This past fall (I believe in September or around there, maybe a little later) I received a call from the Rhode Island Blood Center saying that they had some news for me, could I please give them a call back. So at the first chance I got, I called back. The news they gave me was wonderful - my recipient had signed paperwork requesting that we exchange contact information!
Considering that I had been warned not to be too hopeful of this exact thing happening it was music to my ears to hear that my recipient was the one to initiate the process of undoing the anonymity between us.
I filled out my half of the forms, scanned them, and e-mailed them in to RIBC. Then waited, and waited, and waited some more. It was quite the waiting game, these things have always seemed to take some time. Finally on March 7, 2013 my recipient's information arrived in my inbox. Where it sat until 2 nights ago.
Let me elaborate: it isn't that I didn't want to e-mail my recipient, because I did. The struggle I had was what to say. How do you start an e-mail to someone who you do not know, yet, feel so closely connected to?
I didn't have an answer to that. So my e-mailed waited. Then, two nights ago, after getting home from work, I couldn't sleep. My mind kept cycling through things I could say to my recipient. Since I didn't know what to say I was thinking of all the things I could tell my recipient that would tell him about me as a person. An e-mail began to form so I got out of bed, sat at my laptop, wrote it and clicked the send button. Initially I thought I would just get up, type my thoughts out, save it as a draft and then re-visit it later. But instead, it just felt right to click send
. Yesterday I received a response, two as a matter of fact (one from my recipient and one from their spouse). My heart is so filled with joy and excitement. I am hopeful that we will remain in touch and become friends.
I will continue to keep you updated.
