor would take that kind of a risk on a pregnant woman and her baby!  Even to save someone else.  I told the person on the phone how far along I was, she very kindly talked me into putting myself into "unavailable" status...I felt horrible.  I asked her what would happen if of the other preliminary matches, I turned out to be the closest.  She said the patient would probably pursue another form of treatment, and if that didn't work, might return to the registry to try and find another match.  Maybe months down the road.

What if it were me?  My husband?  My parent?  That desperatly needed fresh bone marrow?  But the match was just out of reach.  Please join me in praying for this family and the doctors making decisions for them.  I am so willing to help, just crushed that I'm not able.

The good news is, I have 30 more eligible years on the registry, so who knows.  

If you would like to join the registry, it's totally free and simple.  Go here:

http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx

You will be asked to fill out a questionnaire, then a kit will mailed to your house for you to swab your cheek with.  No needles!  (of course if you are a match...big needles....)

If you are between the ages of 18 and 61, please consider joining today!!

For this child I have prayed.

I Samuel 1:27

I love it when I see this verse snippet on birth announcements, on walls of nurseries or anywhere else.  I think most of us pray for our children, pray to have them, pray for them to be healthy, to have a relationship with God, the list is literally endless.

But in I Samuel, Hannah prayed.  She prayed for years.  In that culture, her friends didn't assume, oh, she's focused on her career right now, they'll have kids later.  Or, they are just really enjoying the couple-y time of their marriage, they're going to wait a few years.  No, back then, everyone who knew Hannah, knew she was barren.  They figured she or her family had done something to displease God and he had simply closed her womb.  She was a freak, an outsider, she no longer had anything in common with any other women in town.  Hannah felt alone.  She felt she had failed her husband despite his sweet words telling her otherwise.

Then one year, Eli heard her prayer, prayed on her behalf, and the Lord Almighty used this barren woman to fulfill his will.  She finally gave birth to a boy named Samuel.  

In our Sunday school class we talked about how God meets us at our shortcomings.  What we consider weaknesses and failings, He uses to His glory.  How else could God truly shine but to take things that are broken by human standards and make miracles appear from them?  

We all have barren times in our life.  We have days that we think we can't go on.  But if we let God, he will use those times to not only draw us closer to Him, but to draw in others as well.

Almost a year ago today I lost a little baby.  My second.  And while I am great-big-pregnant right now, I had a moment today where the sadness washed over me and tears came to my eyes remembering that night, all the emotions, all the horrible feelings.  One thing sticks out, I remember the nurse I was on the phone with praying with me.  She was so comforting.  She had lost a baby once too and she prayed with me.  Words so specific to what I felt inside, no one else could have known.  

I spent the next 6 months grieving and praying.  Not sure if I'd be able to pick myself up again if the unthinkable were to occur again.

Then one night while driving home alone, and praying, I felt this confidence.  I was all in.  If God would bless me with another pregnancy, I would rely on others.  I would ask for prayers.  I would be hopeful and not fearful.  I would push the what-ifs away and focus on the hope.  

Where I can't, God can.

I believe God has used my "barren" period of time to His Glory.  My faith has increased, my relationships have increased.  I have been able to make myself more vulnerable than ever before.  AND, I have been blessed enough to be that voice on the other end of the line.  I have been that shoulder, and I plan to be for the rest of my life.  I thank God profusely for that.  

So having said all of this, the inspiration of this passage, not to mention countless other "broken" people that God has made stronger through their human weaknesses, we are going to name our daughter Hannah Louise.  A tribute to 2 amazing women.  More on Louise later :)