Our amazing transplant warrior has hit her 1 year mark with her new, life-saving liver, Teddi on 1/1/23!!
Since Liviah’s last winter, we have quite frankly become the “YES” parents, and fall flew by with weekends full of soccer, sibling birthdays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, another basketball season, and Liviah’s first session of gymnastics. (Not to mention, mom’s a teacher- hence why the blog has not been getting updated like it was before, whoops!) Now that we’re in Winter, Liviah continues gymnastics and has also started cheerleading!
This Winter was full of immense gratitude, for we are blessed beyond words to have Liviah still here with us after everything that unfolded last December. Somewhere out there, a donor’s family saved our little girl’s life, and we can’t imagine the turmoil that this Winter brings them. We pray that they continue to feel God’s embrace each and everyday, and that they someday come to know how grateful we are for Liviah’s continued life.
Even with that thankfulness, there are still moments that can quickly bring us back to where we were last year- things as simple as her (or her siblings) getting sick with a virus or a stomach bug and us monitoring her like a hawk, looking out for any sign of what happened last December (since we still don’t have a definitive answer as to what actually happened)… to decorating cookies with friends, because that’s what we were doing the night before she became jaundice and we rushed her to the hospital… to seeing the Festival of Lights, because we gazed at them from a hospital window when we were unsure of Liviah’s outcome… to celebrating New Year’s Eve, and the first day of a New Year, because that is the day that she got her new liver.
We realize that as time goes on, as Liviah continues to do well, to stay active and healthy, to be a 5 year old, then 6, then 7, then one day a teenager, adult, so on and so forth, that these moments won’t bring us back to December 2021 as quickly, or sometimes maybe not even at all, but we are in the here and now, and doing our absolute best to soak in these memories with our family of 5, to cherish life even more, because we know how it felt to have it almost have a life leave us, far too soon.
This year, we made sure to celebrate BIG! We spent time living and making memories, by keeping up with traditions, and even adding new ones- Santa on a train, decorating cookies, Christmas mass (seeing our pastor, and him seeing Liviah, who he held vigiles for and prayed so many prayers over), going to the amusment park and zoo, spending time with great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends who are like family, celebrating Christmas morning with our family of 5!
And the best: celebrating Liviah’s liverversary!
We very much appreciate eveyone who has taken the time to read this post and are beyond thankful to our many gracious donors who have made a contibution to COTA for Liviah’s Journey!
Wishing everyone a prosperous and Happy New Year!
The Widders 😀