What a wonderful year!

My transplant center has a sign up that says "Amazing Things are Happening Here", and I honestly am going to agree 110% with them! Since March they have been kicking ass at saving fellow CF patients lives! In March, my friend Charlie had a double lung transplant. Lyndsey followed in April! Most recently, my friend Allison who had a lung transplant back in 2004, needed a kidney transplant, and received one on 11/9/11 from an amazing friend of hers. Who knew I would be called two days later for my double lung transplant, followed almost one month later by another amazing friend of mine, Kristy! This is going to be one of the BEST holiday seasons ever!! I can't even imagine that we have all been blessed enough to have a second chance at life, free from the CF burdens (coughing, hours of therapy, hospital stays, nebulizers etc.). Not that we are in the clear and scott free because we had a transplant. There are tons of medications, and doctors appointments and tiny things that you need to pay close attention to, BUT doing all this and feeling GOOD is NO comparison to what it was like dealing with the old, sick, crappy CF lungs.

The picture above was taken this summer. Lyndsey, Piper, Kelley and Alli all had their new lungs already. Alli was waiting for her kidney, and Kristy and I were waiting for lungs. All of our prayers have now been answered! The next time we get together, there will be NO oxygen cannulas, and rushing home because we ran out of oxygen! We'll be able to laugh without coughing, maybe even take a stroll on the beach once the weather gets warmer! There are so many exciting things that are now a possibility. I am so lucky to have this group of girls to go through this amazing journey.

That's it for now. I promise I will try and update more often! Please pray for all of our donor families, as this first holiday season without their loved ones is probably going to be the hardest. Also, please, please, please, become an organ donor if you aren't already! It really does save lives - just look at the picture above! That's SIX people who would not still be here right now if it wasn't for organ donation.