This week, I will be hanging up my Kandid Katie column for a little while. As many of you know, I will be going to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hospital next week for a kidney transplant.

In the meantime, I felt it was appropriate to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have gone out of their way to show how much they care. Whether it was through very generous donations or prayers, I am eternally grateful. In fact, I am a bit overwhelmed by all the different expressions of love I have seen this week.

Most of all, I am so thankful to God, since it is He who has made all of this possible for me. I usually don’t talk about my faith in Kandid Katie, but I feel inspired to do so. Having gone through a year and four months of dialysis and a number of other struggles in my life, I just know this world couldn’t possibly be one dimensional and terminal. I truly believe that God sent me down this incredibly curvy path for a reason, and through my faith in Jesus, I believe I am headed in the right direction.

I feel that it was through God’s inspiration that I met my friend Felesia Buczynski, who so generously offered me her kidney. I haven’t talked about Felesia’s gift to me; it is just too personal. Maybe later I will be able to fully express what her generous gift means to me. For now, all I can think is “thank you.”

It was also through God’s continuous love for me that I survived 32 years with over one year of it hooked to a dialysis machine. While it may not have been what I had hoped for my life, it is through dialysis that I am still here. In the process, I have been surrounded by other patients who have helped me keep my perspective as I traveled down a similar path. I have also been cared for by some of the greatest nurses, patient care technicians and doctors ever. Had it not been for God presenting these people in my life at the right time, life would have been an even bigger uphill battle.

I actually find myself at a loss for words when it comes to how grateful I am to God for putting me right here in Clinton, NC, 2012, with a wonderful family, wonderful friends and a lot more joy than I can express.

In closing, I can’t think of a better way to show my love for God and Jesus than to just say, “Yes, God and Jesus are way cooler than George Clooney.”

(Editor’s note: Katie Holland can be reached by email at kt_sue2002@yahoo.com.)