Daley Ponderings

We went to the CORE ceremony today. The ceremony was for donors and recipients of organ donations from 2002. Isaac's heart valves were collected and frozen for future use. They have not yet been transplanted into anyone yet, but I guess they can be stored for a couple years and they will still work fine.

Originally, we were a little concerned about the content of the ceremony, that I know some people view the donation process as the only means of having something good come out of something bad. However, most of the ceremony was nice. A couple recipients spoke, and said how grateful they are that some donor gave them a new kidney, heart, etc. I guess I hadn't really thought about it too much, what it means to a person who receives the organs. They had us release balloons that floated off (and put lots of rubber into the environment -- we were sort of surprised that people still do that...) They also had doves that they let go and fly away. The neat part was that they were trained, and so they swooped and circled around us a bunch of times before flying off. Presumably they flew back to the zoo or some other location to be picked up again.

I met one couple who talked about their son, who was born with a heart defect and moved to the NICU at Children's Hospital (he was in a bed one or two away from where Isaac was). The doctor (Dr. Death, as the parents call him) had no hope that a replacement heart could be found in time, nor that even if it was, that the transplant would be successful. As it turns out, a heart was found within a week or two, and the boy is now five years old, and doing great!

One thing that struck Heather and me as we watched the video of the pictures of all the donors, was how many people in our region donated organs last year. That number is probably a small percentage of the total number of people who died. In the video, they listed the person's name and age. It was easier to think about the older people dying, but when the people were younger than me, especially teens and younger, it is hard to think about them dying so young.

Isaac "won the award" for being the youngest donor last year -- the handful of kids who were a year or two or younger really affected the people watching -- you could hear sighs from all the families. The couple that I mentioned earlier had seen the video at a prior event, and as we started talking to them they remembered Heather and Isaac from the picture -- and that was only one picture out of hundreds.

I encourage you to look into this program, and see what a difference it can make in people's lives.

Many of you have asked if there is anything new. Nope. The coroner's office moves extremely slowly. Supposedly, the judge is working on a final draft of her decision -- at least that is what they told me 3 weeks ago. The coroner's office told us not to call them, "we'll call you", so we are trying to be patient as the days tick by.

We have been dealing with medical bills, insurance, collection agencies, etc. as everything gets confusing because some charges go under Heather's name (though she wasn't ever at the hospital) some are under "Baby", some under "Unknown" and some under "Isaac". But, we are slowly getting things figured out, and the insurance company called a provider that wasn't listening to us, so hopefully all that will be figured out shortly. (I think their slowness is only surpassed by the legal system). (:

Thanks for all of your continued prayers. It is still stressful having this not finished.

We are going to be checking out a birth center north of Pittsburgh for our second child. We hope that we will be able to go there.

Prayer requests:
Continued prayers for us to trust God's guidance in our lives, and for our faith as we seek Him.
For my stubborn sinfulness, in letting small things get me worked up. Pray that God would show grace and mercy to me in humbling me.