Today I wanted to take a moment to talk about one of my favorite bloggers out there, Angie Dudley of Bakerella. If you've ever heard of cake pops, you've already witnessed a nugget of Angie's creative genius. I don't just admire Angie for her ability to create a huge bright spot in peoples day through her blog and crafty, baked creations; I also admire her for her story.
Three days ago, Angie received her second kidney transplant. The best part about the most recent development to her story is that her mom was a match and was able to donate her kidney to her daughter. (she speaks a lot more eloquently about it than I am currently pulling off here.) From the updates I've seen on Angie's twitter, I'm relieved to hear that it sounds like the surgery was a success!
I'm half laughing at myself right now, because I'm talking about her like I know her. And I don't. But her story resonates with me. Partially because I feel like I know her from following her blog (and heck, I did meet her, albeit for 30 seconds to get her John Hancock and take a picture with her, at her Chronicle Books signing tour when her Cake Pops book came out); and partially because I have a sliver of an idea of what she's going through. For most of my life, my mom has had kidney disease. When I was in high school, her condition developed to the point that it was clear she needed a transplant in order to survive. Our family was ever so lucky that my dad volunteered to get tested and dab-nabbit, he was a match! Which turned out to be kind of amazing considering blood relations are usually a better match. The best part about their story (and the cheesiest) is that they had their surgery on Valentine's Day. If that's not professing your unconditional love for someone, I'm not sure what is. It has since been almost a decade and sometimes I think that having witnessed an experience like this is part of the reason why I like to seek out the "sweet" things in life. Whether it be baking a new cupcake recipe, discovering a movie that makes me smile, or some of the other randomness that I try to share with you all here.
Anyways, the takeaway here is this: don't take life for granted. Not for one second. I know we all have "days." Heck, I almost had one this morning when I had a fight with a garage door and the garage door won - damaging a car that wasn't even mine. But I'm going to try my gosh-darn-dest not to let garage doors get the best of me. I mean really, who do they think they are? The point is, put it in perspective. There's always a silver lining, even if you have to dig a little harder than you'd like to find it. Life your life "sprinkled with cartwheels" (Angie's description of her excitement at the prospect of probably not having to have another dialysis treatment). Sometimes it's the little things (like the immense joy that comes with eating a heaping spoonful of peanut butter) and sometimes it's slightly bigger things (like being grateful you don't have to go through dialysis anymore) that make all the difference.
Ok, that's enough of me being preachy and deep about life for the day. But please, if you have a moment, keep Angie and all the other people out there who have received, or are waiting to receive a transplant of any kind, in your thoughts. And if you're feeling really moved, sign up to be an organ donor yourself.
Thanks for reading y'all!
you are incredible!!!!
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