Micah Stegal, right, donated a kidney to his son, 3-year-old Grady Stegall, because Grady was born with kidneys that didn't function properly. Christie Stegall, left, holding daughter Charis, 10 months, and Micah say they are grateful this holiday for their son's successful recovery more than a year after the transplant surgery.

A Lawrence family is thankful this holiday for the strong recovery their 3-year-old boy has made after receiving a kidney transplant from his father.

“I wouldn’t trade what we’ve gone through at all because I have an incredible little boy and I have an incredible husband,” said Christie Stegall, mother of Grady.

When Grady was an infant, his bedroom looked like a hospital, not a nursery.

He was born in early 2004 with kidneys that didn’t function properly, a problem that kept him from growing and caused toxins in his body to rise. When he was 6 months old, he had surgery to install a feeding tube and dialysis catheter. For the next 14 months, his parents had to hook him up to a dialysis machine for nine hours every night – a way to keep him alive until he grew big enough to receive a transplanted kidney.

It wasn’t certain that he’d survive. For his parents, each visit to the doctor brought the possibility of more bad news.

“Being emotionally crushed over and over again was what it boiled down to for a long period of time,” said his father, Micah Stegall, a Lawrence police officer.

In summer 2005, doctors determined that Grady was ready for a transplant. Micah Stegall says there was never any doubt, once his blood type was determined to be a match, that he would be the donor.

“I don’t really think it’s a huge deal because I’ve got two of them,” he said. “It wasn’t something I had to mull over and debate. I just knew this was the way it was going to be.”

Father and son both went in for surgery together on Sept. 26, 2005, at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., a procedure that lasted more than six hours.

Grady Stegall received a kidney transplant from his father, Micah Stegall, in September 2005, when Grady was about 20 months old. He's shown here about a week after the transplant. Today, Grady is at an average weight and height and is like other 3-year-olds.

“I woke up and Christie told me they had already put the kidney in and it was already working,” Micah Stegall said.

For weeks afterward, however, Grady was at risk of getting sick because of the medicines used to keep his body from rejecting the kidney. Last Thanksgiving, the family couldn’t leave the home and couldn’t get together with other family members.

Today, about 14 months after the surgery, Grady is at an average weight and height. Other than taking nine different medications and having to get his blood pressure and weight checked every night, he’s able to function much like any other 3-year-old. He likes pizza, ice cream and cartoons.

He also has a baby sister, Charis, who’s 10 months old and healthy.

“I’m very thankful that God has taken care of us,” Micah Stegall said. “He’s been very faithful to us in keeping Grady healthy and safe.”

Said Christie Stegall, “As hard as it’s been, I’m very blessed to be a part of his life.”