I’m a firm believer that God does things for a reason, and he gives us many signs and signals if we only pay attention.

In January, I had seen a post on Facebook about a girl with Angelman syndrome who also was in dire need of a kidney transplant. I didn’t think much about it at the time and didn’t recognize the person who made the post.

A few weeks later I saw the same picture when I went to make a post on Facebook myself. I went to find the picture when I was done and couldn’t find it. I asked fellow mamas in a group message who would have made the post. They told me and I didn’t recognize the name. I am not the type to accept friend requests from people if I haven’t met them (I get several from fellow Angelman parents).

Somehow I became friends with the lady who was sharing Kendall’s picture. To this day, I still do not know how other than God.

Later that evening, I showed my husband, Chris, Kendall’s picture and asked him what he thought about me trying to see if I was a match. He agreed that if we could help save her we should. We have two daughters who also have Angelman syndrome. Our oldest daughter is a year younger than Kendall, and our daughter that we adopted from Ukraine 3 years ago just turned 7. Chris and I couldn’t imagine either of our girls having to endure dialysis. They just wouldn’t understand and it would be an impossible situation for the whole family.

I then sent it my questionnaire and did the preliminary labs and found my blood and antigens were a match. I then flew from Texas to Cincinnati on two more occasions to complete the long battery of testing.

On March 8th I was officially approved by the donor committee as the living donor candidate for Kendall and surgery is scheduled for June 11th. The committees only stipulation for approving me was that I had to agree to stay in Cincinnati until my follow up appointment 10 days later. I agreed, but knew we were going to have to get creative as my husband and I have six children that also need caring for.

After much praying and discussing, we decided to bring the kids with us to Cincinnati as well as my mother in law and a family friend to help while Chris is with me in the hospital.

Seizures are a big part of Angelman syndrome and our oldest has lost seizure control recently. I knew I wouldn’t be able to focus on recovering if I was worried about her being so far away for almost two weeks. We have rented a 12 passenger van and an Airbnb as well as hotels to and from Cincinnati.

I am honestly just so thankful that I was a match and God saw fit to allow me to be the one to help save Kendall. We try very hard to show our kids life isn’t about this world and what we want, it’s about getting to heaven and helping as many people along the way as we can!

Your foundation is a testament of that, and I greatly appreciate you even considering helping us out.