5 years today!!!

Today, February 25th, I am celebrating God's gift given to me 5 years ago: my transplant! I'm so blessed to even be alive and are so grateful for my mom and family friend-Jeff for sacrificing their life to save mine! I'm not going to go into much detail about the transplant...you can read my previous post or click on the "About Me" label to read more about my story and transplant. But just briefly....my transplant journey was extremely rough.....the recovery was unimaginably hard. I never thought I would walk again! I had to have major stomach surgery 1 month after the transplant. But God knew what he was doing, and the whole process has brought me closer to him and taught me so much about life! God was with me the whole way, and obviously had plans for me! He allowed me to live to experience his miracles, mercy, power, love, grace....etc, etc.

Every now and then my Mom and I talk about this time 5 years ago. I like to remember things, and I learn new stuff everyday. I learn of new people that prayed for me during that time....which was so incredibly amazing! It was the prayers and God's mercy that allowed me to live that day! Being in California was extremely hard for me and my family. I had an aunt and uncle that flew out to help for about 1 week, but that was the only family that was able to fly out. I didn't see my brother for 3 months...that was probably the hardest thing for me! My Dad stayed with us through the 1st two weeks, but then had to return home to care for my brother and also to continue to work and support our family! He came out one other time to give my Mom a break to go home, but that was it. It was definitely hard being away from him too...and I can't even imagine what my Mom went through, emotionally! There were so many little miracles performed during my recovery time in California (such as Vet's working for my Dad for free, donations, people buying plane tickets for us so my Dad could travel back and forth, free car rental and so much more). Too many to count...and some you don't even realize were miracles until later on in life!

Tuesday morning before I was scheduled to fly to California, my parents were told I was too unstable to make the trip, and they should prepare for the worst. I can't even imagine what went through their minds. I asked my Mom if she was every concerned or worried that I was going to die. She said yes, but knew God had a plan! The neat thing about the whole process, is that God gave me and my body an ultimate peace. He took me home for these few days. Upon stabilizing before transport to California, my Dad said that I had a peace and calmness about myself, that couldn't be explained. He said it was clearly God working his miracle!!

I've had my ups and downs post-transplant. And there are times when I get frustrated and think things aren't fair....However, because God gave me this precious gift 5 years ago, I can't complain! I'm just thankful to be here on Earth...and are so eager to please my Lord and Saviour!!

I'm going to post some pictures throughout this week of my transplant journey in California!

I leave this post with this quote from my Dad that the Birmingham News used in one of its articles about me:
(from reporter): Buddy Ballard (my Dad) said he will never forget sitting in a hospital waiting room while his daughter, wife, and best friend underwent surgery at the same time. (directly from my Dad): "You just pray that everything is going to go fine. You just constantly pray. I had a pretty good peace about it that morning. I had this feeling that everything was going to come through. I'm not saying there wasn't a doubt in my mind; those five hours were scary. We just witnessed so many miracles."

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift"! 2 Corinthians 9:15