Becoming an organ donor is a big deal, we see the signs and get asked when we get a new license. 

An Edinburg family calls it the opportunity of a lifetime.

Michael Anaya, a 17-year-old born with only one kidney, was in kindergartner when he went to the doctor and learned he had end stage renal disease, also known as kidney failure. 

"At first it was scary," Anaya said. "Because we didn't have any clue what was going on."

From then on, he and his family had to adjust to life differently. 

"Basically, that became a whole part of my life," Anaya said. "The whole going into hospitals, the medicine. Now I can't remember what it was like just going about my day without medicine, without doctors."

For two years, Anaya went into a complete renal failure.

"When I was 15 my kidney fully shut down and that was scary," Anaya said." I wasn't really worried about it though because I didn't feel any different. I was just really exhausted most of the time."

It was also around this time when he and his family got a phone call they had been hoping for.

"I just kind of nudge him awake, and I tell him 'there's a kidney Michael, a kidney has become available and we have to get ready'", Michael Anaya's mom Margot Anaya said. "And he was just in disbelief and told me 'you know mom there's absolutely nothing wrong at this moment. Everything's just become right.'"

They don't know who donated the kidney, but they do want everyone to consider registering to become a donor.

According to Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, 17 people die across the nation while on a donor transplant list.

More than 40% of people with drivers licenses in Hidalgo County are registered donors, in Cameron County more than 50% and in Starr and Willacy County just about 30%.

"It's amazing how it all works, how the body works, how organs work, how we need them, how you can just save eight lives," Margot Anaya said.

"There's another side to these children that are waiting for these organs too, which is battling depression anxiety, the waiting, the unknown, and it's heartbreaking for the families," Margot Anaya said.

Margot Anaya says this second chance at life has changed her son. 

"To see him come out of this now willing to come out of swimming, to try again, to go out of his comfort zone," Margot Anaya said. "But he's just slowly becoming another person again. A much happier one, and we're grateful for that."