Amy Clipston - The Gift of Love: One Womans Journey to Save a Life

Also by Amy Clipston

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A Place of Peace

A Life of Joy

A Gift of Grace

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Reckless Heart

A Plain and Simple Christmas

Naomis Gift

A Season of Love

A Hopeful Heart

Destination Unknown

A Kauffman Amish Christmas Collection

ZONDERVAN

The Gift of Love

Copyright 2013 by Amy Clipston

ePub Edition January 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-33139-1

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clipston, Amy.

A gift of love : one womans journey to save a life / Amy Clipston.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-310-33134-6 (softcover)

1. Kidneys Transplantation Patients Biography. 2. Kidneys Transplantation Patients Family relationships. 3. Kidneys Diseases Patients Biography. 4. Organ donors Biography. 5. Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc. Anecdotes. I. Title.

RD575.C57 2013

617.4'610592 dc23

2013033154

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, NewInternational Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Cover design: Curt Diepnhorst

Cover photo: Dan Davis Photography

Photo Stylist: Rita Vogg

Interior design: Katherine Lloyd, The DESK

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 19 /DCI/ 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Jeanne and Stacey, who saw me at my worst but didnt abandon me.

For my mother-in-law, Sharon, for her unwavering support.

And also for my mother, Lola Goebelbecker.

Mom, words cant express how much I appreciate all you do for our family.

Youre my rock. I love you!

CONTENTS

I NEED TO TALK TO JOE. IVE BEEN HIT. I pleaded with my mother to get my husband to come to the phone. My hands shook, mirroring the terror surging through me. Can you get Joe? Ive been hit!

Oh, no! Wait, wait. Hang on. Ill get Joe. My mothers voice was filled with worry. Just a minute. I heard her yell his name and I imagined her standing at the bottom of the stairs, gazing up toward where our bedroom was. Joe! Pick up the phone! Its Amy. Its an emergency.

She returned, her voice overwrought. Hes coming. What happened? Are you all right?

A semi hit me, I said, tears streaming down my hot cheeks. Can you believe it, Mom? It was a semi! My tongue felt as if it had swollen to twice its size and it hurt to speak. Pain shot through my leg and I wondered if it was broken. But I was in one piece! I was still alive!

Oh, no. My moms usual loud and confident voice quavered. Hes coming. Just hold on.

The phone line clicked as Joe picked up an extension. Yeah? He sounded wide awake even though it was only six oclock in the morning.

I got hit! I began a rant about the accident. I was hit by a semi. You have to come. You need to come now.

Slow down. Joes calm tone did little to relieve my panic. Where are you?

The question was simple, but I was dumbstruck. Id driven this route, a straight shot northwest from Union County to Uptown Charlotte, to and from work for the past two years. Yet I had no earthly idea where I was. I looked up at the street sign on the corner above my smashed 2005 Ford Escape and found myself momentarily illiterate. A renewed panic surged through me.

I dont know where I am. Confused tears clouded my vision. I dont know where I am!

Several minutes earlier, I had been on my way to the park and ride, located at a shopping center approximately four miles from my home. I had been driving down Route 74, also known as Independence Boulevard in this location, a four-lane congested highway that is a main artery for trucks and cars headed from Charlotte to the coast. On any given day, thundering packs of tractor trailers could be spotted making the trek down Route 74. I hadnt given the behemoth vehicles much thought until that fateful day of April 30, 2008.

After exiting my neighborhood that morning, I merged onto Route 74 and sang along (albeit off-key) with Mark Willss hit country song 19 Somethin. When it was safe, I signaled and maneuvered into the right lane to prepare to turn into the park-and-ride lot located in the Food Lion parking lot just past the intersection at Sardis Church Road.

The light at the intersection turned red and I came to a stop. And thats when it happened. Looking into my rearview mirror, I found the jarring reflection of an eighteen-wheeler bearing down on me. I gripped the steering wheel as I realized the monstrous truck wasnt decelerating. I thought, Hes not stopping.

Now, when I think of that moment, it feels as though the accident occurred in slow motion. Stop-motion images fill my mind. The semi slamming into the back of my little Ford Escape... The rear window shattering... The tractor-trailers engine filling my vehicle with the snarling growl of a massive predator devouring its tiny, defenseless prey...

As my SUV plunged forward toward the rear of the other eighteen-wheeler, icy tendrils of fear gripped my spine. This is it, I thought as I stared at the reflector tape on the bumper of the semi in front of me. Im going to die and Ill never see my boys again.

And then everything accelerated and my Escape hurtled forward with the speed of a racecar, crashing into the bumper of the other semi.

I imagine the force of my little SUV hitting that gargantuan truck was similar to a pebble hitting its windshield, but the impact knocked me out cold or I blacked out from the horror because I dont remember the moment at all. All I know is that by some miracle my Escape didnt cross the center lane and collide with oncoming traffic or plunge into a nearby ditch. Instead, my vehicle simply came to a stop in the shoulder, away from other commuters. It was as if the hand of God had retrieved my little SUV and gently placed it on the side of the road.

When I regained my awareness, I heard an unfamiliar voice shrieking. It took me a few moments to realize the strange, hysterical voice was my own. The pitch and loudness of my voice embodied the terror that had consumed me the moment the semi rammed into my SUVs rear bumper and shattered the glass in the tailgate.