The house is silent this morning.  Matt is at work, and the kids are with my sister-n-law.  Instead of sleeping late, I made the choice to wake up and enjoy this little peace of heaven that was bestowed upon me this A.M.  The silence is like a mind massage, and I'm loving every minute of it.  I'm also loving my summer vacation. The kids have adjusted quickly to the lazy day routine, but I still haven't adjusted to their forever urgent need to eat 24/7.  We decided to skip a big family vacation this summer so that we could save a little cash.  Instead we spent the cash. Faced with the boredom of long, hot summer days, the romantic idea of saving money was quickly replaced with romantic ideas of trips to Target and Walmart. Although we will not have a vacation to remember this summer by, we will have something even more unforgettable.  On August 7th I am giving my sister my left kidney.  She has polycystic kidney disease and is in need of a kidney transplant.  I am a perfect match!  We did run into one snag; the CT scan revealed that I have a small angiomyolipoma (benign tumor) growing on my left kidney.  The plan is to biopsy the tumor during the operation and transplant the kidney as they normally would.  The chance of this kind of tumor being malignant is extremely rare, but this has been somewhat concerning.  My sister is having both of her existing kidneys removed which makes for a much more complicated and time consuming surgery.  Doctors say that I may only be in the hospital 2-3 days and out of work for 4-6 weeks.  Luckily the surgery is taking place during the summer, so I may only need to miss the first 2 weeks of school.  I pray that this surgery is successful and that my sister can begin to feel like the healthy person she deserves to be.  It is sad that people with this disease are forced to get so sick before something like dialysis or transplant can be considered. Transplantation of the kidney is not a treatment, it is a cure for polycystic kidney disease.  I strongly encourage everyone to become an organ donor.