Here is the letter I put together for Gift of Life to send out to the recipients of your organs. I was looking at this as possibly our only contact with the recipients in case they don't respond, so I included the Gospel message. I included a note for Gift of Life to please leave it the way it was since I believe that was the only reason your organs were preserved at the scene. I was advised against including that part because someone thought it might be overwhelming to the recipient and it might scare them away from meeting us. I considered that, but then realized that my goal was not to entice them to meet us-my most important goal was using whatever opportunity I had (and this could be the only one) to reach them with the Gospel. Many people have said, "Wouldn't it be amazing if the people who received Hayden's organs went on to have children, etc.?" What about wouldn't it be amazing if these people lived long enough from your gifts to make a decision for Christ and secure eternal life in Heaven? I don't know why nobody thought of that. I will include a side note at the bottom about how this contact works. Anyway, here is what I wrote:
Hello,
We are reaching out to you as a recipient of one of our son's organs. First of all we pray that you are doing well since your surgery. Although losing our son was devastating, knowing that others have benefitted from his decision to donate his organs is a comfort to us. Our son was very healthy and took good care of himself by eating well and working out every day, so we are glad that others can benefit from his healthy organs, which were miraculously unharmed in his accident.
Not only are we pleased that your earthly life has been impacted by our son's gift, but we pray that this will give you an opportunity to consider your spiritual life as well. Another thing that has given us great comfort during this difficult time is knowing that our son is with the Lord at this very moment because of his decision to accept Christ's gift of salvation and that we will see him again since we made that decision too. God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, Who knew no sin, to die on the Cross to pay the price for our sins so we could be together forever with God in Heaven. Enclosed is a tract that further explains this. How amazing would that be for you to meet not only God, but our son face-to-face someday!
We will continue to pray for your recovery. We would like to meet you someday if that is something that you would be ok with. If not, we understand as well. A part of our son lives on in you for which we will always be grateful. We will continue to pray for God to pour out His richest blessings on you!
Side note: I looked up the definition of "devastating" today. It means "highly destructive or damaging," "causing severe shock, distress or grief." That reminds me-I think that's the word the neurologist used when he first explained your brain injury in the hospital after your accident
Another side note: The tract I included with the letter is the same one I used for some of your thank you notes. It's called "You will get through this" by Max Lucado.
I noticed I referenced another side note about contacting through Gift of Life: To initiate contact with recipients, we give our information to Gift of Life and they make it available to the recipients and it's up to them if they want to contact us. This gift is very overwhelming for the recipients and sometimes it's hard for them to meet the donors because of what we had to lose for them to get the gift. I think I went over that somewhere else, but I wanted to mention it again to tie to this letter.
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