A few weeks ago the boys brought home their Auskick bags filled with goodies and emptied them excitedly onto the living room carpet.

There were footy cards, and pencils, an assortment of other things and a pair of rainbow laces.
Without giving the packaging much notice, I whipped the laces from the pie and stashed them away on the top of the bookcase, you know, just in case they tried to strangle themselves or one another with them…or something.

This morning, dressing Bubble for kinder in her favourite rainbow dress, the laces suddenly popped into my head.

Hmmm, I wonder if I could weave one into her braid?

I stood back and admired my handy work.

Not bad for a first attempt.

Later as the children put their shoes on, and picked their lunchboxes off the kitchen bench, I picked up the packaging from the shoelaces. The smiling face of a little girl beamed back at me from the cardboard as I read the words.

‘Zaidee’s Rainbow Foundation: Organ and Tissue Donation“

As you may already know from previous blog posts, my best friend’s son (and my Foghorn’s best friend) has cystic fibrosis. There is no doubt about it. One day he will be on the waiting list hoping that someone will give him their lungs when they no longer have use for them. Organ donation is something I feel particularly passionate about.

After the school and kinder drop offs I came home and fired up the laptop to read more about young Zaidee.

Zaidee’s Poem

When Zaidee was taken in for her final operation to be an organ and tissue donor.
She did not need her bright blue eyes to see
Her lungs to breath
Her little heart to pump blood around her tiny body
Nor did she need her kidneys or liver again
You see she had died.
All Zaidee needed to take to heaven was the love from her Mum, Dad and brother Jaz.
But other little children just down the hall in the same hospital did need her heart, her liver just to live life again.
These kids are now home with their mums and dads, brothers, sisters and friends again.
Two little kids got to see properly again, to see the face’s of their Mum and Dad when they each received one of Zaidee’s cornea’s.
A newborn and an infant got a second chance for life from parts of Zaidee’s heart.
What Zaidee gave in death was life to other children and a mother because we as a family discussed this before a death in our family years before just in case.
Our little girl Zaidee gave the greatest gift of all, her organs and tissues, she is now our angel in heaven who we are so very proud of for what she achieved in her short 7 years and 22 days of life that many of us will never do and that is to give life to others.
Zaidee’s spirit and her memory will live on and on.

Written by Zaidee’s Dad.

You can read more about Zaidee and/or purchase rainbow products here.