My daughter Taylor was diagnosed with diabetes when she was eleven years old. Immediately, her life as a normal kid changed, and she had to learn to watch her diet and manage her sugar intake by testing her blood sugar and injecting insulin several times daily. We (me and her sister Brittany) made some accommodations by making small changes like drinking diet pop and sugar-free Kool-Aid, as well as quitting trick-or-treating, etc.

As a teen, Taylor stayed strong and became an athlete, musician, cheerleader, soccer player, and more. Taylor went to college and got her degree in Communications, all while her health continued to fail. She was told by her doctors that she shouldn’t have children and that to do so may damage her health further. She soon found out that she was in the beginning stages of kidney failure. In 2017, Taylor found out she was pregnant and was advised not to carry her child to term, but God knew better, and so did Taylor. She gave birth to a healthy son on July 12, 2018. Miraculously, while she carried her son, her kidney function improved! One doctor called the baby a “perfect parasite.”

Taylor went on in her superwoman way to enroll in graduate school and got her Master's in Health Administration. Her kidneys began to fail further. In 2023, the doctors began to advise her that she needed to get on the transplant list. She started to go through the process, but the list in Chicago was too long, and they anticipated that she would have to wait no less than five years for a donated kidney. Blessings would have it that Taylor began the process of getting on the list in Wisconsin. Soon, she went through getting a fistula in her left arm and within six months started dialysis. One October day, we got “the call.” Taylor got a double transplant—kidney/pancreas! What a blessing.

The only downside to her story is that the blessings came so fast we had no time to prepare and no money to afford her time off work, her mortgage, her bills including medical, and all. We are asking for assistance to help with all of these expenses.