Johnny the Great Celebrates One Year Post Kidney Transplant

August 21, 2018

Born six weeks early in November 2015, Johnny’s kidneys did not function. Doctors determined that he would need a kidney transplant to survive. After months of dialysis and waiting for a new kidney, he received the gift of life on August 14, 2017. In honor of the first anniversary of his kidney transplant, his mom, Elizabeth, shared a heartfelt, celebratory message to Johnny:

I can’t sleep, I can’t stop being proud of you. Your smile inspires me on my hardest days. I am so proud of your strength you have to have every single day, I’m so proud that even on the hard days you smile so big, you love so hard, you have come so, so, so far. I will never stop thinking you are brave.

Thank you for your laughter, thank you for your spirit. You have taught me more in your little life than I have ever learned. I will never stop loving people who are good, appreciating people who are wonderful to us, thanking people, paying it forward. You have changed my heart, completed our life, and tomorrow morning I can say that you are one year post transplant!

Thank you Johnny for being my son, for making me brave, for making me extra thankful. Thank you for making me complain way less, loving much more. Thank you for making me believe in miracles. Thank you Jamie for giving us back life into our son. Thank you everyone who gave to our family so we could focus on our care and life in the hospital with our son and other wonderful children. Thank you to all the wonderful nurses and doctors who put so much effort into Johnny’s care! Though the journey isn’t easy we will always find the joy in the journey.

You are my hero Johnny the Great and you are the great in this world. I’d choose you for 1,000 years. I’d choose you for 1,000 more. I LOVE YOU! Happy Kidneyversary.

The Sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning. It’s time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me… Let me be singing when the evening come