Happy 2008 to all! This first day of the year has found Vernon and I staying home all day, trying to recover from colds that came back with us from Atlanta. He's had a low-grade fever and has coughed a lot the past few days. I am supposed to return to work tomorrow but would like more time at home. Vernon says he will make it to work because he isn't allowed to take sick leave after vacation time. If he stayed home, he'd have to count it as vacation.

Here are some photos of our time with family. Surprisingly, not one picture of the two of us was taken and I'm not in any photos.

This is Emily Ann with sister Morgan in her lap after Morgan's piano recital. She played perfectly and we were happy to be able to be there. We got lost getting to the church so Morgan's teacher held her back until we arrived.

Emmy is a senior at Mizzou (Missouri State), graduating May 16 with a major in Journalism, going into advertising.










Mama Brady and her two sons. Vernon has his coat on because we were ready to leave Richard's house.










Morgan and Vernon on Christmas Eve, enjoying cookies and eggnog.









Morgan requested science experiments and this is an electrical connections set that Vernon got her. She really enjoyed playing with the connections. When asked how she would like her school changed, she said it would go 12 hours a day and study only science!



Morgan wants to be a doctor and received a
doctor's kit with real tools. Besides the stethoscope around her neck, she put on the face mask, goggles and surgical cap. She also received a microscope and other experiments.









Here's the Richard Brady family: Richard, Susan, Emmy and Morgan. We had lots of fun playing games like Phase 10 and Catch Phrase.


I hope to do better this year at blogging on this site. One competition for my time on the computer is Facebook. So if you are there, too, let's be friends!

Here is our 2007 Christmas photo that I didn't have printed to mail to everyone. I'm just posting it here for you to see. It was taken Dec. 1 after a wonderful wedding we attended in downtown Orlando.

As I write this, we are all packed and ready to load the car to drive to Atlanta for Christmas with Vernon's mother, brother and family. However, Vernon is feeling sick at the moment so I decided this was a good time to blog. It is cloudy and a cool 60 something degrees outside.

We still have shopping to do when we get there and I'm not even halfway through writing cards that I want to send. So for anyone who doesn't receive one, consider this our greeting. We love and appreciate you and are grateful for your continued interest in how Vernon is doing since transplant.

February 4 will be two years since that big day and Feb. 8 is the Shands Heart Transplant Reunion that we have been looking forward to attending so that we can see our friends again.

Our big news is that we wrote a letter to Lisa, the wife of Vernon's donor, Steven. I don't recall if we mentioned earlier this year that we received a letter from her in response to our first letter to "the family of the donor." We were thrilled just to receive a letter from her, as many of the other transplant patients have not. She told us Steven was her best friend and had a big heart full of love. He could always make her laugh. He liked old cars, like Vernon. We cried, of course, for her loss and yet were comforted to read that she was glad that she could share the heart with Vernon. She closed by saying she would like to keep in touch with us.

So the main thing our letter that we wrote last week said was that we would like to meet her. We know this is a difficult season for her, the second Christmas without her best friend and husband. Since we don't have her last name or address (for her protection and ours), we gave the letter to our coordinator at Shands, who passes it on to the donor procurement group that is in contact with Lisa. They send it on to her. So we don't know when she will receive it or when we will hear back from her because her letter will be routed to us the same way ours was sent to her.

IF she agrees to meet with us, then we understand that the meeting will be set up and the donor procurement representative will be there to make sure it all goes well. The three other transplant patients who have been able to meet their donor family have told us they were all nervous at first but quickly felt comfortable and like family. There were tears and laughter and they spent several hours together getting more acquainted. Not everyone looks at it this way, but we believe Lisa would be greatly comforted to see and meet Vernon.

So we invite you to join us in our Christmas prayer.: first, that Lisa and her family (we don't know if there are children yet) will be comforted by God in this season; that when she receives our letter, she will want to meet us and communicate that; and finally that the meeting would be a blessing to all of us. In the meantime, we wait in hope, knowing it could be months.

I imagine there is at least one thing that you are waiting in hope for as well. Let's be patient together, OK? If you want to share that with us, tell us by leaving a comment here or emailing us at iamawalkingmiracle2@yahoo.com

If you would like to read an inspiring account of the four people who received the gift of the organ they needed as a result of the death of a wonderful young man, go to this site: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope
We were able to watch the story told on ESPN but there is more information online than was televised.

I pray you have a meaningful Christmas~

Happy New Year everyone! We enjoyed a week in Atlanta over Christmas. This photo was taken Christmas morning after breakfast and before opening gifts. I'd taken time to dress but didn't put on makeup. We were with Vernon's mother and his brother and his family. Most of the time, the seven of us were together at their cozy, new house. One afternoon we all saw the movie "Charlotte's Web" and explored a new shopping area in Atlanta called Atlantic Station. Vernon and I arrived home on Dec. 29, thankful to God for another safe trip on I-75.

Vernon's birthday is January 12 and he'll be 60! Last year we were still waiting for his heart transplant at Shands so this birthday we can celebrate him being Vernon Version 2.0. Then his first anniversary of transplant is Feb. 4. We are scheduled to return to Shands on Feb. 6 for biopsy and year check-up.

We haven't had a response to our thank you letter from our donor's family and I prayed for them again this morning. I'm sure it is very hard on them as they approach the first anniversary of their loved one's death.