Become an Organ Donor...

I have had a little red heart on my drivers license for years, at least 15 years I think. It means I am a registered organ donor.

 I did it while updating my drivers license at some point in time.

Recently the idea of what this means became up close and personal to my family, very personal. 

Within a 6 week period of time, my brother-in-law went from not feeling well, to full liver failure with his kidneys starting to fail as well... and then being told he was declined approval to be added to the organ transplant list for a liver transplant. This was at the top transplant hospital in our area. 

He was told to go home to hospice.

Through a series of miracles ( I am not using that term lightly...I truly believe they really were miracles) as hundreds of prayer warriors were standing in the gap in prayer for him.
He not only got approved for the transplant list via a different hospital in Seattle, but he also received his new liver just one week after being added to the National Transplant List. He was at the top of our regions list when his name was added, that is how sick he was.

If this had not happened, we would not have this wonderful man alive and continuing to get better day after day today. We are all so very thankful, and in awe of what happened.

As the head of that hospitals transplant team told him later... a certain doctor with clout went to bat for him, and advocated for him...saying "he's a good man, and needs a chance". I feel that the favor of God was with my brother in law, and gave him favor with all those who were associated with his case.

Now that being said, we need to also recognize that another family had experienced a devastating loss, while my family was rejoicing for our precious family member getting a chance at life. While we were crying with excitement, another family was weeping for their personal loss.

I can only pray for that family as they mourn for their lost son, father, brother, uncle, and loved one. I can also be very thankful that the donor and his family gave our family and others families life at the time they were in the depth of their loss... because he was a registered organ donor.  I wish I could thank them personally at some time.

I encourage anyone and everyone, if you have not signed up to be an organ donor, do so. To find out more click on  The National Donation Network, to see what it is about. 

If you have questions about how your religion views this program, you may be surprised to know that most religions support organ and tissue donation as a selfless act of giving.  To give ones organs is an expression to a true deep act of the command to "love thy neighbor". 
You may want to click here for more information regarding your faith and being a donor.

If you go to Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network OPTN, you will see how many are "waiting list candidates"... as of today, it shows 118,545, and every 10 minutes someone new is added to the list.  

 On average 18 people die every day because they did not receive an organ donation. Did you know that the success rate for organ transplantation is 80-90%?

Because we are in Washington State, we are connected to a region made up of Washington, Oregon, North Idaho, Alaska, Montana and Hawaii, for transplants. The good news is some of these states have a very high percentage of organ donor registrations. I read that Montana is 84%, and Washington is 74%. 

I also read that Vermont is 5%, New Jersey is 30% and New York is 20%, which would mean our story may have had a different ending if we had lived in the region that included these states.

Many states like mine, Washington let you sign up at the Department of Licensing. To find out how to register in your state, and get more information,  click on Organ Donor.gov, and choose your state from the drop down bar on the upper right side of the page.

I know this is not a subject we like to think about, but if your family member was the one needing a transplant, this subject becomes very personal and real. You just don't know.

Jan

Loving my Camera Again!

I have been enjoying my camera lately, to distract my mind from some difficult things that are going on in a family members life. 

Recently I had signed up for a basic course in how to use my manual settings on my Nikon DSLR camera, and think it was worth every penny of the Groupon price I payed for it.

It is really challenging to use the different Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed settings, so much to learn.

I thought I would post a few of my recent shots... what do you think?

My favorite is the hummingbird, he was almost asking to have his picture taken, as he kept buzzing around me. 

I haven't posted in a while, so please comment to let me know you have come by to visit!

Jan

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Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday...Snow and more...

After seeing the theme  for this weeks Sepia Saturday...I knew I had some family pictures that fit the theme of snow, long coats and more...and my mom is in each of them.


Being from the midwest, I should have a lot more snow pictures then I do. My brother has many of the pictures of my father, so you will see that mine show mom. I need to get the pictures of dad, and get them scanned for my family to have too.

 What has amazed me when I look at pictures from this era, is how everyone was almost  always dressed to the "T"s! 

My mother, Gloria  in the early 40's, yes in Minnesota. The above photo is unique, as she wore skirts more often then not, so one with her in pants is unusual for this period of her life.

This is an earlier shot with my mother on the left, her favorite cousin next to her, then her little sister Carol and her mother Agnes. 

 Her mother had many sisters, so my mother was surrounded by aunts and cousins. Her mothers family lived very close to each other in St Paul, in fact she had an aunt who lived across the street.

With the snowstorms they are having in the Northeast,  I imagine it won't be hard to get some perfect shots NOW for this theme!

Now another shot of mom and my sister Chrys in 1998, on a trip we made to Scandinavia in 1998. This is when we were in Finland for a couple days...the ships on this overnight cruise ship take you through the Baltic from Stockholm to Helsinki, I would of loved to spend more time then we had.

My next shot is me, in a snowstorm we had a few years back. In the Pacific NW the world stops when it snows. Schools close, people do not  go to work, every one panics.

Thanks for visiting!

Jan

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Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday...did you say bike or maybe transportation?

This weeks Sepia Saturday has some options, and bikes (or should I say transportation), were clearly my takeoff.

My brother Ron was 11 months older then me, and got first shot at the vehicles...

Are you seeing what I am seeing? The boys ride, the girls don't. Now it is a while later and you see my little sister with me, and my older brother Dale with Ron as well. Where are the girls bikes?

Well, when I was a kid, my preferred mode of transportation was a horse. 

When I was 12, I got my first horse, which made the bike my mode of transportation to get to the farm not far from our house, where I boarded her.

Her name was "Sweetie" and she was probably much older then the 20 I had been told. She was the perfect first horse that left a string of 30 more horses after her, over many decades.

We have 2 girls that live with us now, first shown below is Betsy who is 18. I have had her since she was 6 months old.

 

And we have Zoe who is  23. We bought Zoe when she was 2, she seems to be everyone's favorite. She is deaf, and the sweetest horse to be around.

So that is my spin for Sepia Saturday, from bikes to transportation to horses!

Thanks for coming by,

Jan

Linking with

Sepia Saturday

It was cold in St Paul too!

I love this picture of my mother as a small girl. Her family lived  in St Paul, not far from the Capital, but they still had work horses and a barn for her grandfathers work horses behind the house.

She said she was not allowed in the barn area,

She lived in this house on Winter St until she gort married to my father, and her father before her grew up in this house that his father built.

After though....

I am adding 2 pictures of the house now, even though it is no longer in our family, a family member took a picture of it in 94, when he was back in St Paul.

Linked to 

Sepia Saturday

Baby it's Cold Outside!

We usually do not get ongoing weather in the low 30's. I left for a short trip to Vegas to see my sister 

last week, and when I came back it was just the same as when I had left...can you say BRRRRR!!!

My airplane continues to look frosty..

And my Palm tree just doesn't look right with icicles hanging on it...

And my water feeder yard Art Angel..looks chilly too.

And the birds water dish is also icy as well...so much so we actually had cold birds..who came in for a warm up, before being released and flying away. They appeared to be be too cold to move when we came near, they did not fly away.

This first bird we took to PAWS, who take injured birds as it was missing tail feathers. The second was a Grosbeak also, and we were able to feed and water it for a couple days, then he did fly off when we took him outside, whatever was wrong appeared to have been OK by then.

As cold as it is, it is still better then our normal PNW rain...so all is well here!

Jan