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When Cody first arrived on this earth, he was a beautiful baby boy,
but his lungs had extra fluids on them, so he spent the first few days
of his life in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit.  I longed those first
few days to hold my beautiful baby, and cringed every time he got
another shot, tube or machine hooked to his little body. I cried and
cried every time I went to see him. After a few blessings, our miracle
happened and he was able to go home just two days later.

Cody grew to be a normal, happy, healthy, full-of-life little boy. 
When Cody was exactly 3 years and 8 months old, something strange
happened.  He was riding in the car and he jolted out of his seat. He
was disoriented, then really scared.  I rushed him to the doctor. They
couldn’t explain what it was, so they assumed I was just a worried Mom
and sent me home.  I knew something wasn’t right.  As the days went on,
these “episodes” increased.  I continued to go to the doctors searching
for answers.  He would be walking and fall to the ground without
warning, but still no answers. He progressively got worse until he was
continually shaking. He couldn’t hardly eat, walk or talk. He could
smile though, and he did often. I remember one night when he was trying
to eat a fruit snack.  He must have dropped it 10 times before it made
it to his mouth.  He never gave up and smiled through it all.

After a grueling and long 3 months, we found that Cody had a rare
seizure disorder that at times caused him to have 10-15 seizures per
second.  His little body would start to respond to meds then stop, we
continued switching medicines and tried lot of treatments, until one day
I had an impression that he could have food allergies. We had him
tested and found that these were very severe.  After changing his diet,
the seizures came only occasionally over the next six months.

To
celebrate his progress, and Cody’s long journey with seizures, we took
him to Disneyland for his 5th birthday.  (He loved Donald Duck and any
big, fast, scary, ride). I remember on his birthday having cake and him
spreading the frosting all over his face and saying “HO! HO! HO!” He was
always trying to make us laugh. The night we arrived home, I will never
forget. We read scriptures and said prayers with the boys.  After our
nightly routine we said goodnight.  Cody gave his little brother (3) a
great big hug tackling him to the ground and saying “I love you
brother.” We all exchanged hugs and “I love you’s” then put the boys to
bed. As we left their room that night, Cody yelled out “goodnight and
good luck”. We laughed and went to bed.

The following morning, Cody had a seizure that caused him to stop
breathing.  It was a stormy, cold day.  When they whisked him off in the
ambulance I knew this was it.  It took them 45 minutes to get his heart
working, but the rest of his body was shutting down, and he was
completely brain dead.  We knew Cody had accomplished everything he
needed to in this life and was ready to go to the next. I will never
forget the devastation and complete heartbreak I felt, but also the
comfort and knowledge that we would see him again and everything would
be O.K. Cody was able to save another little girl’s life by being a
heart donor.

The next days, weeks, months, and now years have been very hard. It
has now been almost 3 years since Cody passed away. Although I miss him
dearly, every day my heart is healing and I think of how many lessons I
learned through these experiences and especially from Cody. The thing I
learned the most from our sweet angel was that when times are tough we
can always find something to smile about, someone to make laugh and
something to be thankful for.  He taught me to not concentrate on the
bad and hard things in life but to look for the good.  I am so grateful
for the opportunity I have to be a mother to an angel.  I know that God
lives and loves us and will help us through our trials, and that I will
see my perfect little boy again!

-Angie, mother of Cody

For more information about organ donation, please visit www.idslife.org