A touching story. Very short but touching.
Ella Westervelt was always a planner. The little girl with a big smile had big plans to help kids. Before she died, she wrote a will, giving half of her life’s savings to the children’s cancer association. CCA helped Ella for 2 1/2 years as she battled lymphoma. In return Ella left CCA half her estate precisely $296.55.
Sweet Ella. Rest in peace.
This story is adorable.
It all started January 2014 when McIntyre overheard her mother and grandmother talking about a story they heard on the radio about a 25-year-old man her age in need of a kidney transplant.
They said this man had lost his father to brain cancer in 2012 and had had his house burned down on Christmas Day 2011, and McIntire’s mother commented that if it weren’t for her health problems, she would give him a kidney. She had type-O blood, which is the universal donor.
So, Ashley decided to do what she could. Here’s a little more on the man:
Dr. Malay Shah of the University of Kentucky Transplant Center told ABC News the surgery happened in April. He explained that Robinson had a kidney disease called IgA nephropathy, which put him into full kidney failure when he was 23 because his immune system attacked his kidneys, preventing them from properly filtering blood and removing toxins.
Alright, so Ashley helped out Danny Robinson. And they kept it going:
Hey, look at this image real quick. According to some sources, I’m working on a book based off of my blog. This is so weird.
I wonder what’s in it. Could there be content that I consider to be the best of the blog? Is that why the title looks that way? Is this even the final version?
Huh, well, today is the blog’s birthday, so I guess something like this is a cool announcement. Let me dig in deeper to see what I can find. This looks pretty darn exciting!
When I first started this blog in 2011, it was a completely different idea. Dante’s Opinion was the name and it was where I addressed some issues of the day with a little catchphrase “And that’s just my opinion!”. In August 2012, I relaunched the blog as DALANEL. It started off slow until the hit series “Daily Good Stuff” started popping up.
Plenty of highs and lows. On the 15th of February of that year (2011), I wrote my first post. Looking back at it, it’s very fitting as that’s one of the very few things I pride myself in knowing.
I’m really happy at how far DALANEL has come. The people love me, they really do. I’ve always told myself I would market this blog more often, I can never do it. There is a lot of good content here that can really impact people. Ironically, the name of the blog might be a drawback and I’ve been debating whether to change it or not. At the same time, I’ve spent time building the DALANEL brand so I don’t know if I should change it now.
In any case, DALANEL is an acronym of my full name. It’s cute like that.
DALANEL is the heart and soul of my blogging…my writing. This is my baby; my legacy for now. This is my best and I always drive people here before my book or other sites I write for or own.
I hope you have enjoyed this journey and hope that you stick around. This year should be the best yet. Looking to break some records, baby!
I’ve been very busy and I had to put DALANEL off tot he side as you may have noticed. The ALF Lighting Crew is working on a huge project and I’m putting all of my energy towards that.
However, this Saturday is the blog’s birthday so I have a couple of posts lined up for that. But, no weekly and daily stuff until Monday when the dust settles.
You can always follow my lighting crew on Twitter and Instagram. Uh, and like us on Facebook too although my social media manager isn’t very invested in it. We’re working on big things and this Sunday is the launch of us doing lighting for our church services full time. I’ve been busy working on the equipment and picking lighting designs for parts of the service and programming and all of that stuff.
Of course, this will now be a weekly job for me vs just working on special projects every so often so I’m curious on how I’ll handle this new lighting era.
My crew is very excited to get this party started. Follow us. Not only do we light, but, we are a light.
-Dante Writes
You will want to read this one.
From Testimony Share.
Mine is a very long story with a happy ending. Let me start by thanking God for always being faithful even when I was not. I want to share my story and hopefully it will help someone who is in a tough situation.
I came to USA from Kenya in 2007. Before then I was very scared to come here. I went to an Australian campus in Malaysia for my first year of college since I was not sure I could handle being in USA. Later when I left for my holiday, my parents convinced to pursue studies in USA or Australia.
I started the application process and told God the first response will be His will for me. I got accepted to MC, I took the I20 to embassy for visa application. I told God unless He is coming with me to the USA, I do not want a visa. Getting a US visa is a tough process for many with numerous attempts but for me at my first attempt I got the visa. Glory to God, I knew no matter what I face in a foreign country, in the city of New York where I knew no one, He will always be by side. That’s all I needed.
My journey started in August 25, 2007. I was pursuing a bachelor degree in chemical engineering. It was tough but I witnessed His faithfulness throughout. I will fast forward to where I received my master’s degree and got an internship with an appliance company. At the time I had a work visa that allowed me to work. The first one was for 1 year and then I had to extend it for another 18 months. Thank God for my wonderful employer who took it upon himself to make sure I stayed legal. He had to enroll in a program with DoL and file a lot of paperwork just keep me legal! The HR personnel had to undergo training and train annually thereafter… all to keep me legal! I thank God for the wonderful people He put in my life. I had angels to guide me along the way.
My 18 months were to expire on July, 2014 and I only had three choices to remain legal: go back to school, get married, or file for H1B Visa with my employer. Option 1 was very depressing since I owed so much in student loans and I really did not want to go back to school. The second option was even more depressing since I had to fake a marriage to remain legal and I was so resentful to the system for making things so hard. The third option was not really an option because it will involve lawyers, huge expenses, it was not guaranteed and I needed my employer on board. He had so much for me and I didn’t want to ask for more assistance.
I felt stuck and I finally decided I had to get off my high horse and do what most people do…get married.
