I don’t talk about my personal life on my blog a whole lot. It’s not that I’m super private or anything. But for whatever reason, I just blog more about my work. I think I may start blogging about what’s going on in my life a little more often. There’s a reason why. A very special reason. Here’s a little back story.
In 2008, just a few months after Bryan & I got married, Bryan started experiencing an incredible amount of migraines.. Just one after another. After a month or two of ignoring the problem, he started going partially blind, and couldn’t even see the computer screen in front of him. We rushed to the ER, where we discovered that his blood pressure was so high, he was borderline having a stroke. A few hours later, we were told that his kidneys have failed. That was the start of this long, intense battle. Surgery after surgery, every kind of dialysis there is, and a lot of infections, we basically lived in the hospital. My poor (new) husband.. I would have given anything to trade places with him. It was so hard, not only physically, but emotionally as well. The news of a donor came at the perfect time. Bryan’s aunt’s life partner, Sandy came forward to give Bryan her kidney. Bryan was on the verge of giving up before Sandy came forward. Valentine’s Day of 2011 was the best day ever. Nothing will ever change the way we feel about our angel. Totally selfless and perfectly amazing. Not only did she give us the best year and a half of our lives, SHE GAVE HIM LIFE!! We finally got to experience life like a normal married couple. We weren’t tied down to a dialysis machine all the time. Unfortunately, it only lasted a year and a half before Bryan got an infection that killed his new kidney. It’s a virus that a lot of people carry, and it has never killed a kidney before, until now. It’s a freak thing, and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it. Absolutely heartbroken, but Bryan never lost his faith. HE helped both his family & I stay strong!! Almost immediately, one of my incredible former brides, Sam, stepped up and told me she wanted to donate. She’s never even met Bryan, and she was so positive this was something she wanted to do. She had to wait 6 months to make sure she was REALLY positive, but she didn’t skip a beat when that waiting period was over. She, selflessly, has been ready since day one. We’ve had a few bumps in the road since then, but come October 31st, Bryan is getting a new kidney!!!
I could never repay what Sandy & Sam has given us. There are no words that could do my heart justice. Tell me, how do you say “THANK YOU” for saving my husband’s life?
When we moved to St. Petersburg, we fell in love with this adorable, funky vintage store downtown. Paper Street Market has been our answer to the weekly question “what do you want to do this weekend?”. Now that we’re pretty much done decorating our house, it’s so hard not to buy all of their amazing stuff. Great prices, and the friendliest staff & owners ever. We are always greeted with big smiles & hugs. Not so secretly, I’ve been obsessed with this store, and have always wanted to become friends with the store owners, Sean & Celesta. One day I mentioned what we were going through with Bryan’s new kidney failing. I felt an honest, sincere sadness from Sean. He really cared! A few months down the road, he mentioned to me that they were thinking of giving back somehow, and they thought of us!! WE WERE SO HONORED! Paper Street Market wants to use US for the charity?? We didn’t feel right about accepting money, so we suggested we give it to the American Kidney Fund. So started a month of raising awareness for kidney disease, and also raising money!! It was sooo great. I couldn’t believe it was happening! With every purchase, a portion of their sales goes directly the charity. You even got to fill out a little kidney that was posted on the wall!! It was so cool to see a wall full of these papers, and so many of them leaving such encouraging and thoughtful notes. And they didn’t stop there! You had a chance to win a $500 PSM gift card for guessing the right amount of kidney beans in the apothecary jar! Sean PAINSTAKINGLY counted each and every one of those beans, which ended up being OVER 5,000!!! OMG!! After the month was over and the money was raised, Paper Street hosted a reveal party, where our family & friends were invited to see how much money was raised. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I had so much fun visiting with everybody, but I did take a few of the reveal.
A HUGE thanks to Paper Street Market for having us be the face of this charity, and to raising awareness of this crappy disease. And thank you SO MUCH to our friends & family, and to everyone who donated their money! None of it goes unnoticed. THANK YOU!!!!!
