Happy National Donor Day!

Today I am doing something out of the ordinary.  Most of my childhood was spent desiring to be “normal” like all the other kids.  As an adult with the ability to reflect back-I would say to my younger self “Stop trying to be normal-it’s no fun being like everyone else!”

Thankfully that mindset was washed away with age, and I’ve pretty much not taken “the road most travelled” by our current society norms.  I didn’t stay on the road when Scott and I decided long before we got married, that I would stay home if we were blessed with children.  That meant a one income lifestyle, with the sacrifices that go along with the reduced income.  Many choose this route, but it isn’t easy. 

I certainly didn’t follow the road of “typical” heart transplant patient when I decided to have children.  This is something highly discouraged in the transplant community for many reasons that I won’t go into in this post.  Suffice it to say, currently I’m the only heart transplant patient with children that my transplant doctors care for.  To show you how rare it is:  According to the National Transplant Pregnancy Registry; 35 children have been born to Heart Transplant Recipients (#33 & #34 are Leah & Nolan) and 11 babies are second children to heart transplant recipients (Nolan is #11).  I am so grateful I took a different road than the “norm”.

A few years later, another crossroads, and we decided to hop off the path of least resistance and embark on the journey of homeschooling.  I say “path of least resistance” because we are fully aware that many are not in agreement with us teaching the kids and not sending them to public school.  We can’t blame them, as that is what generations of parents for over 100 years have done and certainly would be the easier route to take.  But if you’ve read this far, you’ll know by now, I don’t follow the easy path.  I follow the path laid before me by our heavenly Father.  It would be easier to follow the crowd (mostly).

So today, I’ll embark on another path that’s isn’t so life altering as the above paths by any stretch of the imagination.  But it isn’t done often in society by women for some unknown reason to me.  Years ago just before my 25^th birthday a friend and I were talking about heart transplant patients and their longevity.  I remember telling her, “I’ll be lucky to make it to 40.”

Today-I celebrate my birthday and I am announcing to the world my REAL AGE.  Yes, I turn 41 years old today!  And I am proud of it.  I’ve earned and been blessed by every single one of those years and am not ashamed of my age.  Nor will I be ashamed when I announce that I am turning 50, or 60, or God willing 70!  I for one am grateful for every single year I celebrate and truthfully-we all should be.  I will never understand this “29 again” or “39 again” mentality and cannot relate to it.  But I suppose there’s a lot of our “normal” society I will never be able to relate to.  And that’s ok with me.  For me-being average-is not normal. 

Happy National Donor Day!  God bless organ donors and their families.