Just...

...grateful.

Thats what I am.

To be here in our home tonight, all together, all ready for bed. I am grateful.

As I learn of another family who has been given that terminal diagnosis that without a bowel transplant there is nothing more that can be done for their child and as I understand the struggle and fears those parents(who I will never meet) are facing as they try and decide if this is the road they are supposed to travel.

I am grateful. For our donor, our organs, our journey, our homecoming, our life. She is home and she is alive 21 months after her transplant. I am grateful.

As I read of a sweet four year old baby who remains living away from home a full year after her transplant and I hear the longing for home in her mommy's words and feel the hurt and the frustration she is experiencing. I am grateful.

My heart has been so changed. I carry burdens for those I will never meet and I cry tears for them because of the compassion we have been given from so many who have never met us. I pray for them like I know them and I long for good news to come to them. I am grateful.

It is long and tough and the road goes up and down again and again and again, but underneath each obstacle you will find a heart of gratitude and thanksgiving. I am grateful.

Ashley Kathrine Adams. I am grateful for her. I am grateful for it all. Each and every moment of this amazing journey. I am grateful.

Its never been easy and I don't think it ever will be, but HOW grateful I am to be the one doing it with her. I love being her mom.

I am grateful to have been changed.