I know I mentioned my birthday in my previous journal, but I didn't really say much else.

As of today, September 15, 2009, I'm officially the big 2-1

Haha...And, unlike any other year, this birthday really did mean something to me.

It was just over five years ago that (before I received my heart transplant) I actually didn't think I'd make it to see myself turn 21. Depressing, yes, but, at the time, it was the sad truth.

Then, on that fateful night, a girl suffered a horrible accident and passed away. She was 21.

This girl, a complete stranger to me, helped me to live and see the day that I'm able to say "I made it. I'm twenty-one years old now."

To me, that's the greatest present anyone on this earth can ever give me. It was hard to accept at first, that someone had to die in order for me to live, but I realized that it was her dying wish to have someone else to continue living.

I will never know this girl, nor will I truly know how many people she saved that night. All I do know, however, is that I, honestly, owe her my life.

Thank you so much for giving me another chance to see this day and here is to the hopes of many more to come!

<sub>And, I don't know if I've ever really talked about this fact, but my receiving her heart was practically a miracle.

When her heart was listed in the donor bank, there was listed with it a small defect. Countless hospitals turned the other cheek and passed it by, not wanting to risk giving their patients something imperfect.

When it reached my name on the list as compatible, my doctor was skeptical. Everything else listed for this heart was practically perfect. There was nothing wrong except for this single defect. He phoned the hospital that was holding the heart and questioned the report.

"Oh, no sir. That was a mistake in the report. We'd never list something if it had any sort of defect. This heart is one hundred percent healthy."

Later, after the surgery, when I was just being sent to the recovery room, the transplant doctor pulled my mother aside and held her hands in his.

"That heart was meant for her. When I placed it in her chest, it fit into her like a glove. It couldn't have been a more perfect fit."</sub>