I'm a sucker, too

Ever been duped?

For over a month I've been following a blog about a young lady named "Gina" (aka Pepe) who had CF and a double lung transplant and was struggling to stay alive. It was a heart wrenching story. I even posted here and asked you to pray for her.

Her story was all a lie. The whole purpose behind it was to raise money to buy a fraud a Wii. A crime has been committed and I'm sure will be investigated.

Unbelievable!

A few days ago I mentioned in a comment that the latest turn in her story was very strange, and it caused me some concern, but still I chose to believe and give her the benefit of the doubt.

Who knew?

This is sad because it causes a cloud of doubt to hover over other legitimate blogs and over the entire CF community. I hope this young lady gets some help.

You can read the confession of her blogger here.

Organ Donation: Please tell me why not?

In the past couple of weeks I've had the sad duty to minister to folks who have lost loved ones. All were strangers to me. Three of those who died were minor children; one a fairly healthy adult. A fifth was an older adult, so I excluded him.

From what? From asking the family (parents/spouse/next of kin) if they would consider organ donation.

Let me be real honest here. Asking parents and spouses to allow their children's/loved one's organs to be harvested in the minutes after they've been told of the death is not an easy thing to do. I do not enjoy asking. But I do it because I am passionate about organ donation. I even explain that my daughter-in-law is alive today because someone gave lungs to her.

But why should I have to ask at that terrible time? Better, why haven't those I've spoken with already made the decision to give their organs? Or even to not give them? It is amazing to me that so many people have not considered organ donation for themselves or (God forbid) for their children should they die. But then, most people put the thought of death as far back in the recesses of their minds as they're able and never believe it will come.

So far I'm 0 for 4. And while I'm outwardly gracious certainly non-confrontational when told, "No, we don't want to do that", I'm inwardly frustrated that they don't get it. When you're at the height of grief is not the time to decide.

Please consider organ donation. And either make a yes or no decision now while you're alive and make that decision known to your next of kin. Fill out the paperwork if you decide "yes". Get it on your driver's license. And if you're the parent of a minor child, please consider what you will do should your child's life come to an end. Think about it. Now. Trust me, you don't want to (and won't be able to) think about it in the ER.

I don't mean to be morbid here, but this is reality. People die every day, even young people. And some people who are dying could be saved every day if the organs were available.

There's a link on the right side of this page about organ donation. I hope that if you haven't already decided to give that you'll visit the site and learn why and how.

So what's got you down?

Life doesn’t come with any guarantees about how long we’ll have it, or the quality of it. But hopefully, with the time we are given by God we can make the most of them. Earlier this week, while visiting with my daughter-in-law and granddaughter and son at Duke Hospital I was able to visit with a young lady named Christy. She’s in her mid 30’s and is in the hospital because she got the flu. Now, most people her age would deal with it and recover. But Christy’s not most people.

At age 4 she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which is a terminal disease. Just a few years ago she received a lung transplant that extended her life for a few more years. And now she’s looking at having to undergo additional surgery this year and a kidney transplant next year. So she’s known since she was a girl that without a cure for her disease – and there still is no cure – she wouldn’t live to much past middle age if she made it that far. For most of her life she’s been hooked up to oxygen and has had to take medications, lots of them. She’s spent Christmas and now an Easter in the hospital.

As I talked with her yesterday afternoon I was reminded that not only is life insecure, but it can be really unfair. Here’s a vibrant, attractive young woman, in what should be the prime of her life, dealing with a disease that could render her hopeless and angry. But that wasn’t the case. I could certainly use a dose of her upbeat attitude and positive outlook on life. And she'll be quick to tell you the source of her joy is her relationship with Jesus Christ.

I’m at the point in life, I’m 52, when I spend more time thinking about the rest of my life, and how I hope to live it. And one thing I’ve found is that the older I get, the faster the years go by. And as I listened to Christy talk about her life, the life she has been given, I realized that what counts is not how long we get, but what we do with the time we have.

And whenever that day comes that life here ends, whether it’s somewhat expected or a true surprise, it’s what we did before that moment that really matters.

If you want to know more about either Cystic Fibrosis or Organ Transplants, please follow the links to the left. And you can meet Christy via her blog. She'll pick you up!