This seems like a strange title for a Love Thursday article, but after the story I read I can’t think of anything that shows love more than this.



I read an article in the April 17, 2007 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. It was about a woman named Haneefah Harris who gave her son one of her kidneys. Not an every day occurrence, but not terribly unusual.

The amazing part is that this is the son that she adopted from foster care! She took him in as a baby knowing that he was medically fragile and that someday he would need a kidney transplant. It came sooner than they expected, he was only 3 years old. Even more amazing, both she and her husband were a match to donate for this little boy.

Her story was also featured in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the September/October 2006 issue of Adoption Today.

As I was searching for the information about Ms. Harris, I stumbled across another story. Here the opposite happened. The adopted son gave a kidney to his father. This story was featured in the St. Petersburg Times.

There was a third story of a young man who donated a kidney to his former foster mother. He had to be approved for leave from the Navy in order to have the surgery. He spent 11 years in her home and aged out of the system. They still call each other mom and son. This article appeared in The Star-Ledger.

Who would have thought that there would be one story like this, much less 3 without a lot of searching?

These families will be bonded in ways that the rest of us can never imagine.