The love of my life & I just celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary. CRAZY! Six years doesn’t seem like that long, but we’ve had enough trials to last us the rest of our marriage in this short amount of time. A few months after we got married, we found out Bryan’s kidneys were working at 9%, and he needed a kidney transplant. Fast forward 3 grueling years, he was falling apart, I was falling apart.. As you could imagine, that would put quite a strain on any marriage, much less a brand new one. A kidney from a Christmas angel (Bryan’s aunt’s partner, Sandy) came just at the right now. Fast forward about a year, we were doing so great, but then we found out the kidney failed and so started the whole process over. The news came at the same time as my dad passed away, and I was afraid that I couldn’t be strong enough to help Bryan through the tough cycle of the rejection, dialysis and finding another donor. To my surprise, I absolutely didn’t have to be strong at all. Bryan was the strong one and he helped me cope, as well the rest of his family. Almost immediately one of my former brides, Sam, showed interest in donating her kidney. Which is HUGE! Totally selflessly, without even knowing my husband, she traveled here from Minnesota and became my husband’s second kidney donor. The surgery & recoveries for donors are really hard and painful. It’s beyond overwhelming to know that the world has people that are so amazing, that are willing to go through MONTHS in pain. Thanks to Sandy & Sam, I still have my husband. He’s incredibly healthy & we’re living life! We’re preparing for a trip to Italy soon, and who knows what else! I feel the world hasn’t seen us, and we’re about to show it who we are.
I look back over these six years, and smile about how far we’ve come. Sure, it’s been hard as hell to get through it, but we did. I love my husband so much. I can’t imagine loving anybody else, going what we went through with anybody else.. I simply just don’t know what I would do without him.
<3 Mrs. Charles :)