Optimistic O'Connor Blog

As our friends and family already know, our family has had a difficult past couple years. While we have been blessed in so many ways, there have also been many obstacles we have faced.

In 2016, Dan was diagnosed with Kidney Disease and immediately began dialysis and the process to be placed on the transplant list. While he was in the hospital, his brother and sister-in-law were also in the hospital dealing with a difficult delivery of Baby O'Connor who spent some time in the NICU.

In 2017, Dan received a kidney transplant. While we were so blessed to have his father donate a kidney, this was a difficult process to go through. Dan was off work for 2 months, and I was off for one month helping him through the beginning of his recovery.

This year, our brother and sister-in-law had baby O'Connor number 2, who is in the NICU with kidney disease.

While we have been learning how to deal with difficult circumstances, we also know that we are so very blessed in so many ways. We have learned so much about how things are relative, but we still have felt guilty at times knowing that many people are dealing with much more difficult situations. Again, we know things are relative, but we have had difficulty accepting our own circumstances, and accepting help from others. We have been reminded that dealing with our own needs is not selfish. Just like you have to first remove the thorn from your eye, or put on your own oxygen mask before you help others, we had to get through these difficulties. We tried to remain humble, but what we went through was tough. As in the title of the blog, our optimism has taught us to appreciate all of the small positives, and use our experiences to learn compassion and how to help others.

We hope to use this blog to not only share family updates, but also to share things we have learned through our journey. Writing has always been a great outlet for me, so we hope that others can find support and encouragement from our words here.

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