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Matthew Parker and Lindsey Painter

Matthew Parker and Lindsey Painter

All too often these days we read stories of teachers violating their oaths by engaging in improper relationships with students. Equally often, we read about corruption, greed, and plain stupidity in education, usually on the part of the adults that are supposed to be in charge.  Thankfully, such reports are relatively rare.  They are newsworthy primarily for that reason.  In the education system in which I gladly labor, great and willing self-sacrifice for the good of kids is the rule, not the exception.

For a change, here’s a story that just may provoke a swell of pride, and perhaps, even a tear. Via Fox News: 

Matthew Parker only makes it to Lindsey Painter’s first-grade class two days a week, but the 6-year-old’s attendance record is about to get a lot better: The teacher is giving him one of her kidneys and he will soon be able to go school full-time instead of going for dialysis three days a week, as well as do things like run and swim.

Matthew’s kidneys started failing when he was just a few weeks old and after a transplant from a deceased person failed, his parents issued a plea for donors.

They were amazed when his teacher at Hoffmann Lane Elementary School in New Braunfels, Texas, turned out to be among the 1 percent of the population who would be a viable match, reports KSAT.

The surgery is scheduled for next month. ‘When it came back that I was a match, it was shocking,’ Painter tells KVUE. ‘It did take a while to wrap my head around it, to think that I can do this, I can still live a normal life … and I get to make this amazing difference in Matthew’s life.’ She adds, ‘For me to be the needle-in-the-haystack match that they were looking for, it is hard to deny that it was meant to be.’ Parker is one of triplets, and the school’s principal says she put the boys in Painter’s class because of her caring nature.

“It was meant to be.” Allowing oneself to recognize that is one thing. Allowing oneself to accept it is another. Giving of oneself, of one’s very flesh, is something else entirely.

These three remain: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.  God bless Lindsey Painter and all who loving help raise the children of others.