MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

THE BEST GIFT IS OUR SAVIOR'S BIRTH.

We have been surrounded by so much love this holiday season, so much love and so much laughter. When it got rough there were so many people around us that someone would grab hold of us and hang on until the bad times passed. HOW LUCKY ARE WE!!! We couldn't have made it through these days without all of you. THANKS.

Below: Here is Grandpa Tom with his favorite Christmas gift--time with his little girl.

p.s. look at Angel in the background-I love her laughing.

Here is the two "big" boys helping their little cousins set out the tray for Santa. Elliott (left) and Noah (right) thanks for the help. Santa loved the cookies.

Elliott is holding Kayli and Candace and Sadie are sitting in the chair.

They made these cookies with me.

Here is one of my favorites of all. This is the "cousins" cracking up when I'm trying to take a picture. I know Will is with them laughing just as hard. I really felt him then because that is just what he would have done. Couldn't hardly ever get a serious "cousin" picture.

How wonderful



Below: Here is another favorite. My two bestest girls in the Christmas moment. How cute are they??

We didn't go to SLC over the vacation. We will be down to see all our friends at the hospital soon. Promise. We do remember that we were with all of you last year at this time and you made Will's Christmas as good as it could be without us being home. I hope you remember him with good memories of last year's holiday season also. We loved all the cookies that made it to our room on the fifth floor. We will remember the good times.

We don't know what we will be doing for New Year's Eve yet but we hope to be watching little Kayli maybe.

I hope all of you have a fantastic New Year--2010. It's hard to believe.

Our God has great plans for us next year, I feel it so strongly.

Can't wait.

God Bless and stay safe.


Let the spirit of love fill your hearts and homes. In this most wonderful of seasons I hope you find many reasons for happiness.

There is no time more fitting to say "Thank You" and to wish you a Happy Holiday Season and a New Year of health, happiness and prosperity.

I can't tell you all how much your emails to the family have helped us. These are a couple of wonderful ones that I wanted to share. I know without a doubt that it's not just "us" hurting right now. Maybe these will help other people as much as it has helped us. We appreciate all of them, and we do reread them often.

(Thank you for letting us use them on the blog.)

************

Terri,
I know your days are extremely difficult without your son. I just still cannot imagine what you are going through.

Just think, this year Will is spending this Christmas with the Main Man. Wow, what a Christmas that is going to be! I am sure that Will is going to have some big surprises to share with him, most importantly the love that has surrounded him and his family. God will be proud and happy that Will spread the word while he was here on earth, touched so many lives, and humbled us all with his great spirit. What a wonderful Christmas gift he has given to all of us. I love you Terri,
Cyndi

*****************

Hello,

You do not know me and neither did Will. My name is Katie. I worked at St. Lukes on the 4th floor for about 2 yrs until this summer. I just wanted to let you know that because of Dixie and Virginia I kept up with Wills blog. I think that you and Will are strong and amazing people and I am very touched with your story. After I moved I still kept up with Wills blog every couple of weeks and I am just finding out today about your loss. I guess I just wanted to let you know that Will touched the lives of people that he never met. When I turned 21 this summer I became a donor. Not just because of Will but I think that he might have had a little part of it.
God Bless. I hope your family is doing well.
Katie Davis
P.S. Your Granddaughter may be the cutest baby I have ever seen!!! I work in the NICU so I have seen my fair share of cute babies!!!

***************

I pray nightly for blessings to be poured out on all our friends.

Thank you

PS Kayli rolled over yesterday. She's getting so big. She will be walking tomorrow probably.

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME

Look at my two girls. Kayli's big sister, Candace, got to introduce her to the big jolly Santa this year.

Also a first this week, Kayli ate her first solid food-rice cereal and a little bit of applesauce. She loved it-well, whatever she got in her mouth, she loved.




Above: this is the first high chair experience. She's doing pretty good.

I tell you, she eats like her mom.

*************

We had other firsts this week. I went into Will's room and was able to stay in there for a while. That was huge for me. Also, Tom and I finally were able to go through all the cards and letters that were sent to us. We know it has been over a month, but we did it when we were able to. THANK YOU ALL. Love and caring was shown through these cards and writings for all of us. We will cherish them for a long, long time. Will was loved by so many and we are very blessed to have been part of his family.

There are some people out there that do know what we are going through. You have let us know some of the approaches that have helped and there were many different things that helped different people. The one thing that everyone mentioned that has gone through this is that we need love from family and friends surrounding us. When we need solace and encouragement, we know how much we are loved by all of you and that's comforting. More importantly we have God's comforting arms around us. He will show us the way through this time of grieving.

We also made tentative plans for Christmas. After I get out for our break we will go down to Salt Lake and visit Danny and AnnMarie for a few days. We hope to see our friends at the hospital while we are there. Then we will have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Christi and Billie and their families in Boise. After that, we might go down to Reno to visit family. Now that's what we might be doing, but things happen and we could change all that.

We will post more pictures of our little girl. Next week, I wanted to share a few letters that were mailed to me. They touched us and maybe they will touch you all also. But in the meantime, take care and remember our God is so awesome. He can do anything, all we have to do is ask and then wait for the answer.

GOD BLESS

Below: This is the tree that was given to us by some friends (Thanks Henslee family) in memory of Will. We planted it before the freezing weather started. It's going to be a big, strong tree. Here is the picture of Aaron and Angel and of course, baby Kayli with Uncle Will's tree planting.

This is another adorable picture of the sweetest grandbaby EVER!
That smile keeps the world going 'round for us.


I know quite a few people are very worried about our family during the holidays. It isn't easy and I know the hard part isn't going to be behind us for quite a while, but we have each other (and I thank God for that every day) and we will get through the holidays. I am not saying that there aren't days, or nights, that are incredibly hard to handle, and that I just wish we could go away and hide. It is usually the little things that catch us off guard. There are many people that have lost a close, loved one like we have that are reading this and know what we are talking about. We are not alone in this walk, but not everyone can go through it the same way. Some take a different road. We just know, without a doubt, that God will get us through these bad times. We will make it.
I will admit (although I probably shouldn't) that there are nights that the pain is so strong that I don't think I can take my next breath, but the breath comes anyway. I know that other mothers that have lost their child feel the same way. But when I check back into the "real" world, there are many, many blessings that my family and I can remember and use to continue on. God does that for us every time. That is when our great "Healer" comes to us. He is amazing!! God reminds us of all the wonderful things in our life that have been given to us. The #1 "gift" is our sweet daughter, wonderful son-in-law, and the most SPECIAL, SPECIAL little baby.
The world just seems to be a different place without Will. I know if you are reading this, you probably feel the same way. But it's still a beautiful world with many sweet, caring people in it and happy things all around us. Many of our friends and family have asked me to keep the blog going with some of our feelings over the holidays that might help other people that have lost a loved one. I don't know if I can do that because my mind is just in survival mode right now, but maybe later sometime. We don't know what we will be doing for Christmas yet but I will let you all know when we know. I hope everyone gets their tree up soon.
**********

We have such a loving family that still calls us every day and makes sure that we know we are loved. What a great feeling. We will surround us with this love during the holidays and the pain won't be so unbearable. I know that Will's most favored day in the whole year is Christmas so we have many, many great memories to hold on to. He loved the whole decorating, wrapping, shopping and visiting that we always did during this time. Now we will make new memories.
I will write more later, next week probably.

God bless and I hope everyone keeps Jesus in the season.

Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

There are so many things that we are thankful for, but the #1 blessing is our family. We love you all and thanks for caring so much.

GOD BLESS

Sunday before Thanksgiving

We went shopping and found this fun hat.

The Cowboys just got off a scary win today.

Doesn't Kayli look like a little fan with the Santa Cowboys' hat?

This week has been hard thinking of things I need to write on the blog.

I know many of you still look on here because it's a habit. We will still blog sometimes especially over the holidays. We want to share the pictures and the wonderful season with all our family and friends.

We don't know what we are going to do for Christmas but we will get through Thanksgiving first. We have such an amazing family and that helps, as you all know. We will be going to Boise to have Thanksgiving with my dad and all the family that is in town. Angel and Aaron are going to be with Aaron's mom and family in Boise for the early afternoon and then they will come over for the late afternoon. So they get two dinners that day (and two desserts).

My two nieces, Billie and Christi (Sadie and Coby too) came over Saturday evening and spent the night. It was good to sit around and talk about Will. We laughed and cried till late in the evening.

Tom and I have so many things we are thankful for this season. I hope you all remember your blessings also.

Our God is awesome.

My last blog, I told you all how the love just keeps surrrounding us. Here is just an example of that. This young soon-to-be-a-great-nurse wrote us and she will never know how much she helped on a day that I wasn't doing too great. I wanted to share her words with all of you and maybe help you all on your day also. We have received many such cards and I will share some of them with you. Thank you and God bless you, Melissa.

********************

Harbison Family:
My name is Melissa. I was the student nurse that did my care plan on Will. The Texan, fellow Cowboys fan, and the one that shared the pictures of the new Cowboys Stadium with Will? Well, I have had to do a few of those care plans but I left the hospital that night with a heavy heart. You ever meet people and immediately see their light and know they are special? I had that experience with Will and your amazing family. I also knew that Will was in his last days. As you know this is sort of a small area and I happen to live in Jerome so, information spreads and I heard of your blog. I turned that care plan in today, after I did a clinical day at Da Vita. I came home and read the blog in its entirety and cried. I knew I had to wait to read it until I was done with the assignment. I just wanted to let y'all know that I am sorry for your loss. I know that God is doing his amazing work through this. I appreciate Will allowing me to learn about his medical condition and journey. This time I didn't just learn, I grew. Not sure what this growth is for or about but I wanted to give your son and family the credit for being God's instrument.

With God's Love,
Melissa Starnes

I am so sorry that I haven't written on the blog for a while, but I need to just say that it isn't easy. I know many of you are wondering how the family is doing. Just a quick message to say that we are doing okay, just one day at a time. I will blog later, I promise. I just don't know when, I'm sure that you all understand. The love and compassion is still coming to us in droves. We thank you all and love you.

GOD BLESS ALL

One week already

Can't believe that it has been a week already since God called Will home.
Lots of changes as you all can imagine, but we are doing okay. Angel has been our rock, for sure. Where she got all that strength, I don't know. Maybe Will left it too her, because he didn't need it anymore. Who knows??

The Celebration of Will's life on Saturday was attended by close to 900 people.

A M A Z I N G!

I still want to get some more pictures up here but I will later this week.

I am going back to work next week if my mind starts working. I seem to be in a total shutdown right now. I forget a lot of things I am trying to do, so if I haven't called back or answered any questions, I apologize. My school is still the most awesome place to work. My boss told me to take as much time off as I need. Wonderful people there in Bliss. Tom has been battling a cold since the Celebration and has been mostly in bed. He's starting to feel better now.

This has been bothering me for a while now because of all of you that have been following Will's journey. I wanted to make sure that when you think of what Will had to go through after his transplant, that you're not thinking negatively about being an organ donor. That would be such a terrible thing. Even after all Will went through, I asked him if he would do it again, and he said yes, in a heartbeat. He said that was what kept him going was the hope that he would be able to return to his love--coaching. It was not meant to be --but organ donation is a wonderful, wonderful gift of life. There were two lung transplant friends at Will's celebration. I so wanted to have them stand up and let everyone see how well they are doing, but I didn't want to embarrass them. They are living life as they should. Now I will put my efforts into raising awareness about the need for organ donors and to finding a cure for CF. Then people like Will, Tanya, and Sarah wouldn't be needing transplants. RIGHT?!!

The Jerome High School (where Will was coaching) has started a scholarship fund and has raised some good money already, in remembrance of Will. They are planning a basketball tournament every year so they can keep this scholarship going. What a wonderful way to remember Will. He was all for getting kids educated, it was important to him, so this will be a good memorial to him.

Another great way to remember Will is to plant a tree in his name. We had some good friends give us a 15 ft. maple tree to plant on our property in honor of Will. What a great gift. Thanks Henslee clan--love you all lots. We planted it tonight.

Today wasn't the best of days. We went looking for headstones and had to take back all the material we had from the home dialysis place. We also had to pick up his death certificate (because you have to sign papers for that????). So some days are worse than others but I read this in a devotion:
God protects His own. He will not allow you to be tried beyond what you are able to take. And in the middle of it all, He tells you to entrust yourself to His care.
So we trust God to take care of us and when He is ready, the pain will lessen.


You don't know what you are capable of when you're resting in God's strength and not your own. We're going to get through this one way or another. It's not going to last forever and the whole family will get through it - because God is faithful.

If you haven't written your fun memory of Will, please do so. You can't imagine how much they are helping us. Tom, Aaron, Angel and I are enjoying them so much. Thank you for sharing those with us. If you want to just email them to me it's harbisonterri@hotmail.com and that's okay to do also.

Thank you for your continued prayers for our family. We feel the love everyday surrounding us. That's also God's doing.

God Bless

It was a very, very special celebration. I think it was everything that Will would have wanted. The gym looked great (and I will post pictures of it later). The music and the speakers were unbelievable and the crowd was filled with love that we, as a family, could feel so strongly. It helped us get through the day. Will was loved by so many people. What more could anyone want?

My nieces, Billie and Christi, helped put a slide show presentation for everyone to see. Billie somehow (it's magic) made it small enough to fit on here. Thanks so much for doing that, Billie. So if you weren't able to attend the celebration and you want to see Will in his different stages of life--push play. Let me know if you enjoyed it.

Friday

The Celebration of Life will be at the Jerome High School Gym in Jerome Idaho, Saturday, Nov. 7th at 11:00 am

This will be a great time to remember a great guy

For those that can't make it, I hope to have a video of some of it. Maybe.

We are doing okay with all the love and support from everyone.

God Bless

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

Very hard to write this and I don't know how to say it. So, just say it Harbison and get it over with.

Will passed away tonight at 6:45 pm. It was one of the most peaceful
experiences that I have ever seen. He was in a lot of pain and very tired. He decided that it was time. It's so easy to decide when the decision is done for you. Will was surrounded by friends and family, so many, that the room could barely hold everyone. We were laughing and joking and then Will wasn't there any more. It was a very peaceful death and we are so sorry that it had to happen, but rest assured, there wasn't any pain.

If any one had read this blog, you know that I believe God is good. His blessing was that most of the family was able to say goodbye and share funny stories with Will. He could hear, I believe, up to the end and he's up there laughing still. He died as he lived, on his terms, when he's good and ready. We were well taken care of by the beautiful people up on fourth floor. That's Will's old stomping ground and he felt right at home.

He was loved.

I will write more later, I am burned out.

I want to thank God for lending us Will even for a litle time.

Monday night

Today Will had a bunch of blood work done. He has still be in lots of pain but tonight they might have found an answer. He's on continuous drip. He seems to like it. The bad thing is that it makes his short term memory all messed up. He's having a hard time remembering why he's in the hospital so every time he wakes, he has to be told again that he's in and what's happening. Sometimes he forgets he even has had his transplant (I wish I had that good med). I have to show him his scars before he believes me. His leg is still very painful and the surgeon might have to come in the morning to take some more tissue out. He told us that that might happen.

Will will have to have another dialysis tomorrow morning because they couldn't take very much fluid off because his blood pressure wouldn't stay up. I think they only were able to take off 0.24 kilos and he needed to take off about 3. So maybe tomorrow it will be better.

They still won't let Kayli come up and visit Uncle Will. She's getting mad and Will just can't understand why they won't let her. We have to explain it to him several times. I think I can fit her into one of my book bags if she would just be quiet, but Kayli is a lot like her mom (and maybe her Grandma too) she just can't stay quiet for long. We will see.

Take care and have a great Tuesday. I will post again tomorrow night. Take care.

GOD BLESS

Here's one more Halloween picture. That should be the last one. But she was so funny because it just didn't make any sense why one would want to put silly clothes on and go visit people. Soon she will though====CANDY.

Will has not had a great weekend. His pain level has been very high. They keep trying different things and he should be on top of it soon.

The culture from his wound in his leg has came back and he doesn't have MRSA. YEA!!!

The bad thing was that the doctor then had to go in and clean out all the dead tissue. It was not pleasant at all. The wound is about the size of my palm but it went clear down to the tissue. They have to repack it three times a day for awhile. When the doctor comes back in the morning, he should tell us what will be happening in the next few days.

Will will have dialysis in the morning which should take care of that terrible stomach pain for a few hours. I really pray that they find a cause of the pain soon. It seems to be getting worse, but then it could be because it is combined with the leg wound pain.

So tonight we really want Will to get some good sleep. I will let you know how everything is tomorrow night. I want to tell you all that we appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers that you have been sending our way. And we know it is hard for some of you not to be able to come up and see Will, but he doesn't want people to see him like this so that is what we want to do. Soon he will want as much company as he could get.

God bless and please pray for Will's pain to get under control. Thank you so much.

Saturday night-Happy Halloween

DON'T FORGET THE TIME CHANGE. EVERYONE GETS AN EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP EXCEPT FOR PEOPLE IN THE HOSPITAL.

Here are the best Halloween pictures.

Of course, the first one is the cutest little lady bug. She looks scared, doesn't she? At least she's warm. She had another outfit, a little lamb, that she wore too. So she had a change of wardrobe in the middle of her evening. What a girl.

Here's Candace as the perfect looking Alice in Wonderland.

How cute does she look?

And it wouldn't be complete without a little picture of my mom's dog, Tinker, with her costume. She makes a terrific witch.
I felt bad because I really wanted to be home this Halloween. It's been three years since we have.

The doctors finally got on top of Will's pain and he has been catching up on his sleep today. He even slept through the BSU game. But he asked to keep up on the pain killers. Oh, but he knows who won and he tried to stay up and watch the Yankees game but couldn't do that either. They won too. Maybe he should sleep through all his special teams and they would win,,,hmmmmm, something to think upon.

The surgeon, (a great guy) said that Will's wound on his leg is a little worse today so he put him on a third antibiotic. Maybe that will start clearing it up. When the final cultures come in tomorrow, he will decide whether he needs to do surgery Sunday or not. I will let you all know when we do. Please pray for Will to start clearing up the infection without the surgery. You all know that surgeries don't do well for Will. They are taking good care of Will up here and he is getting all your messages. Thanks for those.

I hope God pours out beautiful blessings on you all.

GOD BLESS

not again

Yup, here we are again--in the hospital. We had to put Will in the Twin Falls hospital. He has an infection from a sore on his leg that he got in the hospital a few days ago. He has had to have a surgeon come lance it (gross, but he didn't feel any pain) and take care of it. They took some cultures. We should know what we are dealing with Sunday afternoon. The doctor also had the radiologist put in a pic line so he could get his IV antibiotics better. He also had a chest xray and a leg xray and lots of blood work, so he has had a busy day. He is in a lot of pain right now and they are trying to get on top of it. We will have dialysis tomorrow and we don't know what this will do with our training time.

This is just another little bump in the road but he is getting good care. Will was allowed to be on the fourth floor which is the floor that he "grew up" on. Most of the nurses he has-- he has known for a lot of years. It feels like home to him and they do give him the VIP treatment. Coach and Donna came up to see if he's being taken care of (I know, Christi and all you other English majors, that you don't end a sentence with a participle but I don't care tonight -lol). They left after a few minutes because he was trying so hard to stay awake and he couldn't. Hopefully he will sleep (with the help of good drugs) for the next few days. We don't know the time frame or anything right now. I will keep you all posted.

By the way, yes, Dr. Cahill is on top of all this, and everything is getting checked by her. She said this is what she would be doing in Salt Lake if she had Will up there. So we might as well stay close to home and friends. The sad thing is the hospital isn't allowing anyone under the age of 18 to visit on any floor. So we don't get to see Kayli, I think that's where Will is feeling the real pain.

I will post tomorrow night. Happy Halloween and don't eat too much candy.
Thank you for your prayers.

GOD BLESS

home sweet home

This picture just can stand by itself as the cutest baby ever.

Oh, my gosh, I have turned into THAT Grandma---sorry.

Will got out of the hospital just in time to get over to the dialysis center for our training. We were able to get him to the driest weight yet. I hope we have the pain issue under control as we will see in the next couple of days. Will was just getting home when he had visitors waiting for him. It was great to see these three girls. He coached them his last real year of coaching. They were very special to him and now they are all in college training to be teachers. Wow, it's hard to believe. They didn't stay long enough, but Will was really tired and I think they saw that. Coach Clark and Brent came over to say hi to the girls and welcome Will back home. So everyone was gone in about 30 minutes and then Will just unwound.

Cute girls with one cute guy.

Molly, Jordan, and Kabina

Thanks for the visit, I know Will really enjoyed seeing you three.

We will be continuing with the training and we really think this is working well for Will, having dialysis six times a week, for a little shorter time. It's not so hard on the body. Can't wait until we can start training at home. My boss is so good about letting me have three afternoons a week for training. Everyone has been stepping up to help me out in the classroom. I have said it before, but Bliss is just the best school in the world!!! I love everyone there.

Tom and Will are having withdrawals. Kayli hasn't been over because Grandpa can't watch her when Will is in the hospital. So they had two days alone. They were both miserable. Kayli came over tonight and stayed awhile so everyone had a Kayli fix.

It's getting very cold out already and Halloween is this weekend. It's hard to believe. Time flies when you're having so much fun.

GOD BLESS

wonderful week and wonderful weekend and the promised pictures

We had a crazy week and even crazier weekend. Lots and lots of company just stopping by. These pictures are not in the right order but at least I got some of them on here.

Will is doing better and we hope to get him home tomorrow sometime. They need to find a pain med that he can take at home so we don't have to keep doing this. He has such a funny (not ha ha funny, but strange funny) reaction to meds anymore. Could be from the liver???

I will blog tomorrow night and tell you all how he's doing.

Now on to the pictures that I promised you. There is even some with Will on here.

This is just a cute picture of Kayli getting ready for the big game.

Here are the three cousins that were watching the Dallas game on Sunday. Shannon came down from Mnt. Home for the day and they just laughed and yelled and cursed (not with Kayli in the room). They came out at half time because it was such a beautiful day. The Cowboys were winning and Kayli needed some air.

Happy days. The guys had a great time just hanging together.

The next two pictures are of Katie Rose, her sweet baby, Bella Rose, and sis, Shane. They all stopped in because they were in town for my good friend's Susan's (their mom) birthday.
It had been a long time since we have seen them also.

Bella was fascinated with Kayli. Poke

Here is a good friend, Camille, with her new husband that we haven't met yet. Will likes him because he's a Dallas fan. I like him because he's got a good smile. It was so good to see Camille again. We hadn't seen her in over a year. They live in Pocatello and just stopped by for a minute.

Kayli had a very busy sports weekend. First we had the big BSU game and we won!

Then the next picture is the outfit for the Cowboys game--and we won!

Then the last outfit change was for the Yankees and they won!!!

I think it might just be winning because she looks so darn cute in the outfits.

By the way, Uncle Will bought all the outfits for her. He's the best Uncle.

Here is cousin Danny, with his wife, AnnMarie and her two kids, Jaycee and Tucker.

they came down on Friday night, after Will's other cousin, Joe, left on Friday morning. It was so much fun to have them here and they helped get the house ready for the dialysis program that we have set up. Also they moved furniture around so Will can start doing a little exercise program. Thanks so much guys.

We started out the week with a visit from my nephew, Joe, and his wonderful family. They came up from California to see Nino, it's spanish for god-father. Willie is Fath's god-father and very proud to be. She is something else. Very, very entertaining and loved to visit with Nino

Here is Faith with Kayli, I think she just scared the daylights out of her. Look at her eyes, or maybe it was that doll that looked ready to attach???

Here is a sweet picture of my mom, in the middle with her California gang.

Joe, Lisa, Mom, Faith and Jodi

The whole gang. Talk about a melting pot.

Here's a picture of Will with them.

There's cousin Joe in the back then Lisa, his step-daughter, Will, Faith, and Jodi, Joe's wife.

Faith and Nino relaxing together which is strange because she can't really relax---ever.

Here is a picture of Nino with Faith just hamming it up.

Below is a picture of four generations.

My mom, Eileen, is holding baby Kayli.

Angel is holding me.

AWWWWWWWW how sweet.

So hope you enjoy the pictures and again I can't say enough about how blessed we are to have such wonder, caring friends and family. I can't imagine this journey without you all.

God is so good to us.

God Bless

SO SORRY

I'm so sorry that I didn't get our pics up here. We have had a crazy weekend but it was wonderful. I do have some great pictures but we I do have an excuse for not putting them up on the blog. Will had to go into the ER again last night. His pain was very bad and there wasn't anything we could do. So they admitted him and will keep him at least over night. I will post tonight on his condition and will put pics up here if I can do that from the hopsital.

Take care and GOD BLESS

Will had a good night and I just wanted to share that with everyone. He hasn't had many of those lately. This 6 days a week might be getting us somewhere. Please keep praying for him. We had had Will's cousin, Joe, and his family up here for a few days. They left this morning and I will post some great pictures on here this weekend. Faith, three years old, is Will's god-daughter and she hasn't seen Will since right after she was born. Will and Faith have had some great visits together. She can talk and talk and talk, so I would put Will and her in the same room and shut the door. Very entertaining.

A very good friend, Megan, sent us this. Wow, talk about a gift of words. God is so amazing because He has given us incredible friends to help us walk through our journey, but more importantly He has given us His word to bring us peace. Megan, this is perfect, thank you.........





James chapter 1 verse 12, "blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."

Then Megan writes to Will---You are blessed and Will loves the Lord and WILL receive that crown. His promises are the surest thing we can count on, and right here in His Word, He promises you that if you can hold strong right now, He has a blessing for you that is unfathomable to what could ever understand or comprehend.

Take care and have a great Friday. I will post pics probably on Sunday.

GOD BLESS

Tuesday night

Tuesday night and I just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing okay. We really, really appreciate all the comments and the emails that have been sent to me. I have read them to Will, so he does receive them. He has been really touched by them and the love that is shown.

Just wanted to let you know that Tom and I have been going through the training and we are doing well at it. I think we get gold stars or something. We still have a long way to go, but it isn't as scary as we thought. My boss is amazing to let me off three days a week to go in to training. Not many places would be able to do that. How extremely lucky I am. Kevin, you're the best.

Dr. Cahill called Will when we were on the way home last night from the training. She talked to me for a while and then to Will. It was very touching and everyone needs to know what a special lady (and doctor) she is. She just wanted to reaffirm that she wasn't giving up on Will or anything like it. She feels the home dialysis is going to be so good for Will because it will get more of the fluid off, give him the freedom to go places and do things he wants to do. It should also make him feel better with less cramping--so Will's excited about that.



Again, thanks for all the kind words and the love everyone has shown. We will keep you updated. Life is good because our God is good.

GOD BLESS

Sunday night

We had a great weekend with family and friends. What with Aaron's birthday on Saturday and then we had Kayli's dedication at church on Sunday morning. She was so cute in a little poofy dress and ruffles on her bum-bum. She really likes being the star of the show. Our pastor, Dion, , did a wonderful job of the dedication. Here is our family up on the stage promising that we will help Angel and Aaron raise up Kayli with God's word.

We have a great looking family. Kayli is one lucky girl to have so much love surrounding her.

Uncle Will is in the center watching to make sure Pastor Dion doesn't drop his girl.



We had a really nice lunch after church and then people started home. After everyone left, this is what Uncle Will and Kayli did. They just sat outside and were quiet. They both needed it by then.

This last picture is just a cute one. Little Carson, who is now in Kindergarten, is showing Uncle Will a ladybug that he caught. There is many more pictures of the day that I will put up here but the blog is going to be long enough already. So I had to stop with these for tonight.

*********************
Now to the tough part of the blog. I want everyone to know that it has been very hard for me to write this blog. I have prayed long and hard for the right words. So here goes.... Will has most of his tests back. One of the first results we got was the reason for his blisters. They are from a blood disease called porphyria cutanea tarda. This has something to do with the way the blood makes the enzymes or oxygen or something like that. It is a enzyme deficiency, which spills out into the blood, and builds up in the skin. Exposure to sunlight causes the blisters. It is very painful but it can be treated with a medicine. We can deliver the medicine when Will is getting dialysis. The doctors just need to figure out which meds to use. They will let us know by the end of the week. So that was good that we found this out and Will just needs to stay out of the sunlight until he gets the medicine.

We were getting ready to leave the hospital when Dr. Cahill's assistant or associate came in with some news. It's not really the news we wanted to hear.

Will won't be able to get his transplant. The reason is because he has been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. The only treatment for cirrhosis is a liver transplant. He can't have a liver transplant because his lungs won't be able to survive that type of transplant. They aren't good enough to stand up to that. Then, he can't have just a kidney transplant because the liver would ruin the new kidney. So all three head doctors, Dr. Cahill, the lung doc, Dr. Shehab, the kidney doc, and Dr. Hutsen, the liver doc. got together and decided that there is just no way.

This was a complete shock to us so we are still letting it sink in. There are many questions that we left unasked for the time being but we will ask them later. If you want to know more about cirrhosis of the liver, just google it. There are some great sites out there.

As you can imagine, we have had a long, emotional weekend of letting the family know. I know there are many people we should have called instead of letting them read this news on here. And I apologize now, but please understand how hard this is for us to tell people that love Will so much. There have been lots of tears shed in our household in the last couple of days. It's amazing how strong my son is and everyone is gaining strength from him. There is no self pity with Will and one of the first things Will said to me was "I feel bad for Dr. Cahill. She worked so hard to get me here today." We left the hospital very quickly then just because Will needed to get out of there and there really was no reason to stay. Will and I talked the whole way home and he was so concerned about how much hurt this was going to cause family and friends.. Once again, how amazing is that????

Some other news is that Tom and I are going in for training to start doing the dialysis at home. We start tomorrow at the dialysis center. The doctors feel that this is the next best treatment option right now. This is going to be so much better for Will. He won't have to go into Twin Falls four days a week. This is a six week course and Will will have dialysis at home for shorter amounts of time--two to three hours a day, six days a week. It will get more of the fluid off and he should feel better. One of the big perks about this is that it is portable and Will will be able to travel when he is feeling better. This is something that he has wanted to do a lot. Will has a few places that he wants to go, and he's going to get there for sure.

************

I know there are a lot of people that are mad with God right now, just as I was at first. It doesn't seem fair but life is not about fairness. Will can handle this just as he has everything else. He is strong and we know he is in God's hands. Through Him, all things are possible.

We have to remember that God's wisdom is perfect. His plan is perfect. It is our understanding that is not perfect. Sometimes we just can't understand why God does what He does. But who are we to question His will?

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Aaron gave this passage to Will last night and it just fit perfectly.

Will has a very special purpose that God has given him. Because we love Will, we don't want him to suffer any more than he has, but God will see Will through this, and us too.

I know I have used this before but it is perfect for this blog, so I use it again....

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

He has blessed us in so many ways and we want to thank God for all He is doing for us and through us.

Saturday night.

Just a quick note because we are all tired here.

Will got out of the hospital and he's so glad to be home.

We will blog everything Sunday night.

Sorry about no pictures but I will post them tomorrow.

Just wanted to say a very very HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to Aaron
our son-in law. He is so good for Angel and his two little girls love him so much. We just love him and we hope many, many more happy birthdays to him. I would sing right now but really, I don't think this blog could do me justice.

See you all tomorrow night. The blog will probably be a long one so be prepared.

GOD BLESS

quick update

WE KNOW NOTHING YET!

I guess just getting upset with doctors doesn't do much. Nothing was done yesterday and Will is not too happy with everyone right now. He told Dr. Cahill if they(meaning the liver, kidney, dermatologists, and the vascular doctors) didn't come up with something he is going to jump in his wheelchair and go wait in their office until they see him. They must have heard because Will had to go down to dialysis very early this morning. They didn't want to see him sitting in their waiting room. So hopefully today we have some news. I will blog tonight if we do. Hope everyone is having a great Friday.

GOD BLESS

Rainy night in Salt Lake City-

Here we are on the fifth floor of the U of U. It's a little after one in the morning. It was a busy day with lots of tests. But we got into the hospital in time to watch the BSU team whip Tulsa. Go Boise Broncos! People kept interrupting Will but he got to watch a big portion of the game. He did have his BSU shirt on and we thought of our good friends, Curt and Megan, in California. They probably they had their shirts on too as well as most of our friends.

When we got here we went to do labs, xrays, and PFTs. Then Dr. Cahill called in a favor and got us right in to see a dermatologist for these blisters that he's been having. The dermatologists all came into Will's tiny exam room to look him over because nobody could figure out where these blisters are coming from, but they know they need to be addressed so they did two punch biopsies and we should have some answers tomorrow afternoon about those. Dr. Cahill even came down to their office to see what they were doing to "her guy."

Will's PFTs (lung function tests) were down but that's probably because he's overloaded with fluid again. He will do dialysis in the morning. Right now he's in a lot of pain that just started late tonight. We will be going down in an hour or two for a CAT scan with contrast to see what might be wrong with his belly. So no sleep for the wicked tonight.

We haven't seen the kidney doctor or the liver doctor, but knowing Dr. Cahill and her wonderful staff, we will be seeing them tomorrow for sure. They really know how to get things done. I will blog tomorrow night with tests results, and hopefully, results from doctors visits.

Will really misses his little girl, he got kind of use to playing with her everyday. So they talk on the phone. Well, Will does most of the talking but this way she won't forget her Uncle's voice. It's cute. I better go and help Will, he has to drink that nasty stuff for the CAT scan.

The Lord answered my prayers for more patience. He sent me a little, let's see if it's enough to get me through tomorrow. If not, I hope someone can come bail me out. Just kidding.

I PRAY THAT GOD'S BLESSINGS ARE POURING OUT ON ALL OF YOU.

Our God IS an awesome God.

News from SLC

Dr. Cahill's chief, Tauni, called and told us that Dr. Cahill wanted Will down so they can run some tests and see what's going on with those blisters. We will "probably" be admitted and then run the tests. So we will leave early tomorrow morning, Wednesday, and go from there. He will run a PFT, Xrays, and labs before he goes in. He's not too happy about it but what can we do??

Let me just say for the record..I have the best boss in the whole world. He just tells me not to worry about my job, take care of Will first. I am very, very blessed to work in the best school in Idaho.

BUT.... Maybe while we are in we can "accidentally" bump into Dr. Hutsen (liver doc) and get some answers. Accidentally might mean sitting on his car in the parking lot. Lord forgive me now, I'm a desperate mom.

Kayli and Uncle Will were having this incredible, deep conversation (I think it was something to do with a sponge named Bob maybe??? I really don't know because they don't include me in the conversations). She was looking so enthralled that I just had to take this picture. I think she would believe Uncle Will even if he told her something so silly like Yankees are going to win the World Series (that was a dig just for Coach, all you other Yankee fans, I apologize).

I will update when we know something. Pray for Will and for God to bring me patience....I'm all out.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

Sunday night

My Sister from California brought to my attention that I didn't post this on Sunday night. I must have not hit the right button or something. Anyway, this was Sunday's blog. SORRY. Thanks, Mickey. love ya

Well I promised on Friday that I would post more pictures, so here they are. We didn't get many with Uncle Will and Kayli. Mainly Will had a tired Sunday so he slept a lot. We had Kayli all day because mom and dad went to the motorcycle races. It was tooooo cold for Kayli so we got her. Great day for us. What an absolute joy it is to be Grandparents! We feel very blessed. We took her to church this morning and I think Grandpa pinched her so he could take her downstairs with the older kids at Sunday school I'm on to his ways. Poor Kayli.

Here is Uncle Will singing Kayli to sleep. Isn't she precious, what a great gift from God she is for this family!

Will is still suffering from the knee blister. It looks awful and we have to keep the dressing on until Wednesday. I hope it is healing up. So really there is no new news except what I shared on Friday. Please pray for Dr. Hutsen to give us a call early this week with good news that we can proceed with the kidney transplant. Our good Lord knows how much Will needs it.

I hope everyone has a great week and I will post a blog as soon as someone calls me, hopefully the first of this week.

Kayli in her purple pj's. She's all toasty warm.

Here I think Kayli is thinking of something to do to Grandpa. She kind of looks a little mischeveous, doesn't she?

I don't know what she's thinking here. It's just a funny face shot.

GOD BLESS

Friday

Here's the newest picture. The guy in red holding Kayli is none other than her Uncle Will.

Isn't this the sweetest face ever??? Oh, I think I have said this already, huh?

All week, and nothing from SLC. I know how many of you are waiting to hear and so are we. We just have to be patient some more..............Lord give me strength.

Will has been having a lot of trouble with water blisters this last couple of weeks. We don't know why. But he has a really, really bad one on his knee. It covers most of his kneecap. It makes walking very, very difficult and painful. We had a wound nurse come out this morning and dress it. It was nasty. It might take a month to heal when you are as compromised as Will is.

My school had so many cases of the flu that we had to close today. Don't worry, I am using lots and lots of hand sanitizer. So I got a three day weekend and I was so excited about watching Kayli all day today. Well, with the wound nurse spending almost 1 1/2 hours with Will, I didn't get lots of time with her. Then I had to take her in and meet Angel because Kayli had to go get her two month shots--three of them. I don't want to watch that ever again. People think I am so tough but I cried like a baby when I saw the nurse stick her three times. I put out a "hit" on the nurse but don't tell anyone. lol Angel did well, even if she kept her eyes shut.

I received a short call from the liver doc, Dr. Hutsen's nurse this evening. She just told us that she thinks Dr. Hutsen will call us the first of next week. He is waiting on another doc to get back to him. I don't know what kind of doctor or why, but I'm sure I will know when he calls (I so want to put the word "finally" at the end of this sentence, but I won't). Tauni, Dr. Cahill's nurse called to check on Will and she told me that Dr. Cahill will try to reach Dr. Hutsen and find out what's going on. So maybe next week for news on whether Will can proceed with the kidney transplant or have to do something about his liver first. ???????? I feel like I'm writing a soap opera and I keep having you all "hang on" until next week to find out what's happening. I'm sorry about that.

Will's Grandma Cherie had a birthday this week and we all wanted to say HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her. She's such a sweet lady. We love you lots, Grandma. See you soon.

I will get pics up on Sunday. Have a great weekend.

GOD BLESS

Saturday evening

This is the first time we used the new picture for the top of the blog. I hope you will tell me if you like it. Will bought Kayli the little shirt to watch the game tonight. Then they shared the chips (an old friend of ours gave them to us. He's a die-hard BSU fan-thanks Steven). I don't think Kayli got very many of them. Well, the Broncos won tonight--yea. I think half our town went to the games. Go Boise State Broncos.


Now to what's been happening with Will. He spent the the last three days in the hospital. It all started on Wednesday night around midnight. Will was having excruciating pain in his stomach. He was up all night with pain. By 8 in the morning he was wanting us to take him the ER. We were all worried that it might be the spleen or the liver. The pain was way intense.
So we went to Twin Falls, we didn't want to take him all the way to SLC if he was in that much pain. We spent nine hours in the ER and then they decided to admit him because the pain was so bad. He was admitted to his old floor and his old room even. It's been over two years since we have seen those friends on that floor. About four in the morning we had to move to another floor because they needed the suite. So by six in the morning we had a new room. We had never been on the second floor but it was a nice place.



One of the funny things that happen (you know you have to find "funny" in the crazy things so we don't go crazy) was that when we moved down to the second floor at 6 in the morning, after waiting two hours for the transport people, we had a nurse that said he needed to measure all of Will's scars and put them on a drawing of a torso. Why???? I don't know, but if you have seen Will recently you know he has a few. So, an hour later he had the measuring done. Will was not happy about it so he just went to sleep while the nurse was doing that. He was an older nurse so I don't know what he had going on but we have never had to do that before and I can guarantee you that Will won't let it happen again either. That's not the way Will likes his mornings. Come to think of it, Will doesn't like his mornings any way.


Will had a cat scan with contrast done that morning to see how the spleen and liver looked. They all checked out fine except that they were both enlarged considerably but they have been like that for a while now, so nothing new. We had to wait for a few days for some tests to come back but they all came out good except for the high liver tests but we knew that. It all comes down to Will getting a new kidney. I have more to talk about but this blog is long enough already so I will save it for tomorrow on the normal blog

Thought I would share a few pictures. Will didn't want the baby to come up to the hospital because of all the bad bugs around. So she stayed away for almost three whole days but then they popped in right before we got discharged. So his is Will with this little girl for her first visit to a hospital to visit Uncle Will. I pray that she won't spend too much time visiting Will in those hospitals.

Below: Here is the two just staring at each other. I think in the one below, Kayli is singing Uncle Will a song.




Below: Then a few minutes later they were both asleep.

So now we are home and we will await the doctors wishes about the transplant. I did call three different days last week but they still didn't have any answers yet. Soon Will will hear something.

All in God's perfect timing. I will have more patience this week.

We will go to church in the morning and sing His praises for all the things that has been happening in our lives.

I will pray that God pours out His blessings on you all.

Happy Sunday to Everyone!!!

Above is our little girl who has decided to melt our hearts more than she already does because now she can smile. This isn't one of the best, but if I put one of her big smiles on here, everyone will be wanting to go play with her. I have a hard enough time trying to get her to myself as it is.

Below is a picture of her trying to understand why Uncle Will has her doing exercises already.

These are the exercises that she has to do. Uncle Will is such a slave driver.


But she would do anything for Uncle Will.
***************

Below is a picture of Carson and Candace with their bird house that they made. Angel took them down to the Museum in town and they invited the kids in town to make bird houses. They look like they like each other, don't they?

On Sunday, Will was going to spend the day watching all the games even though Dallas doesn't play until Monday night this week. I decided to go with Angel, Carson, Candace and Kayli to watch Aaron race his bike. It was somewhere in the desert by Boise, out in the middle of nowhere. I was very nervous at first but Aaron is a good rider----in fact, he won a first place trophy for his class. Yea!!!!!!!
Here is the trophy and a proud Dad holding his two girls

Here is the number one winner with his number one family.

I'm glad that this was the weekend that Candace was down so she could watch her daddy.



Here he is on the course.

It proved to be a very fun day. I was really praying that I didn't watch any wrecks and God answered. No one was hurt, YEA!!!

************************
So now about Will, we still haven't heard anything from anyone. I am going to start calling docs tomorrow morning and see if I can get anywhere. I will let everyone know when I know something. Will hasn't been doing much lately, just hanging around and going to dialysis. Angel is back to work part time last week and Will and Grandpa got to watch Kayli last week. Will really loved that and I think Grandpa did too. They both did really well. They will be watching her a lot but not on dialysis time. That would be too hard on Kayli. She doesn't like to see Uncle Will poked.

Have a great week, the weather is going to be cooling off some.

GOD BLESS.

PS. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, JUDY.