106 Random Gingerssnaps Facts

1. I am funny(no what seriously, you hadn't figured that one out on your own yet?;))
2. I am a closet smarty pants(most of the time I try to just keep my mouth shut, so what I say isn't misconstrued...which has been recently...a lot.  See #1.) 
3. I love big, fuzzy, wool socks with my favorite tennis shoes(yes I am sooooo a child of the 80's!)
4. I love cute, bright, conversation worthy socks.  They make me feel good when I am wearing them, just like new panties!
5. I love to snuggle with my 4yo.  
6. I love chocolate cake doughnuts.(Just had one for the first time in almost a year!)  
7. I love to nap during thunder storms, for some odd reason, it makes me feel peaceful.
8. I dislike anything pumpkin tasting.
9. I am a closet hairdresser, with a child who doesn't like her hair messed with. Poop.
10. I was a band geek(flute and piccolo) and a flag twirler in high school.
11. I was a sorority girl.  Sigma Sigma Sigma.
12. I love to read.  
13. I love my husband.(No really, I do.  I honestly love my husband.  Nobody paid me to say that. Right Mr Soul Mate? Heh Heh.)
14. Being a stepmom is the most thankless job in the world.(I do have to say that one of mine has turned out super thoughtful and sweet! The other hugs me and occasionally says I love you, which is thanks enough.)
15. One of my favorite things in the world is the sound of my daughter's giggles.
16. My daddy has sent me flowers every year on my birthday since I was 4.
17. Long extended phone conversations with my almost 85 year old Nana make me happy.
18. I worked in the Telecommunications industry for almost 15 years.
19. Miranda Lambert's 'The House That Built Me' makes me cry every time I hear it.
20. I am a crybaby.  No seriously, I cry at commercials!
21. I am addicted to People Weekly, been reading it since the fourth grade!
22. I love Nerds!(grape and strawberry not skin and bones)
23. I love riding our Harley Davidson motorcycle.
24. I am a daredevil.
25. I love roller coasters.(The Loch Ness Monster is the best hands down!)
26. I love all seasons, but summer, fall, and winter are my favorites.
27. I am a people person.
28. I love to talk.
29. I adore Lady Gaga.
30. I love BTO.(google them young whipper snappers)
31. Photography is my passion.
32. I have an inordinate amount of patience.
33. I have never gotten sucked into a political debate.  Until this year.  I caved.
34. My mother, grandmother and I were best friends.  We did everything together.
35. I miss my mother every single day.
36. I love books about vampires.
37. I am addicted to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake vampire hunter series.
38. I love a good smutty, sex filled book.
39. One of my favorite books of all time is Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small. Best. Heroine. Ever.
40. More white hair=more blonde moments.
41. I have smell associated memories.
42. I love the way my daughter smells.
43. I love how mommies kisses fix all boo-boos.
44. I love my family.
45. I have a half sister and two half brothers, that I am just starting to get to know.
46. Baby wipes were the greatest invention in the universe.
47. I love Sons of Anarchy.
48. I have been to an Easy Riders Biker rally in Chillecothe, Ohio.
49. I have been to Atlantis in the Bahamas, twice.  Both with my husband.
50. I have been to Cancun, Mexico twice.  Once with my best friend and once with my husband.
51. I have been to Grand Cayman, BWI, twice.  Once on a cruise ship with my bff, and once for a week with my husband.
52. One of my most cherished possessions is the quilt that my Granny made me for my high school graduation.
53. I am a former Longaberger basket addict.
54. I love beach sunsets and sunrises.
55. I like guacamole.  I did not start liking it until I was pregnant.
56. I make killer tacos.
57. I married an excellent cook, because I do not cook much.
58. I love pomegranates.
59. My favorite apples are Granny Smith apples.
60. I am not a big drinker, but when I do, my favorite drink is Lindeman's Framboise Lambic.
61. My daughter started out as twins.
62. I used to own Keds in every color to match each outfit.
63. I love myself whether I am a size 2, 12, or 22.
64. Some days I miss my long hair.
65. I was on the Greek Panhellenic Council in College.
66. I was a Rho Chi during sorority fall rush week.
67. I had four little sisters and five little brothers in sorority/fraternity life.
68. I think I can sing Whitney Houston's, The Greatest Love of All.
69. I went to George Washington High School in Charleston, West Virginia.
70. I went to college at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
71. I hate bugs.  Especially spiders.  I abhor spiders.
72. I can spot a spider in the dark, across the room in a corner. I have a sixth spider sense, I swear.
73. I love bubble baths, a good book, and a glass of my favorite Framboise Lambic.
74. I loved being pregnant.  I was a lucky insatiable pregnant girl, with few issues and an easy pregnancy.
75. I am a glass half full kind of girl.
76. I am that annoyingly positive and happy girl.
77. I love to dance.  I took dancing for ten years.
78. I had never broken a bone until this past August.
79. I love music. 
80. I love the West Virginia mountains.
81. I love playing with my daughter.
82. I enjoy making creative foods for my four year old to eat.(IE Pb sandwich forts, applesauce moats, with goldfishes in the moat)
83. I am a crafty person.
84. I think my daughter is the funniest person in the world.
85. I love to write.
86. I am a big fan of my twenty year old step-daughter's artwork.
87. Everybody loves me.(with few exceptions)
88. I am a Past Matron of South Charleston Chapter #131, Order of the Eastern Star, and a Past Grand Representative to Arizona.
89. I am a Past Grand Hope, of the state of West Virginia, of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls.
90. I love my husband's family.  They are awesome. Quirky, but awesome.
91. I love being silly.
92. I went to Marshall, so I am a Thundering Herd fan, but I was raised a Mountaineer fan.
93.  I quit smoking cold turkey when I got pregnant.
94. I have a bad habit of biting my lips.
95. I used to always say when I was little that I wanted three kids.  I have three.
96. I used to want to be a dancer when I was little.
97. Beaches is my all time favorite movie.
98. I love Hugh Jackman.
99. It takes a lot to anger me, but once I am angry, I have a bad temper.
100. I am a big enough person to know when I am wrong, and to apologize.
101. I am addicted to my husband singing Karaoke.
102. I love The Voice and American Idol.
103. I got tipsy the first time at college, fell down, and ended up having to have major surgery.
104. My best friend helped me catch up after missing two out of the first three weeks of college. Been lucky enough to be stuck with her ever since.
105. I didn't get married until I was 29, but God definitely blessed me with the best lifelong friends a girl could ask for while I was waiting on Mr Right!
106. I randomly play volleyball over the freezer section in the local grocery store.

A Last Afternoon With My Aunt

Since my mother died last November, I have been trying to locate my Aunt Cathy.  She is my biological father's sister.  She is the one who kept in touch with me over the years.  The only one. She would come and visit for Christmas, and bring my little brother and I presents, even though he wasn't her blood relation.  She treated him just like her own.  She was that special lady who loved children, but could not have any of her own.  She worked tirelessly with the Special Olympics, before she got sick. She was the one who made an effort to keep in touch with me, even after my  bio-dad signed away his rights to me.  My mother remarried a wonderful man when I was four and a half, and he legally adopted me as his own, and changed my last name.  That man is my daddy.  He is the best father a girl could ever ask for.

   Now for a little history.  My mother met my Aunt when they were young ladies in a fraternal organization called The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls.  Later when my mother met and started dating her first husband(bio-dad), they already knew each other when introduced.  The man she was dating was Cathy's older brother. I am somewhat sketchy on the details, but he was in the Navy and had served in Vietnam.  They got married, and  she moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia with him, where I was born.  After I got married, my mother told me I was not a planned pregnancy.  She told me that she was excited, but my bio-dad was not.  She was a Lab Technician.  Nothing like your momma telling you that you were an oopsie!  So glad I was a well adjusted adult when she dropped that bombshell!  She worked up until the time I was born.  My bio-dad was in a bar on my birth-day. She left my bio-dad two weeks after I popped into the world.  Her dad, my PawPaw and Nana, her mother, came down to Virginia and moved us home to West Virginia.  My mother wanted a better life for me than what bio-dad could provide.  Alcoholism is a very ugly disease.  Vietnam was an ugly war. Being controlling, jealous, and obsessive were behaviors that my mother was not going to tolerate around her child. 
    My paternal great grandmother died the summer after I graduated high school.  Aunt Cathy was the one who called to let me know.  Aunt Cathy was the extent of family I had contact with on that side. I debated whether to go or not.  I was scared, and my mother told me it was my decision.  If I decided to go, then she would go with me.  I was scared, but I figured if she had the time to spend with me when I was little, then it was the least I could do, to go and pay my respects.  She is after all, in pictures with me in my baby book. I went to the funeral and met my half siblings.  They were all significantly younger than me, to the tune of six, eight, and ten years younger respectively.  So they were twelve, ten, and eight. My paternal grandmother always said that she would live long enough to take care of and bury her mother.  She died two weeks after burying her mother.  She was a severe diabetic as well.  So I had yet another funeral to attend. Great.  Like it wasn't stressful enough being around this group of strangers, whose blood coursed through my veins the first time! But it was not about me! Once again I saw my half siblings.  A cousin from bio-dad's brother, Mike, invited me to come to the State Fair down towards Beckley, West Virginia.  I was scared and did not go.  Her name was Angie.  This was the only contact I had with any of these people previously.   Besides the Grandmother that had just died that is.  She and my grandfather Dan visited up until I was four.
   The only attempts bio-dad had made to contact me were a drunken rambling demanding to speak to my mother, when I was twelve.  Until this point, I was blissfully wrapped up in my father's love and my idyllic childhood, and had forgotten that bio-dad existed.  I was in the seventh grade, and will never forget the words of that conversation.  They are forever imprinted on my brain. He was cruel.  This scared me and sealed the deal with my never wanting to contact him or have anything to do with him.  My mother was right, I was better off without him.  I did not know that this was around the time his second wife left him and their three children.  A little later I am told, he sobered up, and raised his three kids.  But more on that later.  The only other time I had contact with him was at my grandfather's wake.  He died when I was twenty four.  My biological sperm donor showed up with his youngest son.  He had cut his ponytail off.  I was talking with a friend, when I saw him come in the door.  I think I was scared and in shock.  I reverted to that scared twelve year old, and ran to tell my mother.  I wanted her to be prepared, and to protect me from having to speak to him. All I could squeak out was,"he cut his ponytail off!" She was as shocked as I was, and we looked through the adjacent back door to the chapel, and my Uncle Milton, mom's brother, was talking to him.  At the time I was in shock, and quite angry that he had the audacity to come to my mom's father's wake.  I was still naive.  He was, after all, my Pawpaw's former son in law.  So he chatted with my Uncle a little while, and then payed his respects.  Then he came to the alcove at the back of the chapel where we were all gathered.  He was brave enough to come in and speak.  My father was livid.  He had never laid eyes on bio-dad. While they were talking, I left my livid father at my mother's side and escaped to the bathroom.  There I remained with a close friend until they left.  I was shaking in my boots.  At that exact moment, I hoped he got a good look at what he missed out on.  The women in my family are beautiful, and I was no exception.  So those were the only two times that I had contact with bio-dad since I was little, until recently, and quite accidentally.
   When I got married, my Aunt Kathy came to the wedding shower.  She also came to the wedding, along with her husband, my Uncle David, and Grandpa Dan, her father.  After the wedding, I got busy with my career, my new step children, and my new husband.  I did not keep in touch.  When I learned I was pregnant, I called my Aunt and told her.  I invited her to the baby shower.  She did not make it. She was starting to go blind, had severe diabetes like her mother before her, and Alzheimer's had started.  I again got busy in my newly altered life as a brand new mommy.  I did think of her often.  A couple of months after my mother died prematurely, I began to wonder how my Aunt was.  I tried to call her, the number was disconnected.  I searched the obituaries.  Nothing.  Then I found an obituary for her husband from the previous year.  My Uncle David had died.  I then began my search for my three half siblings.  Bio-dad's other children.  So I could find out what had happened.  I thought I remembered four kids.  So I found four that were all connected through facebook, with the last name spelled correctly.  I sent messages to three of them.  I explained that I was looking for my aunt, included the details, and added an apology if I had contacted the wrong people.
   By that evening, I had three responses.  Whoa! So I opened the first message from the person I thought was my half sister.  It was her.  She was very forthcoming with details.  My Aunt Cathy was in a nursing home in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.  We chatted for a while, and I learned a lot.  I learned that the kids knew of me, but that bio-dad never spoke of me.  They had met me only at the funerals, but she remembered me.  She seemed very nice, and funny.  We have kept in touch.
   Response number two came from someone who I assumed was the other brother.  I was wrong.  I had accidentally contacted bio-dad. Crap.  So I conversed with him in a facebook message about my Aunt and Uncle.  He shared the details of how my Uncle David died, and what was going on with my Aunt Cathy.  He also told me about my Grandpa Dan, and how he was in a different nursing home, also in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.  OK.  I did it.  I faced my fears.  I actually talked to him.  I wasn't scared of him per se, I just never had the desire to contact him.  There was no big missing hole I needed to fill, etc.  I was just finally at the point where his existence no longer threatened my happiness. I had grown up.  But I needed to find my Aunt, so I did it.  So bio-dad was the sole caretaker for the Grandpa and Auntie, and handles all of their affairs.  He was polite during our short conversation.  He answered all of my questions.  I also had to inform him of my mother's death.  Sucks to be the bearer of bad news.  So that was that.
   The third response was from my half brother, who is in the Air Force stationed in Florida.  My Aunt had told me he had gotten married.  He was the little boy with bio-dad at my PawPaw's funeral. He was very nice, and warned me if I did go to visit her, to be aware that she probably wouldn't know who I was.   She was that far in her progression of the disease.  He also gave me phone numbers of people to contact, as well as the nursing home information.  Seemed like a very nice young man.  Then of course, I added two of my half siblings on Facebook.  Then the half brother's wife sent me a friend request.  She is so sweet!  She is just a doll!
   So I went to see my Aunt at the beginning of the summer.  I had hoped to meet my half sister, but her shift ended before I got to the nursing home where she works and my Aunt stays.
   I went to my Aunt's room, and she wasn't in there.  I asked a nurse, and they took me to where she was sitting by the large window getting some sun.  I walked right past her and didn't even recognize her. She had lost so very much weight, was recovering from a broken hip, and didn't look like herself.  I sat with her all afternoon, and chatted away as if nothing was wrong.  I took her roses and pictures of my family.  I painted her fingernails and held her hand all afternoon.  I shared my love for her, with her. She was able to get out a few intelligible sentences.  She had that sparkle in her eye most of the afternoon, that let me know she was still in there.  Thank goodness she was having a good day while I was there. She was glad I was a mother, had contacted bio-dad and my half siblings, and was sad to learn of my mother, her friend's, passing.  I told her stories of when she came to visit me when I was little, how dedicated she was to the special Olympics, and how much I appreciated her kindness and love towards me and my little brother.  I told her all about her wonderful life. I recalled stories of my mother and her youth group escapades, how I remembered her being at my wedding shower and how much it meant to me that she was there, and how she, her husband, and my bio-grandad came to my wedding.  I thanked her for the family tradition  that she passed down to me on my wedding shower day.  It was hard, but I had a great day just hanging out with my Aunt.  Unfortunately, it was the last afternoon  I ever got to spend with her.  My family has relocated to Kentucky, and I did not get a chance to visit with her again. I asked bio-dad to call me if anything happened to my Aunt.  Well that call came today.  She passed away yesterday around 12:45pm. I am saddened to hear of her passing, but glad she doesn't have to suffer anymore.  My visit with my Aunt taught me things about Alzheimer's Disease that I didn't know.  I knew it made you forgetful.  I did not know that it can affect your muscle control, your speech abilities, and such a wide host of other things outside of memory.  
   After my visit with my Aunt, I had an early sense of deja vu.  I knew I would be glad that we had this time together, when and if anything every happened to her.  The older I get, when I do things, I look forward and say to myself, "I will be really glad I did this down the road!"  I hate that.  I think it happens to us all as we get older and wiser.  It's like reverse deja vu.  You recognize how you will feel about things farther down the road.  I wish I didn't have that feeling tonight.  I wish I did not have a wake and funeral to attend next week.  But I am so very glad that I took the time, that I made the time, to spend one last afternoon with my special Aunt. 

GoodbyeHardware;Naked MommyAloneTime

Hello dear readers!  Nice to see you again!  Today I am going to tell you about my day of naked mommy alone time. 
   Last Thursday, my husband took me to the Ortho Doc, to check the progress on my broken leg.  The doctor said it was healed! Yeah! Happy leg dance.  After being laid up non weight bearing for nine weeks, this news was candy to my ears!  So I began the barrage of questions.  Questions about physical therapy, when can I put weight on it, exercises, when can I drive, etc.  Good news is, that pesky Terminator looking leg brace hardware is gone! I just lost twenty pounds right there!  The doc said I have to go three more weeks with no more than five pounds(for balancing)of pressure put on my leg.  But then, get ready for it, here it comes.....on the fourth week, I can progressively start putting weight on it!  Then when I go back to the doc the week before Thanksgiving, depending on how good I am walking on it, I may not need physical therapy!  Wahoo!  To facilitate such a miraculous happening, the doc has been giving me daily exercises.  Leg lifts mainly, ankle rotations, stretching, and now full leg bending and stretching.  Wow those muscles are tight.  Interesting what happens in a short non weight bearing nine weeks, versus walking on it my whole life.  Just a minute.....ok I'm back I had to stretch.  Can you see how anxious I am to get walking?
  Anyway, my doc decided he was a comedian.  I asked him if I could drive, and he looks at my husband and says,"Well that is a loaded question.  I am not sure I am qualified to answer that question.(to my husband)Could she before?"  Yup.  Funny guy.  My husband and the doc then have another good old laugh, when he suggests taking me to the empty section of the Walmart parking lot, and practicing driving again.  Very funny guys.  I hope that you have to teach your kids how to drive one day, and that they run into a dumpster!  Just kidding!
  So after the appointment, we go to pick up our four year old  at great grandmother's house.  The four year old has decided that she is spending the night with Mamaw.  She is a very persuasive ie. manipulative child.  She knows how to get exactly what she wants.  So daddy and I are babysitter blessed and kid free. We have a good dinner with the mother in law.  She is hilarious, and we suceeded in grossing the hubbie out.  We then had a mommy and daddy "quality time" kind of night.  Wink, wink, if ya know what I mean!  We had to celebrate the fact that the leg brace wasn't slamming him in the back, side, knee or leg.  Celebrate we did!   Multiple times!  Husband and wifey snuggling ensued.  We checked mommy and daddy at the bedroom door!  So this brings us all up to speed on how I happened upon naked mommy alone time.
   The next morning, I gloriously reveled in the opportunity to lay in my bed, all wrapped up in my blanket, alone, and buck naked.  Naked as the day I was born.  Naked mommy alone time! With a four year old, being a stay at home mom, and living and hour and fifteen minutes from the closest relative, I do not get this opportunity very often.  What a rare luxury!  So I rolled around and tested out new leg positions.  Could I finally sleep on my tummy? Yes! Could I sleep in the one knee bent up position? Yes!  Could I sleep on my side with both legs pressed together, one on top of the other? Yes! So then, after rolling around for a while, trying to decide what to do with my naked self, because i was so not putting clothes on; I decided to call my grandmother, my Nana.  I told her, when she asked what I was doing, exactly what I was doing!  I told her that I was enjoying a me day, alone, totally buck naked, snuggled up in bed.  She died laughing.  Well not really, she is very much alive and kicking.  She is a pistol.  The sassiness in our family comes from her. She totally got the home alone bare-assedness, having raised three kids herself.  I told her that Mamaw had the four year old, and that I was enjoying some much needed alone time.  She said,"Well good for you!"  We also had a great laugh about alone mommy naked moments!
   The strange things that go through my mind, while laying naked in bed talking to my grandmother!  It must run in the family!  My mother(her daughter)and I used to always call each other while we were in the bathroom! Nutty family!  Actually it stems from being the only place where, as a mom and a wife, you are totally alone, in the whole house!  Anyway, I asked her if she remembered my grandfather's great grandmother's name.  She was a full blooded Cherokee Indian, and I was wondering if she remembered(this was the original reason I had called, besides wanting to chat uninterrupted).  Then I asked about her mother's siblings.  I learned there were eleven.  Hmm, I never knew that.  I also learned that several of their names rhymed.  Annie and Fannie, Earldine and Madeline.  Cute. We proceeded to chat for an hour and a half.  Or until we both had to pee from laughing so hard, and my phone was dying.  I just love my grandmother.  I had no problem talking to her all morning, so as to avoid cleaning before my MIL brought the baby home!
   So I then decided to grab a quick bite to eat, naked.  I then got to cleaning, naked.  I decided, why dirty more clothes, when I am just going to hop in the shower after cleaning anyway?  So relishing my new found, however short lived, naked freedom, I picked up, folded laundry, did the dishes, swept the floors, put away dishes, all while zooming around sans clothes in my wheelchair, stopping every now and then for leg lifts!  If the neighbors across the back yard diagonally were home, they might have gotten a pretty good show out of our kitchen window! Hah!
   So then I took a nice, long, hot shower with my ears blissfully closed.  I did not have to strain my ears to hear sounds of the four year old crashing off of the bed while jumping, screaming, yelling for mommy, running into the bathroom with a question, to check on me, or to throw back the curtain to surprise me.  A nice long mommy shower.  All the hot water was mine all mine!
  Moral of this story is; Every mommy needs naked mommy alone time.  It is refreshing and good for the soul.  It takes you back to those days before husband and kids, when all you had to think about was you.  Running around naked, cleaning naked, and bathing at leisure.  When no one else mattered but you, and focusing on your inner goddess.  Pampering her every whim.  All about you time. Doing what you want, whenever it pleased you to do it.  Focusing on being sexy, and a sexual goddess in bed.  Laying around the day after, and reliving your sexual or flirting prowess in bed, naked, and alone.  Without a child(ren) or a husband expecting their due time and attention.  Every woman needs to relive this time in her life occasionally, taking a break for herself, from the busy day to day hustle and bustle of raising a family.  One must always have, however regularly or infrequently, inner goddess time.

Prayers for a Childhood Friend

As a child, I belonged to a wonderful youth group, The International Order of the Rainbow for Girls.  It is a Masonic affiliated youth group.  it teaches a belief in a higher being, and the basic truths of the bible; Love, Religion, Nature, Immortality, Fidelity, Patriotism, and Service.  It also teaches public speaking, leadership skills, and how to act like a lady.  It is an organization that is near and dear to my heart, as well as to my childhood friend.  I met her at Rainbow Camp, held at Camp Muffly in West Virginia.  It was my first camp experience in junior high school, and I made a friend who I have never forgotten.  She was sweet, smart, and funny. I found her again a couple of years ago on Facebook.  I was heartsick to learn she was fighting for her life.  She was battling lung cancer.  She has always been a non smoker.  I have followed her blog and Facebook posts religiously, and this year her cancer has not only returned, but it has popped up in different places.  She now has lung, brain, and spine cancer.  They also removed a tumor from her pituitary gland earlier this year, and she has been having female issues as well. She remains one of the most upbeat and positive people that I have had the pleasure of ever knowing!  She is truly a beautiful soul!        
   This morning I pulled up Facebook and was scrolling through my feed, when I saw that she was having surgery this morning to remove her spinal tumor.  This is a very dangerous procedure, and i would like to ask for prayers for her today, and in her battle with cancer.  She is also the author of a blog about her journey through cancer. Please check out her page for a truly uplifting journey through cancer!  Here is the link:
http://kristibadger76.blogspot.com/. 

Tears of Hope; Nefeterius and Taitlyn

This post was originally published in 2012. I decided to post it again today as I have learned and am deepy saddened by the passing of Neferterius from abdominal cancer. She was a bright shining star among us and now from heaven. RIP Neferterius A McPhereson.

.............................................

Over the course of the last few days, I have cried several times. I have been touched by a beautiful story of two incredibly brave and beautiful young women. It is a story of one twelve year old girl who saved a 38 year old woman's life that she had never met.  It is about the older of the two honoring the younger one's dreams to change the world. It is a story about organ donation. This is an article about their story.
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201210090151

You can also find these special ladies, Nefeterius Akili McPherson, and Taitlyn Shae Hughes, and their story on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/livertransplant, and http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Taitlyn-Hughes/132186980221999.

I can honestly say this story touched my heart, as my mother needed a kidney transplant before her death.  She never received her transplant because she was not healthy enough for the surgery. Kudos to this twelve year old who was wise beyond her years in choosing to become an organ donor, and to make a difference and save lives. Kudos to this young woman who is honoring her donor, by keeping her dreams to make a difference alive. This kind of story is few and far between.  It gives me hope in this day and time in which we are living. This young girls hope and dreams to change the world, and the recipients thankfulness, drive, and dedication to see that her donor's dreams come true, is truly inspiring. The world needs more people like these remarkable ladies!  Happy heartwarming reading!