WILL

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-21T00:42:00.003-06:00

I know if Will was here right now he would be wishing his dad a very happy Father's Day. So I am doing it for him. Happy Father's Day, Tom. Will knew he had the best dad on earth. Just imagine who Will is celebrating father's day with today. WOW!
And to all you great fathers out there-take the day off and enjoy yourself. It's tough being a daddy.
I will get pictures up here from our Oregon trip asap.
My sister, two nieces, and Jeffery, my great-nephew are up from California visiting us for the week. Fun times ahead.

Vacation time

2010-06-05T21:50:00.002-06:00

School is out and summer is "supposed" to be here. Kids are very happy and some of the teacher too. lol

For those of you that know us, Tom and I haven't taken very many vacations. This is all new to us. But we are leaving tomorrow morning for the Oregon Coast, Lincoln, Oregon. We also get to take Aaron, Angel, our big sweetheart, Candace, and our little sweetheart, Kayli. What fun we will have!!!!!!
We rented a house for five nights. We will have a great time and I will put wonderful pictures on here to bore you with. We tried to do this vacation four different times the last four years before Will went to Salt Lake for his transplant. Something always came up-Will was either too sick or in the hospital. Wasn't meant to be. So now we are going and it will be good.

Pray for our travels and God bless you all.

Awards

2010-05-27T21:09:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was finally the day that we awarded Will's first memorial scholarships. It went to two very special young people that I know Will would have approved. The young woman, Aubree Callen, was one of Will's girls. He coached her for three years before he had to leave to go to Salt Lake. The young man, Cameron Stofford (I hope I got the spelling right), is equally deserving. They had to have the grade point avg. of 3.5 plus community service, plus a good work ethic.

It was really nice to be able to give the scholarships out at the gym. The only bad thing was that it was at 7:00 in the MORNING. I know Will is probably just shaking his head because he didn't really know there was a seven in the morning. But it was nice, lots of people (all the seniors and their parents) so the gym was full. They were giving out lots of big scholarships too. Of course, Will's was the most special scholarship. What a great way to keep his memory alive. I'm glad that the Clark's thought of it. Every year we will be doing it.

BELOW: this is a picture of Angel with the two scholarship picks

So now that is over and we will go on to cuter pictures:

Here is Kayli being cute with her blanket. She plays peek-a-boo all the time now.

Here is Kayli and her mom helping raise money for a good cause. She held the sign up really well, didn't she. Brought lots of cars in.

This is one of the sweetest, don't you think??? She sure loves her Grandpa sooooooo much.

We just passed the six month mark since Will's been gone from us. Doesn't seem possible. It sometimes seems like yesterday because we have so many memories surrounding us and then sometimes it seems like years. I guess that's normal for anyone who has lost someone.

I know many, if not all, who are reading this misses him also. It really does help us when we have those memory papers to read through. You won't really know how much those have helped us through some tough times. If any of you still want to write some for us, please do so. We would love to have more.

School's out tomorrow for us and the 6th of June we, Angel's little family and Tom and I, are going to the Oregon Coast for a week. We haven't done this before so it will be a new experience. We are looking forward to it so much. I will post pictures of us when we get back.

Take care and thanks for still checking in on us.

God Bless

Summer is almost here, but I think we forgot to tell Mother Nature. Man she's been really crazy lately. I am still wearing my coat during the day.

National Nurses Week

2010-05-08T11:29:00.002-06:00

Nurses are amazing people!!!!

Right now there is a nurse helping a woman become a mom, a nurse holding the hand of a dying man, a nurse inserting an IV in a child, a nurse listening to an altzheimers patient tell a story of long ago, a nurse missing their family while caring for yours. In the minute it took you to read this nurses all over the world are saving lives. May 6-12 is National Nurses week - thank a nurse!

The Harbison Family loves all you nurses out there.

We thank God that you were there to take care of us.

Treat yourself to a pampered day somewhere. You all deserve it.

God bless you.

2010-04-21T21:52:00.003-06:00

This is the best way to start this blog, isn't it?

Kayli pulled herself up in her crib and she's even crawling on all fours now. It won't be long before she's walking. She is 8 months old and the smartest baby that has ever lived (I think that's the Grandma in me escaping).
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What a great day we had remembering Will's birthday last Sunday.

We celebrated Will's birthday with a great big party. We had lots of family and friends come from all over. Then we probably told every stupid story we could on Will. No, I take that back. There wouldn't be enough time in a year to do that. Will was always pulling tricks on people and making everyone laugh. No, I take that back (again). He didn't laugh a lot during his games, did he? That was his serious side. But mainly he made us laugh.

So back to what I was saying... We were having fun and that was what we all wanted to be doing to honor Will's birthday. We know that there were many, many people that wanted to be here and couldn't, so I just wanted you all to know that we felt like you were here in spirit. We hope you celebrated in your own way. Many balloons were let off on Friday and are floating somewhere up there with happy thoughts with them.

We got Will's bench placed just in time for his birthday celebration. Everybody got to go to the cemetery who wanted to and see it. Some of you won't be able to get here, so I thought I would put a picture of the front of it on here to share with you. It ended up looking better than I thought. On the top of the bench it reads "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Good, huh!

It's a very peaceful place.

A TIME TO CELEBRATE

2010-04-16T09:29:00.001-06:00

CELEBRATE WILL'S BIRTHDAY WITH LAUGHTER!

HOW LUCKY WE ALL WERE FOR HIM TO BE BORN.

2010-04-13T21:16:00.003-06:00

We know Will's birthday is this Friday. It will be tough to get through, but we will-- because God is holding on tight to us all. We know that many of you will be having a rough time. I wish we could take the pain away. We thank you for all you prayers and thoughts for this special day. We were soooooo blessed to have a "Will" (one of a kind) born to us. I still say a prayer every night thanking God for sharing Will with us for as long as He did.

What more could we have ever wanted?

If you want to celebrate Will's birthday in your own way, please do so with a smile or a hearty laugh. You can even let a balloon go in his honor, play with a baby, or go play a game of basketball.

He's watching, you know, and that's what he would want, smiles, lots of smiles. Have faith, we will be seeing him someday.

Here is a poem I found......

I thought of you today, but that is nothing new.

I thought about you yesterday, and days before that too.

I think of you in silence, I often speak your name.

All I have is memories and a picture in a frame.

Your memory is a keepsake, with which I'll never part.

God has you in his keeping, I have you in my heart.

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God bless all the parents out there.

It's a tough job, but it is so worth it.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

2010-04-04T23:13:00.002-06:00

HAPPY, HAPPY EASTER

HE HAS RISEN!

What a fabulous day to remember the love our Father in Heaven has for us all (and I do mean everyone). We started it out by going to Sunrise Service and had a great breakfast with the people that came to the service.

We are so blessed that God sent His Son for our sins.

What an awesome God we have.

Now here is a cute picture of Kayli. She's now an official "crawler".

She does the army crawl so far, but soon she will be up on hands and knees. Boy Grandpa Tom is going to have his hands full now.

Here's Kayli getting ready to go on an Easter egg hunt. It was so cold even though the sun was shining.

This is the cutest picture of all. This was taken after Sunrise Service. She's all tuckered out. How sweet is that??

I hope everyone had a terrific Easter and we will be getting more pictures up here. By the way Tom and I had a good time on Spring Break. We spent a few days in Mesquite and a couple days in Vegas. Vegas probably won't be my favorite place to spend time, but it was a blast to watch all the strange (and I do mean strange) people there. We love our new car, it made the trip so easy.

God Bless you all.

2010-03-13T20:47:00.003-07:00

Kayli's sitting up all by herself now. She thinks she "ALL THAT"

I was looking for a new chair for Grandpa Tom and Kayli was demonstrating this one.

We didn't buy it though.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!!!

This is what Tom got me. WOW!

Saturn Outlook, 2009

love it

We are taking it on our first road trip. Going to Mesquite for a couple of days and then to Vegas for a couple of days. I will put some pictures on here later. Yes, just Tom and I. Angel won't let me take Kayli but we have webcams so she won't forget what we look like. Don't laugh, we're serious.

GOD BLESS AND HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK EVERYONE.

March 11, 2010

2010-03-11T23:53:00.002-07:00

38 years ago, I married a man that I knew would be the best dad for my children in the world. I wasn't wrong. He's even the best dad for other people's children too. I was very fortunate and with what we have been through, our marriage has survived. We are very blessed and I thank God for him every day.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, TOM

I LOVE YOU AND I AM LUCKY THAT YOU ARE STILL IN MY LIFE.

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR THAT BLESSING.

2010-03-07T23:03:00.001-07:00

LIVE SIMPLY, LOVE GENEROUSLY,

CARE DEEPLY,

LAUGH OFTEN,

AND LEAVE THE REST TO GOD.

This is a great recipe for life.

ANNIVERSARY TIME

2010-02-24T23:13:00.003-07:00

This is Will's two year anniversary of the day he got his lungs. We need to acknowledge this day. Someone gave a very huge gift to him two years ago today. I pray for them and hope someday they (the donor's family) will get to realize the hope they gave to so many. Will was never sorry that he went for the transplant. NEVER. I hope everyone that comes in contact with anything to do with Will, signs a donor card. That would be a great thing to do in Will's memory.

GOD BLESS ALL DONORS' FAMILIES

STATE AGAIN

2010-02-16T23:39:00.003-07:00

The Jerome Lady Tigers have made it to State again. FANTASTIC!

They play in Meridian Thursday night.

We will be there.

This is the last of the girls that Will coached on his team. They mean a lot to us and we wish them well. They can go far but to us, they are already winners!!!!

GOOD LUCK

2010-02-12T23:22:00.003-07:00

I decided to change Will's picture. I hope everyone likes it.

It was Angel's birthday on January 28th. She turned 28 years old. What a wonderful woman she is, and a great mom, too. Tom and I feel very, very proud of her and I hope she knows that.

Happy Birthday, baby girl.

We love you so much.

Here is the cutest picture of Kayli---(do I say that about all of them???? forgive me) It looks like she is saying "What??? I didn't do anything! It was the cat."

Kayli turned six months old on the 9th of February. Happy half year birthday little girl.

She is such a H U G E blessing to all of us. God made sure he gave us the perfect little girl with the biggest smiles. Thank you, God.

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Here is Kayli getting her church clothes on. This is a little outfit Grandma picked up for her. It even had a little feather hat for her to wear. She was so stylin'.

Below:

is Aaron's team playing the Super Bowl. Even though the Colts didn't win, Aaron was proud of his team just getting there.

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Here is little Kayli all bundled up for our first walk in the stroller. Angel and I took her to visit the nursing home right down the street. Boy, was she a hit. We need to do more of that because it made their day. (and of course, Kayli loved the attention because she doesn't get enough of it at home. hee hee)

Just another cute picture-she is almost always like this. She loves life. I think we could all learn from her.

SO..................................
It has been a while since I have put anything on here. We have been going forward in this thing called life. Getting stuff taken care of. One of the most important things has been writing the scholarship application for Will's memorial scholarship. We are so proud of that and we will let you all know when we award that to a young man and young woman from Jerome High School.

This has been a rough week. Some weeks are just better than others. We had to finalize Will's headstone and pick out a "perfect" picture out of hundreds and hundreds to go on the bench. That was rough because there isn't just one. We tried to find one that showed his funny, honery side. If you all know him, you know what "look" we were looking for. We are hoping that they will be able to set his stone bench before his birthday in April. Then we finished writing the scholarship application description of Will. That was harder than you would think. We had to put his "description" in a couple of paragraphs. Well, I could write a book about that so we really had our work cut out for us. It came out good, I hope.

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When someone who gives your life meaning dies, it makes you feel lost.

No matter how much you have prepared for it----you're not prepared.

No matter how many words we were allowed to share at the end,
there were still things we didn't get to say.

Someone who has brought us joy and laughter is not here anymore,

Life is not the same and sometimes it just hurts.

But then......Kayli smiles and we know how good life is again.
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I want to share with some of you what I have been pondering. (Some of you already have been led down this road.)
Nothing but the great "bumps in the road" that we have experienced, would have ever led us to know God as we have, and to draw from Him the measure of peace we have needed to continue on during these times. I am so glad that Will came to know what was waiting for him. That gives this mother's heart peace, most of the time. Our God is so awesome and I thank Him for the blessings He has given us.

One of the best blessings God gave us is all of you who love Will and Will's family.

Thank you and we love you right back at ya.

GOD BLESS

2010-01-20T00:40:00.002-07:00

So here are the pictures that I promised (a little late)

Here is Kayli Mae taking a bath

She's just like her mom, she really, really loves the water.

This is Kayli in her new high chair that Grandma and Grandpa have at their house. We almost lost her in that chair. She looks so small but she is growing so quickly.

Here is a picture of Aunt Kim giving her a taste of pickle.

We thought it was so cute that she didn't like the taste at all.

Well....look down at the next picture

She's eating it all by herself. She LOVES them.

Now the next set of pictures is a great bunch.

We (the family) had another first.

Tonight we went to our first basketball game in Jerome since Will has been gone.

Here is Angel and Kayli watching something funny. Although Angel's face is funny enough there, I don't know what she was watching.

Kayli was so funny, she just kept yelling at the top of her voice. Everyone was saying that she was yelling at the refs, but Uncle Will would never, ever allow that, so I think she was just showing support.

Below:
This was the reason the family went to the game tonight. The school put up a permanent memorial board right underneath the score board in Will's honor.

They also said a little something about Will and the memorial scholarship that will be in his name. At our meeting last week we decided that we will offer a$500 scholarship to a boy and girl. So they announced that. The crowd was very loud. How great that was.

Here are we standing underneath the sign. You all need to go and see this. Pretty impressive, huh?

(and notice-we won the game too)

Most of you know us and know how hard it was going into that gym. That was Will's life, passion, and joy. We all decided that it was harder than we thought but we made it through and we saw so many of the kids that Will coached, many parents that we knew, and lots and lots of friends surrounding us ONCE AGAIN. We will go again. The school's staff is amazing and made all this possible. What a great gift to Will's memory.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

GOD BLESS EVERYONE THAT MADE THIS POSSIBLE.

2010-01-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not very good about posting blogs anymore, am I?

I guess I just know this is Will's blog and there's not much to say. Maybe a few things now and then that are meaningful. Will's team the Dallas Cowboys are still in the running and doing great so all of you can cheer them on for Will. After the last game, Matt (our nephew) called and said Will is grinning big and chewing on a red vine right now. That's a great picture to put in our head, isn't it. Makes you smile.

Like maybe I will blog in a few weeks because we are getting ready to set up the "guidelines" on Will's scholarship. We have been raising money and we think we have enough to offer TWO scholarships, one for a boy and one for a girl. This is soooooooooooo special. We are very excited to be a part of something that will impact students and remind people what Will was all about. We will have a few other people helping along with Angel and Aaron. But we were trying to decide what GPA to put on the requirements and Brent told me that we needed it to be at least 3.5. The reason being is that Will ALWAYS had high standards and there is no reason that his scholarship shouldn't continue with that. I like that. Something of his 'standards' being carried on. He was always on his team to be better-do better in school. Will knew that that was the cornerstone that you had to build your life.

Even though Will is gone from us, he's still able to influence young minds. What a great memorial to him. I pray that we can keep this scholarship going every year.

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Kayli update

Kayli has been sick, it seems like forever. She had pneumonia and she's just getting over it. I'll tell you, you would think that I could handle something as "simple" as pneumonia after what I have been through with Will-----well, guess again. I was a basket case. That's not good either. Boy, I turned into one of those "grandmothers from ____ (fill in the blank). I was so nervous. What's up with that???? Anyway, after much pacing the floor, praying and holding her whenever I could, she's better. Thank you God. I did have a little talk with her and told her she couldn't do that again to us. Tom and I are toooooo old for this.

Angel got very sick also and so they had a double whammy to take care of at their house. Angel still has a terrible cough but I think she's getting better.

But the good news (at least for Tom and I) is that they are doing some remodeling on their house and they are staying with us for a few weeks. FANTASTIC! It is so much fun to have them (all of them) in the house when I get home from work. What a blessing family is. I know I have said it before but I will say it again--FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!!!!!

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I PROMISE I WILL POST SOME PICS OF THE SWEET PRINCESS THIS WEEK.

GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

2009-12-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-12-10T01:39:00.002-07:00

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.)

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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

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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!!!

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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.

2009-12-07T00:38:00.000-07:00

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.

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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

2009-11-30T01:22:00.002-07:00

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.
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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

2009-11-26T23:03:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-11-17T13:51:00.003-07:00

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.

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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

2009-11-16T22:52:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-11T22:15:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-09T00:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-11-06T19:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-11-04T23:02:00.003-07:00

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

2009-11-03T01:18:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-02T00:19:00.002-07:00

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

2009-11-01T00:06:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-31T01:15:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-28T00:10:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-27T01:53:00.000-06:00

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

2009-10-26T12:20:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-21T08:31:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-21T01:05:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-18T22:45:00.005-06:00

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.

2009-10-17T23:55:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-16T09:43:00.002-06:00

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-

2009-10-15T01:18:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-13T18:44:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-12T00:23:00.005-06:00

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

2009-10-09T23:05:00.003-06:00

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

2009-10-03T23:31:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-09-27T23:20:00.009-06:00

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.

Tuesday night in Salt Lake City

2009-09-22T22:56:00.003-06:00

Well, I don't know what happened. We got down here yesterday evening. Dr. Cahill wanted to see Will before the biopsy so we snuck into a clinic and Tauni and Dr. Cahill came and saw him. She cleared the way to do the procedure but she did say "All this will go away if we just get the blankety-blank kidney." and I agree.

So to make a long story even longer, Will came into the hospital at 9:00 this morning. They took him into same day surgery. He was all preped (or is it spelled prepped???) and Dr. Hutsen, a great liver doctor, started to stick the first needle into his side and Will just started spurting. Dr. Hutsen said that he wouldn't be able to do the biopsy. There is something just underneath his skin that caused his bleeding , don't quite understand it all. It isn't the aspirin because he's been off it for ten days now. They just don't know what happened or why.

They sent us back to the hotel and told us to wait. He said he might be able to do the biopsy another way. Dr. Hutsen said he needed to talk it over with Dr. Cahill what might be the next step. Tonight Tauni called and said they had a long meeting and they decided that they can't figure out what to do. So they told us to go on home because we needed to set up dialysis. So we will be coming home on Wednesday. We know nothing besides what I told you all. What this means for the kidney transplant--we don't know.

After we left the surgery room, we visited some people from the hospital. One of the them was our Sumer Love. She was in the hospital for a two week clean-up. She gets out tomorrow and she looks probably better than I have seen her in years. So Will and she were able to visit a little.

Then we went to the fourth floor, where we spent the biggest part of our time last year. Some of our favorite people were working in ICU. Caroline (you all might remember her as Mama Bear) and everyone. I took pictures and I will put them up here when I get home in the next day or two. We will be glad to be going home without going into the hospital for a few days.

So God protected Will once again, there must have been a very good reason not to do the biopsy. God had his arms around Will for sure, as always.

We will blog when we know anything else. Thanks for the prayers.

God listened.

GOD BLESS

Sunday night

2009-09-20T22:05:00.004-06:00

I know that I said on the blog yesterday that I wouldn't blog until after the procedure on Tuesday ,but these pictures were too cute to wait.

The first was Kayli's first Cowboy game with her Uncle Will.

She was getting "lessons" on what was going wrong in the game. Will was also telling her about the new Cowboys' Stadium, the Stadium's first game was tonight. That thing is massive!!! The loss was very hard to take so Kayli had to go home. It was hard on Uncle Will too. Next week, right Dallas?

Below: Here is our Kayli's good friend, Riann, born just two weeks apart. Megan Osborne brought little Riann back to Hagerman to meet all her hometown people. Trying to get the pictures were so funny. (Kayli is on the right).

Here is Megan (right) and Angel (on the left) with their new additions. We really miss these friends Megan and Curt, but they are doing so well in California. They are happy there but I think they would be happy anywhere.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

So we get up early tomorrow morning and on to SLC. We know God has Will in His hands.

I pray that God blesses you all this week.

early Sunday morning

2009-09-20T00:42:00.004-06:00

We did hear from SLC late Friday evening and the liver doctor wants to do the liver biopsy on Tuesday. We have to go down on Monday to get tests run. Then they will start about 9 Tuesday morning. We don't know if Will will be admitted in the hospital or just same day. We will have to just wait and see. So finally we will get things going again. I will blog on Tuesday when we know anything. I take the computer with me in the hospital so hopefully you all will know as soon as possible.

We went to see our baby tonight for a few minutes. Grandpa was holding her and she was just so awake. I think they were having a very good talk. Aw....so sweet. She's looking so much older, isn't she?

Please pray for some good news about the liver tests. We continue PRAYING for God's perfect timing.

GOD BLESS

a very fast update

2009-09-15T00:36:00.002-06:00

Tauni (our friend and transplant coordinator) called this morning and told us the doctor wants one more set of blood draws to check on how things are clearing out. Our home health nurse, Heather, is coming 10:30 tomorrow morning to do that. Then she gets it to SLC and then they make us wait some more. No, that sounded bitter but really I am not. That's just the way these things go. So I will let everyone know when we know.

Will didn't have a great day today. He was having lots of trouble breathing. They had to take 4.7 liters off and he's hurting so much tonight. It should be lots better in the morning. He goes back in to dialysis tomorrow.

I want to shout out (isn't that what the kids are all saying???) to Tanya, our CF buddy from SLC. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! She is celebrating her one year anniversary of her new lungs today. She is just the sweetest lady and we were all were praying for her last year at this time. She's is just doing great and she wants us to pray for the donor family, because, once again we might be having a celebration but that family is having their own anniversary to get through.

So we get the blood drawn and we wait.

P.S. For all those that said it couldn't be done---It is possible to do the blog and not post a picture of our sweet baby. tadaaa (but, it won't happen often.)

GOD BLESS

2009-09-13T22:03:00.003-06:00

I know that this is being a little bit ridiculous, but really I can't help myself. Here she is again-Kayli Mae. She's looking so alert and almost old already (did I mention how smart she is?)

and that's Kayli with her main guy--Uncle Will. She's trying to hide her face, you would think that she doesn't like her picture taken all the time, but she told me it's okay.

Below: Angel took these with her phone and sent them to us while they were in Boise visiting her other grandparents (Aaron's mom and stepdad)
Ya-Ya (that's what Kayli calls her) loved having her for the weekend and she kept up the "Grandma spoiling" that I have found so enjoyable. Kaylie got to meet lots of family that she hasn't seen before. I hope I can get some pictures of them up here soon.

Angel didn't tell me what she was looking at, but it sure was interesting.

her button nose is so cute.

okay, enough already---on to Will.....

We got a message on Friday that they have recieved the results of the blood work and they have given them to the doctor. Kelly said that we should hear from them probably by the first of the week. Oops, Kelly forgot to say which week, silly lady. Anyway, I hope we hear something from the liver doctor about when we can come down and do the biopsy. I will let you know.

Will went to a football game in Boise with Coach and Tyson, his son, on Friday night. It was one of the few times Will has got to go somewhere that didn't have to do with doctors or dialysis in forever. He really enjoyed himself and before any of you ask, no, I didn't follow them up there and spy on them. But the truth be known, I was tempted. I knew he was in good hands. Hopefully he will be able to do that again soon.

We have a good CF friend in SLC that has just had to go into the hospital after being out for over 18 months. Her name is Sumer Love and we have her blog on our site if any of you want to check it out. Anyway, I know she could use prayers and if any of you want to leave her a message on her blog, she would love it. Go on her blog site and look at what she does with her hospital room. Every time she goes into the "joint" her mom and friends decorate the room in a theme. It is so awesome how they do it. So would you all say a prayer for her speedy recovery and another 18 months out of the hospital. Thanks.

I was sent an email by a good friend of mine that just had a song on it. It lets you see the words as the guys sings. It's a beautiful song and I thought I would like to share it with you all. It moved me and said a lot that I wish I could say. I could really drink from my saucer. Please open the link and enjoy the song.

GOD BLESS

http://gloriousgrace.net/saucer/saucer.html

update

2009-09-08T22:39:00.003-06:00

Here is Kayli trying out her swing at Grandma's house. She's still making up her mind if she likes it or not. I think she does.

Below: Here is Kayli just hanging (literally hanging) out with Grandpa tonight. She is so alert, but I think she's really wondering when Grandpa is going to take her out to see the horse.

This will be just a quick update to keep you all in the know about what's with Will.

Will had dialysis yesterday, Monday, and today, Tuesday. They drew blood both days for different tests. I talked to Tauni (our transplant coordinator and friend) about when we might be going back to SLC for the liver biopsy. She told me that when (that's the big ?????) they get the results of the two blood tests, they will take them to the docs and decided when. So we won't know probably for a few days anyway. As soon as we know, we will let you know.

Will is very happy to be and little Kayli came over tonight just to lay in Uncle Will's arms (maybe ours too ). That little one is sure something special.

I know I keep saying this over and over, but thanks so much for all your prayers and good thoughts. They help SO MUCH!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

Sunday night ---not in SLC

2009-09-07T01:28:00.004-06:00

Continuing saga of the life of Will

Well, we have changed our plans again.
First, we are back home tonight. As I told you last night, I came home to get my class ready for a sub for a couple of weeks. I stayed at the school very late and then got up early to go see our baby before I left. Then I got the call from Will saying he's coming home.

This is what happened. He was up for the liver biopsy on Tuesday afternoon.They wanted to keep Will there until the biopsy. One of the docs figured out that Will has had aspirin every day for a long while. They don't want to do any procedure until that has a chance to get out of his system. It works as a type of blood thinner. So we might be waiting for another week or two before they can do that. There was no way that Will was going to wait all that time in the hospital so he advised the docs that he was going home. Dr. Cahill said she couldn't see why not. So I left Hagerman around noon and went back up to the the big city and we drove home tonight. We don't know what day we will have to go back yet. I will put it on this blog when they let us know.

NOW FOR THE REAL REASON WILL CAME HOME.......

HE WAS MISSING HIS GIRL
ABOVE: Will was letting her know what those docs did to him.
Kayli wasn't happy about that. Those doctors better watch out.
Just kidding---we have the best doctors ever!

Will was trying to put Kayli to sleep. She's had a busy day....

because it's her first month birthday. Yup, she's one month old today.
She got to dress up for church this morning but she wasn't ready to say goodbye to Grandma because I was leaving to go back to SLC. She let everyone know that she wanted to go with me. Mom doesn't listen too well. I tried to explain it to Angel but---no go.

Here's the happy family getting her in her little front back pack. I wonder what it's called. Anyway, they walk to church on these pretty days. Aren't they a great looking family? Maybe I'm prejudice just a little.

Below: On the way home we stopped by and saw Sarah and her two kids in Tremonton. Will and Sarah didn't get to visit at all at the hospital. They had a good visit. We had lunch at Wendy's. Nothing but the best to celebrate Will's release from the hospital.

We also stopped by Danny and AnnMarie's on the way home. We couldn't stay there too long, for one reason Will needed to get home to his baby; the other reason is because those two are still in the yucky, sweet lovey, dovey honeymoon stage. It was a little toooo much for us but we are happy that those two are so happy.

So once again we wait until they let us know. Waiting isn't what I'm good at but what can you do??? I have all my classroom stuff done for a couple of weeks so I have it easy at school this week. We should know on Tuesday when we go back to Salt Lake. I will let you know.

God has His perfect time for all this to happen. We know He's got everything taken care of for Will.

It was a great Sunday to drive around and Will was very, very happy to crawl into his bed tonight. He'll sleep well for sure.

GOD BLESS

update early Sunday morning

2009-09-06T02:40:00.002-06:00

Will is still in the hospital. I came home to Idaho so I could get all my stuff ready for a sub for next week. Tom stayed with Will in SLC. The docs want Will to stay in the hospital until it's time to do a liver biopsy Tuesday afternoon. This way they can watch his numbers and not put him at risk for anything. I don't know what "anything" is but I'm glad they are being careful. Will sure isn't. He's not happy about being in there at all. They aren't "doing" anything and it's very hard to justify staying in that place for, as Will puts it, "nothing." The doctors say the soonest he could be going home would be the later part of next week. They will have answers about his liver then.

I will go back this morning some time and then maybe we can sneak him out for a drive or something. If any doctors are reading this---I'm only kidding, I would never take him out without permission. wink, wink.

He had dialysis today and they were able to take more off than yesterday so that's good. They gave him another dose of antibiotics with dialysis and then they will give him another on Monday when he has dialysis again.

I will blog tomorrow night and let you know how his day went.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and they do something special. Summer is almost over for all of us, don't waste it. God put this special day just for you. :)

GOD BLESS

Friday update from SLC

2009-09-05T00:05:00.003-06:00

I said that we would probably have a quiet day and we did. Will slept on and off until about 3 this afternoon. His arm is feeling so much better so the meds are working on that. The liver docs are still doing more testing and we probably won't know anything until the first of the week. Will slept through most of Danny (his cousin who just got married) and AnnMarie's visit. They said they would come back tomorrow when he might be able to stay awake more. I don't know when he's going to go down to dialysis tomorrow, but he will get another dose of antibiotics then.

His level of prograf (the anti-rejection med) is slowly coming down so that is good news. We had another good visit with Sarah just before her mom took her home to Tremonton. We might be able to see her on our way home, hopefully. Will and Sarah didn't get to visit at all while she was in the hospital because he wasn't feeling well then.

Kayli called Uncle Will a couple of times to tell him that she's missing him a lot. When I talked to her she cried so I think she misses me the most, just don't tell Will.

We know God is hearing all your prayers and we want to thank you for them. I will blog tomorrow night again.

GOD BLESS

update from SLC

2009-09-04T00:54:00.004-06:00

Even just being gone from our little girl for a few days is killing me.

Angel knows that, so she sends Uncle Will, Grandma and Grandpa little pictures on the phone. We love getting them so much. She just has a way of brightening our day. I will share a few with you all. Isn't she the sweetest thing?

Below is her loving her little pink bathtub. She's going to be a fish, I think.

(I know the coloring is bad but it's good enough to get the picture.)

So on to Uncle Will's day, I mean Will's day. He had an ultrasound done of his spleen and liver this morning first thing. Then we tried to make our appt. with the liver doctor. They couldn't see Will because he's now an inpatient. How silly that is. But it did work out well because the special doctor that we needed to see just happened to be the one that's for the hospital patients this week. God just works great things all the time. So he had some tests run and then he came in and saw us tonight after six sometime. He told us a few things that they are looking at and testing for. We don't need to get into all that but they really don't have any definite answers yet about what is causing his liver and spleen to act up. They are going to run a whole bunch of blood work in the morning and that will rule out a lot. Some of the tests results won't be back for a few days so we don't know if we will know anything before they kick us out of here. We really, really like the liver doc. Will and he just hit it off and he's very intelligent. Knows his stuff and we are comfortable with him. Praise God.

His infection in the arm is looking a little better we think, so the antibiotics might be kicking in already. They did do an ultrasound of the arm this afternoon, I know what you're asking yourself (it's the same thing we did)---why didn't they do the two ultrasounds together?? But anyway we did get some good news. There is no blood clot in the arm. YEA!!! It's still really sore and swollen.

Dr Cahill came up and visited a little. I think she misses Will a little. So she says that once we know that his infection is going away we should be able to finish the meds at home. This just might be one of our shorter stays. She said maybe even by Sunday. We have seen a few of our old friends. We miss them but I wish we could see them somewhere else.

We really don't know how the infection got in there and to what extent the damage is but we will by the time everyone is finished with him.

One of his anti-rejection med levels are really high so they are watching that closely also. He didn't have a good day and it could be caused by the med level, the jaundice, the infection, or all the testing that they are doing. Plus he had dialysis today, so he hasn't been able to keep anything down. He didn't even watch the BSU game, but he did TIVO it so he can watch it when we get home.

I know tomorrow will be a much better day. I am so glad this happened on a three day weekend. Besides the blood draws, there shouldn't be that much commotion in Will's room tomorrow. He will have some rest time.

All his old doctors are the ones that are the "floor" doctors this week. How great is that. It's nice not to have to train new doctors.

By the way, Sarah, our transplant friend that you all helped pray for right before Will got his lungs, well, she's on the same floor just two doors down from Will. She had a little pneumonia but she will be going home tomorrow, Thank the good Lord. We have had some good visiting time.

I will post more tomorrow night and let you how much better Will is feeling.

GOD BLESS AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR KIND WORDS AND WONDERFUL PRAYERS.

Wednesday in SLC

2009-09-02T21:40:00.002-06:00

Well, we had to come down to SLC earlier than we expected. Will's left arm got an infection in it and they tried a few days on oral antibiotics. It didn't seem to work and he was getting worse so the dialysis center suggested we take him into the ER. We called Dr. Cahill's office and they told us to get down to SLC asap. We left after dialysis and after I got my class ready for a sub. Then we left and got up here around 2 in the morning. We got up early to get in to see the good doc. She told Will that he was going to have a "sleep-over" so everyone can find out what's going on. Will had lots of doctor visits and lab draws and xrays today and we don't know anything yet. He is still going to try and get to his liver specialist tomorrow (Thurs.) morning for his appt. Hopefully we can still get things done at that appt. But, who knows? They have Will on IV antibiotics and I think it's already starting to work. We will let everyone know when they tell us anything. I will for sure blog tomorrow night to tell everyone how that appt. went.

Coach called and told me to remind Will that they have a date to watch the BSU game tomorrow night so he better get home in time.

Please, Will needs prayers for his infection to clear up and for his liver appt. We want them to find something really easy to fix and then on to transplant. AMEN

GOD BLESS

Sunday night, already the end of August.

2009-08-30T23:59:00.006-06:00

Here are the pictures I promised you on Friday. The first two are my favorites. It's hard to capture the "love" that surrounds those two so I will keep trying.

Below: Here is my little girl celebrating my birthday with me. What a present she is!!!!!

Here is Grandpa Tom getting piled on by Candace and Cali.

Curtis and Jen came down for the weekend and it was a great time. Will and Curtis are close and Jen just fits in so well with those two (Heaven help her).

Below: Kayli is telling Uncle Will a story, a story only Uncle Will can hear.

It must have been a funny story, it cracked her up.

And she's still laughing--well, really she's starting to cry, but to me it looked like she was laughing.

Below: Here is Aaron with his girls, no wait, not just girls-Carson stuck his head in at the last minute.

Below: Here is my step-mother, Cherie, helping me celebrate my birthday also. I can't find the picture I took of my dad. I must have deleted it, oops, sorry Dad.

Below: I am sitting outside on our back lawn and the kids, Candace, Cali (Curtis' girl), and Carson. We were watching the lightening show. Kids are so much fun with their imagination.

Below: Here is my little girl playing super"girl"

We had a fun weekend and Will is feeling okay, he feels the best when he's got his little love in his arms. We are going to SLC for a doctor's appt. on Thursday (see the blog before this one). I will blog when we get back from the appointment.

GOD BLESS

Friday August 28, 2009

2009-08-28T10:12:00.002-06:00

Well, we got some news from Salt Lake. Ann, the kidney transplant coordinator called and said that the drs. reviewed Will's cat scan of his stomach and pelvic area. They found that Will's spleen is enlarged so they need to check it out. Ann said usually this is caused by something wrong with the liver. (just keep saying a little bump in the road) So a liver specialist (gastrointestinal doctor) is going to check things out next Thursday up in Salt Lake. So we are heading back to SLC on Wednesday night and we will be there bright and early Thursday morning. Then Will will have a dialysis treatment somewhere up there before we come home Thursday night.

So more prayers please.

We had a good week, it was my birthday on Tuesday and we had a little cake and ice cream with family and friends. But the best was that I got to hold Kayli for a long, long, long time. That was the best present, really when I could get her away from Uncle Will. God has blessed me with so many people with love in their hearts and it makes me sooo happy.

I will have more pictures on Sunday, hopefully. We are having a few people come through Hagerman this weekend and we are excited to see them.

I pray that God has blessed you all with a lot of love surrounding you.

Here's another Sunday

2009-08-23T21:55:00.004-06:00

Will had his cat scan of his stomach and veins (two completely different ones) on Wednesday. They were a lot easier than he figured. The nurse said that they would have someone read them and send them on to the kidney transplant doctors by Thursday. The transplant team meets on Thursday so we were hoping that maybe, just maybe, we would hear something on Friday. NOPE. Anyway it was probably too early. They do meet every Thursday and decide cases so probably we won't hear now until next Friday whether he gets his okay for transplant. So please keep the prayers going. Thanks so much.

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

Will spent the waiting time with his new girl. Kayli came over on Sunday to visit Uncle Will (and us too), but mainly Uncle Will. He said he would watch her while I got some things done. The first picture is him watching her and he really is watching closely. So take a look.....

This next picture is how I found them a few minutes later. I don't know which one rocked the other to sleep, but.... how sweet!

Below is Kayli with her friends. She's not too sure about the croaking frog but she really likes the pink duck. She looks so much older. Today is her two week birthday.

Below is a picture of Angel trying to tease Kayli with her ice cream cone. Kayli didn't even care.

Below: I really think she was laughing at me in this picture.

We had a good time at a family patio party at Will's Aunt Karen's house on Saturday after dialysis. Will doesn't feel too good after dialysis but he really wanted to go and he wasn't sorry. Billie and Christi were there with their families along with my mom. Uncle Bill (my mom's brother) was there also and an old friend, Gwen was there too. We watched Sadie run and run and run and run and run. Yes, it did tire Will out just watching but she is so cute. Here are the Billie's two kids with their Aunt CeeCee (Christi).

Below is a picture of my mom and two of her great-grandchildren, Coby and Sadie. My mom had a birthday this week so we celebrated it at our house.

Happy Birthday, Mom

We probably will have some more pictures up during the week and, of course, if we hear anything I will post it on the blog.

GOD BLESS

Monday update

2009-08-17T12:20:00.002-06:00

This morning, Monday, Ann (the kidney transplant coordinator) called and said Will's
blood work came back and he doesn't have any antibodies in his blood. I asked what that means and she said that was very good. With all of Will's transfusions that he would probably have some and they might prevent him from transplant. So he doesn't and that's great.

Now on to the next step, on Wednesday he will go into Twin and get a cat scan of his arteries and veins, and another one for his stomach and pelvic region. This will tell them of any reason that the kidney won't "fit" in there. This might be the last test before they allow the transplant, but I don't know how long it will take to get the results. So please continue to pray for Will's testing. We really, really appreciate it.

IF YOU HAVEN'T LOOKED AT THE LAST SET OF PICTURES OF OUR BABY, SCROLL DOWN.

GOD BLESS

Saturday August 15

2009-08-16T00:20:00.003-06:00

So Will had dialysis today. He did okay...............
Enough about Will, did I tell you what a beautiful granddaughter I have? (I know, I am a bit prejudiced and a little obsessed.) Just look at the pictures below and see if I'm not right.

This is one of my favorites (well, they all are).

She's going to her first doctor checkup.

I think she's hoping that George has to go in instead of her.

Sweet dreams for a sweet princess.

Angel sent me this yesterday with a note that Kayli was missing her grandma. I think I might go out and buy her a gold mine.

What a pout, she has that "Atwood" pout for sure.

Below: See this isn't all about Kayli, here's Will holding Kayli.
He can't get enough of her. The way he looks at her sometimes brings tears to my eyes.

Below: Grandpa and his new girl, she's smiling. Now Grandpa is going out to buy her another gold mine.

Below: for some reason, I love ruffles on little girls' bum-bums (yes, that's what I call it). So this is the first outfit with ruffles so I had to take a picture. You would not believe this little one's closet--full of clothes.

Aaron changes her clothes three or four times a day just because she looks good in all her new clothes.

He's such a good dad and Angel's bouncing back so quickly. I don't think I have ever seen her this happy. They are making great parents.

Below: Here's our good friends, Coach and Donna Clark being introduced to the newest and best. It was funny because she cried when she saw Randy. Funny. So now I have to go out and buy her another gold mine. How many does that make anyway?

Here's that guy again----what was his name again? Oh yea, Uncle Will. Just teasing.

Coach brought over a Nike Basketball so Uncle Will can start working with her. All she wants is her binky right now, but Will said he will start working with her tomorrow right after lunch. I really don't know if he's teasing or not.

Tomorrow we are all going to try to go to church, even Will. So hopefully I will have some church pictures of her tomorrow night, maybe even with that guy that you all come into this blog to read about. HeeHee.

Life is so darn good. God has worked His best miracle yet.

I hope you all have a great Sunday.

GOD BLESS and keep you all safe.

Second day of Kayli's life

2009-08-11T01:24:00.003-06:00

This is the second installment of Grandma's
little angel. I promised you more pictures and here
they are. I know I will be putting more of them on here, even though

this is Will's blog. But, as you can see from the first picture, she

might be the love of Will's life.

Below: Here she is posing with George the monkey before

she got to home from the hospital.

Below: Here is another set of grandparents. This is Buzz and Kay Beutler,

Buzz is Aaron's dad. They were at the hospital with us but we didn't

get any pictures of them with Kayli. They kind of think she's special too.

Angel and Aaron brought the little princess home around 2 this afternoon.

Angel is doing so good for just having a baby. They had lots of company and I took pictures of a few of them.

Below: Here is some good friends of Kayli's. Jeff and Charyl.

Jeff isn't very good at sharing babies. So Charyl will have to

come back when he's at work.

below: Here is Mindy and little Breanna meeting Kayli. Mindy

and Kristen came up to the hospital but Bre didn't get to meet

her until today. All she wanted to do was hold her, but she's a

little small for that. It was cute.

Below: Carson's mom brought him over to meet Kayli. He has been

really excited to meet her but then he got shy and didn't want anything to

do with her. So I took him in Kayli's room and let him be with her

with just me watching. It worked and then he didn't want to let

her go. We kept asking if we could take her and he kept saying "nope."

Below: I think she's just plain tired. I really wish you all could see her

in person. She is sooooo much cuter than photos can tell.

The family is doing fine and Will came over to Angel's house as soon as he got done with dialysis. He stayed for quite a while even though he was still cramping from dialysis. I guess when I move in they will just have to make a room for Uncle Will too.

Today they took the second blood sample to take the place of the one they lost last week and sent if off to Salt Lake hospital to get tested. We should hear something in about two weeks. Until then we will just keep on doing what we're doing, and praying for a kidney transplant. All your prayers are appreciated.

Will still has some really cute pics of the "Little Ray of Sunshine" on his phone, as soon as I figure out how to put them on here, I will.

Thanks and GOD BLESS

SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!

2009-08-09T22:51:00.005-06:00

INTRODUCING:
KAYLI MAE BEUTLER

BORN SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2009 AT 1:57 P.M.
THE LITTLE FAMILY IS DOING WELL.

LITTLE BABY, BIG BLESSING.

p.s. Isn't she the most beautiful baby in the whole world!!!!!

Angel started her contractions on Saturday morning. She went into the hospital about noon and they sent her home because she wasn't progressing. She then went back in around ten Saturday night. She was having contractions all night. This might be too much information, so just skip this part if you would rather. About 6:30 am they finally gave her the epidural. An hour later they gave her something to speed the contractions up and then they broke her water. Kayli finally made her appearance into this world around 1:57 p.m. We were all pretty wiped out, but Angel did great and she's such a proud mama. Aaron was the man. He was fun to watch go through this. I guess it's not easy being the dad. Then there was me, the proud grandma! It was one of the most AWESOME experiences in my whole life. I thought the love I had for my kids would never be close to any other love I ever could imagine---WRONG. This little pink bundle did me in. Honestly. I think I'm going to love this thing called grandparenting.

Below: Here she is just a few minutes old, she wants to go back in.

Again, here she is after they cleaned her up somewhat. She just is so laid back. In fact, she didn't really cry to hard so they were having to rough her up a little. I almost had to slap someone.

Below: I was trying to exercise her "guns" a little. She almost looked like she was smiling. Maybe she was.

Below: Here's the proud daddy. Aaron was sooooo happy that his little girl was finally here. He was floating on cloud nine.

Below: Here is Nana, the great-grandma. She's beaming.

Below: Here's the sweetest picture. Aaron is introducing the sisters. Candace was suppose to go back to her mom's house today. Thankfully she got to stay until her little sister was born. She just couldn't quit touching her. So precious.

Below: ANNNNNNNND HERE'S GRANDPA. I don't think we will be able to wipe off our smiles for awhile. So I hope you all just put up with us.

Below: How's this for a picture??? Here's Uncle Will meeting his little princess. He had to wear his Cowboy hat so Kayli would see that as her first logo of any team. I think it's called imprinting. The little darling will be watching Dallas games before too long. Will couldn't quit staring at her.

I got home tonight, Sunday, about 10:00 pm and wanted to put this on the blog for everyone to see how blessed this family is. I have not had any sleep since yesterday morning so I am going to try to go to sleep now. I can't keep looking at the pictures. And speaking of pictures, I will have some more for you tomorrow night with more news. They do get to come home tomorrow early afternoon. Maybe I can have a video of that for you all. I can try. NO ONE can ever look at a new little life and not see God's love for us. I will be going on my knees thanking my God for this day. Also for allowing my whole family to share it. where we were last year at this time, and look at us now.

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR YOUR WONDERFUL GIFT OF THIS PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRL. MAY GOD POUR OUT HIS WISDOM TO ANGEL AND AARON SO THEY MAY RAISE HER IN HIS WORD. SO SHE WILL GROW UP IN A CHRISTIAN HOME AND BECOME A WOMEN OF FAITH AND CONVICTED OF GOD'S LOVE.

I want to thank all of you for your part in our lives.

Please feel free to leave Angel and Aaron comments on here. I will be sure to print them off for them to keep in Kayli's baby book.

GOD BLESS

Sunday August 2, 2009

2009-08-03T00:45:00.004-06:00

Here's a funny picture of Will. We bought little Kayli, soon-to-be-born granddaughter, a little crib for when she visits Grandma and Grandpa (I love that name already). Will was caught playing with the little monkeys on the top. I think he's excited too.

This weekend we were visited by two special little people, Sadie and Coby.

They are sitting on my mom's lap. They call her Nana-leen. Eileen is her name and they just stuck it after Nana (Nana is for great-grandma).

Here's how Angel babysits Coby, she puts him on her tummy and I think he's listening to Kayli whisper --maybe, you just don't know.. Or maybe, he just likes her "big pillow" to lay on.

Here is the three little munchkins getting dried off after being in Grandma's pool. Candace is on the left, then Carson who is starting Kindergarten in a few weeks, and Sadie. They just love hamming it up for the camera. I think they made me take 20 pictures of them in their towels.

Now this is a funny picture that Will pointed out to me last time we went to Salt Lake. For many of you that came up to visit Will in the hospital you might remember that the front was under a lot of construction. Well, it's finished now and it looks so good. Will saw this on the lobby wall and had to take a picture. You all know how much money Will spent there so he thought maybe this could have been true. The wall says that this lobby has been generously given by William H. So when you go visit next time, think of Will when you go through the lobby. (I better explain that we were being silly, Will didn't really donate the money. I'm afraid that we might have some gullible people reading this-you know who you are lol.)

Wow, it's August already. Can't believe it, but the thermometer doesn't lie. August is known for its hot, hot days and it's proving to be true. 102 the last few days. Too hot to go out in the boat and fish, darn it. So we didn't get to do that this weekend. Maybe it will cool down later this week. Will did get to go to Tyson's wedding and it was beautiful. Even Coach looked nice, kind of. Miss Gregg and Pam, you missed it-he was in a suit. I'm not lying, Donna made him.

I don't think we have any big plans this week. So I might not blog anything until next weekend. Unless something comes from Salt Lake, but it's too soon for that. So I hope you all have a great week and take care.

GOD BLESS

Friday's update

2009-08-01T01:33:00.002-06:00

Boy this has been a busy week for the blog. Haven't seen this much action in a long time.

Ann, the kidney transplant coordinator, called at 8:00 this morning and said, "We're not saying no but we're not saying yes either."
I asked her what that meant and she said that the panel (to decide on the transplant) was very worried that Will is such a high-risk surgical candidate. They want to do a special blood test for antibodies, they are looking for special antigens that might make matching donors tougher.

So they will take his blood at dialysis next Monday or Tuesday and then send it back to SLC and in a couple of weeks they will let Will know. So, now we wait. Doesn't this all sound familiar????? So we aren't sure of anything still.

Will just keeps on doing what he does. He has a wedding to go to on Saturday morning before dialysis. Coach Clark's son, Tyson, is marrying a great girl, Hannah. Then sometime this weekend, we want to get the boat out.

Please continue praying that the doctors will allow Will to have his transplant. He is absolutely sure that the risk is worth it. So I should have some pictures up on Sunday night of the weekend.

Angel's due date, Aug. 14, is s l o w l y getting closer. I asked my boss if I could have the first couple of weeks off from school so I can play at being a Grandma---he's still laughing. Little does he know that I wasn't teasing. She's due just two days before I have to go back to school. I think it's only fair. They give maternity leave, they give paternity leave also, so it's only fair that they give grandmaternity leave too. Maybe I will write my congressman.

In the meantime--God bless and thanks for the prayers. We know God has the perfect plan for Will. So we "LET GO AND LET GOD!"

Wednesday

2009-07-30T00:30:00.001-06:00

We are home from the big city. We had to have Will at the University by 8:00 (he wasn't a happy camper) and we went from there. We saw the head nurse for kidney transplant. She was nice but she's not like our Tauni or Kelly. Then we went in to a small room and they see us in there. First it was Dr. Raphael, he was our kidney dr. in the hospital so we know him very well. He really likes us and we really like him. Then we saw the social worker to make sure Will has all the help to get by after surgery and that he really wants the surgery. She had to ask all those silly questions.
We met the head kidney doc and he explained that there are a lot of factors to decide with Will's case so they will meet with all the team and discuss the pros and cons.

So Will told the doctors how much he wants this to happen. Then they had a list of tests to be done. After the doctor looked them all over, he found out that Will had had all of them just recently so he didn't have to do any tests today. That worked out really well. If they decide that Will can have the transplant, then they will order a couple more but he can do those up here in Twin Falls or Boise. We will post the next step when we know it.

Then we got to leave by noon. We stopped at a couple of stores on the way home and ate a good meal at Applebee's. Will was hungry after all that. The doctors did tell us that we don't have to wait two weeks to find out because the blood work that takes time, was already done a few weeks ago.. They will be able to tell us by Friday. I don't know if that's good or bad. But I will post a blog when we find out, for sure. Please pray for Will.

Our little baby Kayli didn't come while we were gone to SLC because she listened to Grandma and besides she still has a few weeks. We wait for God's timing in all of this, right?

GOD BLESS

Monday update from SLC

2009-07-28T22:58:00.003-06:00

So Will got up very, very early for him. We were at the kidney office by 9:00 this morning. We went into the conference room with four other families wanting transplants. We had a slide presentation of all the stuff that goes on for transplant. We had a good idea already because we have been researching for a few weeks. After a couple of hours, we visited with the financial planner for half an hour, then we visited with dietitian to explain the diet needed after transplant. That took another 30 minutes. Then we visited with the pharmacist for transplant patients. We were old friends so she didn't need that much time with us. Will was a little tired so he left about 10:30, went back to the hotel and took a nap. I stayed and got all the information for him. I think Will planned that to happen that way. After a break from noon to one, we went back to meet with the actual surgeon. They did a check up and asked a whole bunch of questions. I think they were a little nervous around Will, I wonder why that is?

Then we came back for a rest to the hotel. We went to Sizzler and Will ate two baked potatoes and a plate of shrimp soaked in butter. Where does he put it? He decided he wanted to go to the movies. He wanted to see if he would be able to see the movie with his vision. Well, we sat in the front (my neck is still stiff) and he was able to watch "The Night at the Museum" There just isn't anything he can't do.

So tomorrow we have to be back to the hospital for tests by 8:00 am. They just don't know how upset this makes Will. He doesn't think the world should start until 10ish or so. So we meet with another dr. and Will will get about five tests done. He will talk with the social worker and somebody else, I forget who. But they did tell us that we probably won't know if he's accepted into the program for about two weeks. I don't know why........... We are going to pop in and visit with Dr. Cahill, Tauni and Kelly after all the tests are done. They just want to see how Will's doing, it's not an official visit. Then we are going home.

So that's our day and our planned tomorrow. Thanks for the continued prayers for our traveling and tests.

GOD BLESS

Monday night

2009-07-28T01:00:00.002-06:00

Will had a great weekend. He had a 20th year reunion of his football team in Hagerman (Go Pirates!) that took State in 1989. Will was one of the managers and that year he wasn't doing so well. They had their rally cry "Win for Willie" for that whole season. Coach Clark (Will's best friend in the front row middle of the picture below) was the head coach that year and with him was Coach Udy on the right (front) and Coach Elliott (on the left). Most of the team showed up and they watched the game film from that special day. They shared all the memories (good and the bad) and isn't that what it's all about. Some of the people had to come from far away and some still live locally. It was so great to just sit back and watch these "kids" just get together like they haven't ever been apart. They will always have this bond. This bunch of "boys" is something special. I know everyone had one great time getting together. Coach Clark got it all put together and he even got shirts for everyone. Thanks for making it happen, Coach.

Below: I already said who were the coaches in the front row.
Back row: Tommy, Michael C., Allen, Chris, Butch, Mike, Jason with Will in front, Brody, Kurt, and behind him (the really tall one) is John. John and Will were almost inseparable in high school. Some guys brought their wives, who were soon forgotten.

Below: This is another picture of Coach Udy with his oldest son, Justin, who was about 5 yrs. old when we went to State. I remember the little guy running all over that field all the time. Now he's playing college football in Eastern Oregon. We use to babysit Coach Udy's kids a lot so Angel ran down just to say hi. She didn't stay to watch the game film or eat. I did though, lol.

Below: just another shot of some of the guys swapping stories. They were so funny.

Below: Now they are sitting around watching the game film and seeing things they hadn't seen before. Some plays are etched in their minds forever, like Jason's four yard kickoff.

Below: Here is Will with two of the cheerleaders from those "good ol' days," Mary and Angela.

The highlight for me was one of the football players, Brody Engles, wrote a very, very, good poem about the road to State and it was titled "A Win for Willie" Wow-very powerful. Now I know all of you ex-Hagerman teachers are probably saying "not Brody" because he really wasn't known for his writing skills, unless you call graffiti -writing. But he did a wonderful job, no, not just wonderful---marvelous. Maybe I will put it on here sometime this week. It's a little long but I think you all might enjoy reading it.

I just remember the time when Will was very, very sick in the hospital when the boys won the game to allow them to go to State. Four of the guys came up with pizza for Will. They didn't know how bad he was and he wasn't waking up hardly at all about then. The boys came in, turned on all the lights, sat there and talked to Will about the game even though Will wasn't awake, and then they got ready to leave. One of them went back to the bed and said in a very loud voice that they wanted Will to wake up because they weren't going to State if Will wasn't going. For some reason Will woke up the next morning and started to turn around. The doctor couldn't figure out why. About five days later we took him to State. His doctors and nurses still talk about that night. When they went out to accept the State trophy, they had their little manager, Willie, go out and get it. Then, they put him on their shoulders and carried him around. I know---A box of Kleenex time. Now, I'm glad we didn't have to test the boys on whether they would or wouldn't have gone to the game, but this is one special bunch of guys and I really think what they did that night was pure magic. I wonder if they ever knew what was accomplished that night? I just love them all so much.

Now, twenty years later, and many other hospital stays in the meantime, he still uses that mind-over-matter attitude of his, and we are starting his process for a kidney transplant.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, he goes to a class all morning. Then he meets with the team and has some tests. Wednesday he will meet with the surgeon that might do the surgery and they do other tests. He meets with some other people and other tests but I'm not sure what ones yet. But I will blog tomorrow night (Tuesday) and fill you all in. We are very excited that he is getting started. I pretty sure that we won't know if he gets accepted into the transplant program for a few days. Please say your prayers for him.

I told Angel that baby Kayli (that's the name they have picked out right now) better stay right where she is at least until I get back home. She's not due for a two more weeks, but you never know.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and the walk down memory lane with Will. God bless and sweet dreams.

Sunday, July 26

2009-07-26T22:46:00.002-06:00

We have been crazy the last few days. Lots of people visiting and we have some pictures. But I don't have time tonight to get them up. I have to get ready for Salt Lake. We are leaving tomorrow when we go to dialysis. Because of the busy weekend, I haven't got much done. So I will put them up on the blog from salt lake. We have many appts. and I will keep you up on all of them. It should be a really interesting week. I will be blogging most nights.

Please keep praying for all the testing to allow Will's new kidney. It will be such a good thing and change his life dramatically, if that's is God's plan. We have complete trust in our Lord's plan for Will. No matter what, we know who really is in charge.

GOD BLESS

update

2009-07-24T01:51:00.002-06:00

Our God is an AWESOME GOD!!!!

I know this to be true for all the wonderful miracles He has shown us in Salt Lake, but He has once again shown his love and mercy. My friend, who I asked all of you to pray for last night and this morning, has shocked and surprised us all. She had exploratory surgery and has come out of it with no worries. What a miracle. Things weren't looking so good, and I asked all of you to pray for her. The doctors looked all over and they found nothing cancerous. What a wonderful blessing. I want to thank each and every one of you that prayed for her to get through this. They didn't hold up much hope, but our God is so good and He knows how this lady is needed by her family. Now we will be celebrating a long life for her.

Please go into our blog on the homepage on the right hand side and go to Curt and Megan's blogspot. It will show you a picture of a most beautiful baby. They are sure missed here in Hagerman but I think they are having a wonderful life in California. CONGRATULATIONS BABY RIANNE AND WELCOME TO THIS CRAZY WORLD. she's ALMOST A WHOLE DAY OLD.

GOD BLESS

Midweek update 7/22/09

2009-07-22T23:42:00.004-06:00

Now I did promise you all some pictures of our crazy wedding trip. First to Salt Lake and then on to Boise all in one day. Will and Angel didn't have any trouble with the drive. The heat did bother both of them and I got a great picture of them cooling off at the hotel-both of them with their shirts up over their bellies laying on the couch. Trust me-I won't be putting that one on the blog. They would both shoot me, but it was funny.

Before I start on about the weddings, let me tell you some good news. Remember how I wrote that we wouldn't be able to start the big tests done in Salt Lake until the middle of August. Well, after Dr. Cahill saw how Will has improved just by doing the dialysis four times a week, she knows Will would be so much better when he gets the new kidney. So she did her little magic and we have an appt. for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. I don't know how she does it, but people listen to her. I will put more on what's going to happen on Sunday when I do the regular blog.

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

Now the first set of pics are from the Boise wedding of our niece, Christ and Ryan Wilcox. It was in their backyard and it was beautiful. The wedding was at 7:00 pm. . The only downer was the heat, it hit a new record of 105! It didn't stop the "love" flowing though. I got to visit with a lot of my family that I haven't seen in a while. Everyone was having a fantastic time.

Christi and Ryan Wilcox

They make such a beautiful couple.

So in love.

Above: Will is with Christi (the bride)

and an old friend of theirs, Ashley. Will hasn't seen her in years.

Below: Just Christi and Will, they have always had a special bond. They are only a month apart and have grown up together.

Below: This is the happy family. The boys, Noah and Elliott, and the newlyweds. Ryan is going to be a great step dad. The boys love him already.

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

This is the first wedding on Saturday morning(I got the pics mixed up).

Danny and AnnMarie Kenison

Don't they make a sweet looking family.

They are both so, so happy and you can see it in their faces.

Above: the newlyweds with Anne's two kids, Jaycee and Tucker

Danny loves them so much already.

He's going to make a great step-daddy.

They got married in a beautiful park. It was very casual except for the

wedding party. They did take the tux and dresses off as soon as the special ceremony was over. Everything was beautiful and then they had ribs for everyone. Will was in heaven.

below: Here is where they are toasting (notice everyone is in the shade)

so "toasting" is a good word. They brought Will up with them because they

were telling how they met (through Will at the hospital, but you all probably have heard the story by now) and

through the terrible times-good things can happen. It was

verrrrry moving-maybe I cried a little bit but then so did everyone else.

AnneMarie is in red and then her parents and Danny's parents and Will and then last but not least-Danny on the right. Isn't he cute??? Big ol' tough major in the Air Force and he's got tears in his eyes. Big softy.

Below: Angel and Will admiring our newest great nephew-Cooper.

He belongs to our niece, Brenda (Danny's sister).

Below: They are still trying to get Danny's emotions under control.
Will doesn't care because look who's getting all the love!
I think AnneMarie loves Will the best.

Below: Did we mention how hot it was? At 11:00 am-96 degrees.

Little sister is trying to keep Will out of the sun.

So there are some great pictures and I hope you enjoyed all of them.

############

I would like to ask special prayers for a friend of ours (I won't put her name on here because I didn't ask her first, God knows who you're praying for.. ) She's going through some terrible medical problems and we just need to pray for God's special healing for her today (Thursday) as she goes in for surgery. She needs all of us praying today. Thank you so much.

God's Love is all around and I hope you all feel it as strongly as I do.

GOD BLESS.

super trip

2009-07-19T22:41:00.002-06:00

THE GOOD NEWS YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR:

What a nasty person I am, making you all wait until Sunday. Will told me to do it though. He didn't want to put anything on it until Sunday about the clinic visit because he wanted to let a few people know in person. It was such great news.

AND HERE IT IS.......

(I feel like a suspense writer because this is how

they do it. They get you hooked, anticipating the ending.)

We went to the Salt Lake clinic on Friday afternoon after having done dialysis Friday morning. Will had an xray, labs, and a PFT (pulmonary function test-the test that tells you how well the lungs are working).

Then we went to see Dr. Cahill. Will was the last thing on her "to do" list that day. None of the nurses were around or anything so Dr. Cahill had to even do nursing duty. She can do it all..

We knew that Will's PFT's would be better this time. His last one two months ago was a FEV1 (that's just one of the results that test shows, but it's the one the doctors look at first) of 24 %. So we knew Will would be blowing better. We were hoping for a few percentage points, Will really wanted a 30% and I thought that was pushing it a little. WELL (now the drum roll please.......(I really wish I had a sound for a drum roll. This is a perfect place to use it) back to the drum roll.......) Will blew a 38%. YES, THAT'S RIGHT!!!!!! 38%!

We are thinking that might be the highest he has blown in over ten years, maybe more. We are trying to find the records to compare. So the dialysis four times a week is really working. His xrays were looking much better too. That also shows how much Will can improve if he got his kidney. Dr. Cahill is calling the kidney transplant team on Monday to "get the ball rolling a little quicker." Will was really strutting his stuff after that. He's even talking about buying himself a huge present to celebrate. No, not a big screen TV, he already has one of those. I will let you know when he decides..another suspense for you all. So Dr. Cahill was really, really pleased, and we all know-when Dr. Cahill is happy, everybody is happy. So we all left feeling really well.

The weekend was a lot about traveling but it was also about family. Here is a great picture of part of our family Sunday afternoon at Olive Garden.

below: Here is a picture of our little Brianna not really sure about

getting into the pool with "Uncle Will last week."

(For all you medical people reading this-Will is in the shady part of the little pool. So he is staying out of the sun. He's okay) It was harder getting Will into the pool than Brianna.

We have many pictures from our travels this weekend but I want to put them on tomorrow or the next day. If I did it now, it would take away from the "good news" and it would take a long while getting them all to download. The two weddings were wonderful although both of them were very, very hot. We wouldn't have missed it for the world. More on them next time.

Miracles are still happening in Will's life and we appreciate all the prayers that were sent to our Heavenly Father for Will. Thank you for the love also.

GOD BLESS

Friday good news

2009-07-18T00:07:00.003-06:00

Will'S GOT GREAT NEWS FROM SALT LAKE........

BUT.....I'M GOING TO WAIT UNTIL

SUNDAY TO TELL EVERYONE

(no it's not the baby, trust me, I will be screaming

that from the mountain tops, still another 3 weeks to wait)

But, back to the good news....

Come back on Sunday, we will be going to the two weddings

on Saturday. Will's up to it for sure.

Lots of pictures and GOOD NEWS

CAN'T WAIT....

GOD BLESS

July 12th middle of the summer

2009-07-12T23:49:00.003-06:00

Wow, summer is going so quickly.

On Saturday Angel and I went to two different showers. The first was Angel's baby shower given by Aaron's mom and two sister-in -laws. It was held in Boise and a lot of work went into it. They even had a chocolate fountain because they knew how much Angel liked chocolate. It was so sweet (not pun intended) of them and, of course, she got a lot of baby stuff, including diapers, which she needed.

Here is some family from Boise:

left to right; Billie ( Angel's cousin) Aunt Karen, Christi, (Angel's cousin), Maegan (Angel's cousin)

Angel, Aunt Gloria and me, the proud Grandma.

Here are the little ones that came to share Angel's shower with her.

l to r: Ash (she helped so much with the shower), Candace, Sadie, and Coby.

Here's the four cousins hamming it up for the camera. They couldn't get their hands around Angel anymore. They thought that was funny. (Angel didn't)

The next shower that we went to was the shower for the bride-to-be, Christi. She is my niece and I am very proud of her. She is being married next Saturday. We met at a dinner club in downtown Boise and had some good fun. Yes, she is sporting a pink nightie over her clothes. We made her wear her gifts if she could. She is going to make a beautiful bride.

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

Sorry there are no pictures of Will this week.

He had a wonderful visit with a good friend of his, Katie Rose and her husband, Paul and her little 7 month old baby, Bella. I forgot my camera, I have got to get that thing tied around my neck, I think.

I thought at the beginning of the summer that by the middle of the summer we would be almost ready for a kidney transplant. Boy was I off, although it is now closer than it was a week ago. Will did pass his echo stress test (he told me he studied really hard for that). This is how our week will go: Next Thursday we will go up to Salt Lake after dialysis. Then Friday at 8:30, he will do dialysis in Ogdon and then go on to the U of U and do a PFT (lung function test). After that is done we will go see Dr. Cahill. She wants to see how he is doing having four dialysis treatments a week-if they are helping him. Will informed me that he doesn't care if his PFT's are just 1%--he is NOT going into the hospital this time. Since he's gotten out of the hospital in January, he has had to go into the hospital after clinics everytime.

There is a reason for that, WEDDINGS. On Saturday, in Salt Lake, Will's cousin, Danny is marrying the most wonderful person, AnneMarie. You should all remember the story about how they met when Will was so sick in SICU and AnneMarie was Will's respiratory therapist. How romantic. So they really need Will to be there. They will get married at 11:00 am. We will be there for that fun, for sure.

Then about noon, we will have to leave because Will's other cousin, Christi, is getting married in Boise at 7:00. We will be able to make it in time, it's about a five hour trip. It will be a long day for Will but he should be okay. He can sleep all the way. Angel and Aaron are going with us too. That's the one we will be worried about. The doctor told her that she will be able to travel just as long as she gets out of the car every hour and walks around. We will do that for sure.

We have made an appt. for Will to see the kidney transplant team on the 11th and 12th of August (that's the earliest they have). Then they will run a bunch of tests and he will meet the surgeon and everybody else. They want him for "classes" for four hours on what to expect from transplants. We are going to ask if he can skip out on those. He pretty much knows all the ins and outs of it by now, I think.

We will be needing traveling prayers for our trip and if you could pray for Angel to make it just fine, that would be appreciated. We are all looking forward to this week. I love weddings.

GOD BLESS

Sunday the day after the Fourth

2009-07-06T00:45:00.005-06:00

It's Sunday and it's summer, what a great day we have had. But first I forgot to tell you all what Will did for the Fourth. Now you have to remember last year we were in the hospital still and the nurses let Will get out of bed and they took him to a room with a lot of windows. We were hoping that he could see some of the many fireworks over Salt Lake. He couldn't see anything and it was very depressing. But now this Fourth he went out on his boat a little bit before dark and we set off our own fireworks out onto the river. He was really loving it. It was a full moon and what a great couple of hours we had. Angel, Aaron and Candace went with us along with our neighbors, Victoria and Jax. We are so blessed to live in the beautiful valley that we do.

But I did forget to let everyone know what we found out about Will's test last week. Well, we found out nothing yet(go figure). I think everyone probably took the whole week off for the Fourth of July holiday. Couldn't find anyone who had answers. But first thing Monday morning I will be calling everyone all over again and try to get somewhere. We need to get a move on with this transplant so Will doesn't have to have his whole life going around dialysis and his renal diet (not a good thing). So if I find something out, I will blog asap.

So back to our great weekend.
We had Shannon (Will's cousin from Mountain Home) come over for a few hours. He brought two of his three kids. Jack and Amiah. They were so darn cute. I didn't get a picture though. They really kept us entertained. Then we had the Andrus' clan come over. They were raised with Will and Angel as best friends. Now their children are my best friends. Below is the dinner we had--adults were inside and the kids were out on the patio. Then a unfriendly bee came and brought a lot of tears so I decided I needed to sit with them outside, to protect them of course. I think I had a better time than those boring adults did inside the air conditioned house. Aren't they so wonderful???

Here is Will with all the little ones. Great picture.

Below is the picture of all of them that came to dinner. We did have a full house and I loved it. Will had a great time visiting with them all. Angel's tummy is getting big huh??? Soon, maybe five weeks left.

I hope everyone had as great a holiday weekend as we did. Tomorrow is dialysis and so the week begins. We have a real good friends named Megan and Curt who are expecting any day now. They just moved to California and we miss them lots. Please pray for the family and the exciting new addition, it's a girl also. We love you guys.

Please also pray for the "speediness" of the doctors and techs so Will can get his new kidney.

Thank you all and GOD BLESS. Our God is so good to us.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

2009-07-04T00:20:00.003-06:00

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism"

Erma Bombeck

GOD BLESS AMERICA

WE HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

Will has had a wonderful day. Curtis, Jenn and Cali came over from Boise for the afternoon. It was great to see them again. Cali is just so darn cute. She was doing gymnastic moves for Uncle Will.

Then he rested for a few hours and went over to the Clark's to have an old-fashioned BBQ. There were many friends and the food---It was so good and I think Will gained ten pounds (which he could use). I probably did too, but that's a whole other story.

He has dialysis and then we will probably just stay close to home for the fourth. We will put some pictures up on Sunday night. Be safe and be happy on this long weekend.

When you have time go to this website (I hope I did it right-if it doesn't work, I will try again) and watch the video. It has our two good, good friends that have had transplants. If you have followed Will's blog, you will remember Tanya and Sarah. They did a good job.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/sharedp=8c1b2c8fa53596b905ef78&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Sunday, a week has gone by already.

2009-06-29T00:20:00.002-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TOM

(ON SATURDAY)!!!!

We had a great party for Tom on his birthday. Above is his two brothers and his sister. One brother, Albert, was born on his birthday six years apart. He was visiting the Grand Canyon on their birthday. But even though we missed him, Tom still had a great birthday.

Angel had a baby shower on Saturday also. I know---two big parties in one day. Are we crazy or what???

Angel got some great gifts for the baby and we had a terrrrrrific time with our friends. We haven't seen some of them in a long while.

Will is going in for his big echo stress test tomorrow, Monday. Please pray for the results that we need to continue with the transplant process. We won't know what the results will be for a few days. When I know, I will post it. Will hasn't felt that great and we haven't been out on the boat. Soon. He is trying to walk a little more every day.

I know many of you want the blog more. I just don't have that much to write about (Thank the good Lord for that). Will goes to dialysis Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and that takes up the whole day. Then the off days he tries to get out a little and do some exercise. Dr Cahill would be so proud. I just can't imagine what his life will be like when he gets the new kidney. Pray, Pray, Pray.

GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU.

THANKS FOR STAYING "TUNED IN" FOR WILL

Happy Father's Day Sunday

2009-06-22T00:07:00.003-06:00

"Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a dad." -- Anne Geddes

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

The picture above is my father, Will, and Will's dad (AKA Tom)
How's that for Father's Day picture.
We were trying to get the boat out.

Above: We tried to go fishing again but it just didn't work out. We hit bad weather but this time we got the boat all the way in the water. We went ahead and took the boat down the river a ways but it was just too windy and cold. So we headed back. Maybe next time we can get a worm wet. Sorry Grandma and Grandpa. My dad and Cherie came from Boise so we could celebrate Father's Day together. Even though we didn't get to fish we still had a great day.

Above: We went to an old fashioned wiener roast on Saturday night. We even had s'mores. It was a lot of fun. Will is sitting visiting with Coach. I don't think they know anyone else is around.

On Wednesday we did get the boat out for a few hours in the evening. This is what I caught. What a pretty fish, maybe I should have led off this blog with this picture. That's one nice looking fish, at least two feet or so, right? We went out with Aaron and Angel, Joe and Carrie Chizum and Will and I. Tom didn't get to go because he was still recuperating from hernia surgery. He is doing so much better but he has to be careful for a while yet.

Will started doing dialysis four times a week and maybe that's going to help. He is feeling pretty good today. He loves going out on the boat. Maybe this week we can go out more. Maybe I will let him catch the biggest one. I have a couple more pictures I want to put on here. Maybe tomorrow I can do that.

I thank God for fathers everywhere. They are a very special breed of people. I was lucky, I had one great father and two very special step-fathers. My step dads are gone now but I feel very blessed that I still have my dad. Another blessing I want to thank God for is Him allowing me to pick Tom to be the father of my two children. I never, ever could have gotten a better dad for them.

So a great big THANK YOU to our heavenly Father for all his blessings and I hope all of you had a great Father's Day.
God Bless and tell someone you love them. It makes the world a better place.

Monday, June 15, 2009

2009-06-15T12:18:00.003-06:00

So, so sorry that I was late getting this up today. Last night when I got ready to do the blog, it was down for maintenance. Then I wanted to get it done when I got up but then dialysis called and wanted him in early. So this was just a wild day. But I did get a couple of good pictures. Please forgive.

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week. We have been doing some paper work for Will's transplant but it is going so slow. I know, I know, I should be use to that by now, right? So he's already done the dental thing and now he waits until 29th to do the echo stress test. That's the test where they check with the cardiologist to see if his heart is good enough for surgery. They don't make him go on the treadmill, they just use some medicine that speeds the heart up to stimulate the heart at exercise pace. Will was excited that he doesn't have to try to walk on a treadmill quickly.

We tried so hard to get out on the boat Sunday afternoon. We literally had the boat backed up into the dock and then a storm came rushing in. We were so bummed. I pouted the whole way home and I kept saying it was going to quit soon-didn't happen. So maybe this week some time. This crazy Idaho weather.

We have been having a little bit of difficulty with getting him into dialysis four times a week but I think people are now on the same page. So everything is going forward. Just please pray that this is going to help Will to stay out of the hospital for awhile.

Will is getting really excited about his little niece's arrival. Here is how Angel passes her time now that she's not teaching this summer.......LOL

(Thanks Billie)

The picture below is Angel trying to give her brother a shot. She HATES doing that but she does try. She is going to take Will into dialysis tomorrow so she has to know how. She wants to make Will give his own shots. That would be a disaster with his tremors but she still would rather have him do it. But she did really well. (If you didn't notice, that's my little grand baby sticking out like that, healthy size isn't she?).

I went up to Boise to see some of my family and go to a beautiful wedding of a friend of ours. I hadn't seen my dad and Cherie in a long time and my little niece, Sadie's birthday is this week. She turns four. I will try to get a picture on here for family to see. I just wish Will and Tom could have came but they had to go to dialysis. So my big goal is to get the boat out and do some fishing.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

2009-06-06T23:05:00.004-06:00

OUR WEEK IN SALT LAKE CITY

So now I'll tell you all about the week. We went down to Salt Lake on Monday because we were told to change the date for the vascular surgeon. He was going to be busy on Wednesday so could we come down on Tuesday for the venagram. We said sure because we thought that would give us more days to shop around for the "stuff" that we need for our boat. Well they wanted us in there by 8:30. We were there on time. Then they came out to the waiting room and said "the room is broken" (I promise that was their exact words). They are trying to fix it and we should just wait a little bit. Here is Will waiting............................................

and waiting.....................................

(by the way, he's asleep)...............

Then finally he got in a little after 1:00 in the afternoon. Will doesn't "do" waiting well anymore. But the drs. found that he needed the balloon in his vein again so it's a good thing we had the procedure that day. Then Will had to wait for three hours while they made sure that he was clotting okay.

Then Will and his parents (that's us) went back to the hotel and just relaxed (Will wasn't supposed to do too much anyway). We went to clinic the next morning. Will had x-rays, blood work and then his PFT (pulmonary function test). Then it was on to meet with Dr. Cahill. She came in and said "d*** Will, you're drowning your lungs." Well, needless to say Dr. Cahill wanted Will to go into the hospital and get his lungs dry. Again, Will was not happy----if you all remember, this is the exact thing that happened last month when Will went to clinic.

Here is Will in his bed, he's not talking to anyone right now.

So Will had dialysis for three days straight and then Dr. Cahill said we could go home on Friday night if the x-ray looked better. It showed a little improvement and they decided that maybe Will need to go to dialysis four days a week now. So we came home last night. Will told Tauni that if Dr. Cahill wants to see him in the near future-she will have to come to our boat to visit. The one good thing this trip is that he got a "button" on his feeding tube site. This is flush to the skin so it is so much nicer for Will not to have all those tubes sticking out from his stomach. Will still had to go to dialysis again today and afterwards he felt exhausted and he's really hurting. Tomorrow he will be able to just sit back and relax.

We did get to visit a lot of our friends from the hospital and we saw Sarah (remember she is our good friend that had her transplant a couple of months before Will.) She looks maaarvelous.I really do miss all of them and wish we could have seen them all,(we love you guys so much) we weren't there all that long this time (yippee).

We did get referred to the kidney transplant people and we have started the paperwork. We will keep you updated on that as we go along. I know some people think that Will would never go after another transplant but he's all for it. It will change his life for the the good. No more dialysis, no more crazy diet and no more fluid restriction. Good times ahead.

WE NEED TO REMEMBER--THE TASK AHEAD OF US IS NEVER AS GREAT AS THE POWER BEHIND US. Can I hear AMEN!

GOD BLESS and have a great Sunday.

Saturday June 7, 2009

2009-06-06T01:02:00.003-06:00

We are home from Salt Lake. Will had to go into the hospital for a few days. That wasn't very nice but I will get back on line and blog about it tomorrow after dialysis. We just got home and it's very late and we have had a few very late nights so I'm going to bed and we will sleep in a little in the morning. So Will is doing okay especially since we are home now. I'll get back on tomorrow (oh, it's today already) and let you all know.
Good night and God bless

Sunday May 31, 2009

2009-05-31T23:42:00.003-06:00

This was my last week for the school year. So the summer is upon us. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will has been waiting patiently because I told him he had to wait to go out on the boat. Thanks Will. But we do have to get through this next week in Salt Lake. Doctor week dontcha know.

Will has to go to the vascular surgeon on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to have a procedure done. It's the one he has had once before. The dr. goes through the vein in the groin and up towards the heart. If this vein isn't wide enough he will put in another balloon (he did one before) and blow the balloon up (in the vein, not the heart). I'm sure the description I gave is as close to the textbook as you can get (NOT).

Then after that, Will will go to dialysis somewhere. They haven't set that up yet. I know, time's running out but you know how doctors work, especially if you have been following this blog for a while. After that, we plan to go to the hotel and rest. I'm sure Will will need that by then. Danny and AnnMarie will be visiting sometime that night.

Wednesday he has to go in the morning for his PFT (his breathing test to see how good his lungs are working)., then go for some blood work and x-rays and finally he goes to see the big guns-the whole transplant team including Dr. Cahill. Then we know he will be tired, so we are going to stay one more night in SLC.

We have an appt. for dialysis at 6:30 in the morning. I'm not sure that we will get Will there on time. I think I will just roll him out of bed and into the car. He sleeps most of the time in dialysis anyway. Then we will go out and visit Danny and AnnMarie. It should be a good day after that. We should be home by Thursday night some time.

I hope I will have some pictures of some of our friends to put on the blog. We plan to take some of the time that we will have waiting for Will and visit our buddies in the hospital. Please pray for Will's tests and his procedure. We hope that maybe we can start visiting about Will's kidney transplant. That we really need prayers for also.

We will let you know how his time in SLC goes as soon as we get home. If anything goes on before that, we will let you all know.

Hope that all of you are planning a great summer vacation. Our vacation is going to be spent at home (remember it's been a long time since we have had time to just "be" and we live in the most wonderful valley in the world. We will have fun.

GOD BLESS

Sunday evening May 24, 2009

2009-05-24T23:05:00.001-06:00

Happy Memorial Day

Above and below: Here is Will visiting some good friends of ours who came home to visit their mother (my good friend, Kathy Henslee). Their family has really changed over the time we were gone to SLC. Look at all babies!

We were next door neighbors for over 20 years and the kids grew up together. This is one of the Henslee girls, and she and Will are holding her triplets. Melissa's nieces and nephews are in the picture too (but that's not even half of them). It was a fun visit and Will loved being around all the kids.

Below:
Hagerman holds a Fossil Days during the Memorial Weekend with a big parade (that Will missed because he had to go to dialysis). Then they have a big thing in the park with vendor booths and carnival rides and live music. We use to love going to this every year (yes, they have wonderful food like elephant ears and corn dogs) and Will didn't think he wanted to go. He really hasn't gone much out in the public except those few basketball games. But he went and because he has to stay out of the sun, the pictures are kind of dark, so sorry.

Below:
Will found a nice shaded booth and sat awhile to visit with friends. Above is Butch whose daughter had a heart/lung transplant years ago and was friends with Will. Sadly to say she isn't with us any longer but she made a great impression on Will. Her perseverance and her wonderful outlook on life really changed Will's attitude about transplants.

Below:
Here is Will with one of his favorite people, Marge Sligar. Marge hadn't seen Will in almost two years. She use to own a big swimming pool in the Hagerman Valley and opened it up to Will on the off hours so he could swim when he was a kid. That helped him so much. She also helped run CF swim-a-thons to help raise money to find a cure. Her heart is bigger than all of Idaho and she really loves Will. She use to sneak into his hospital room at night on her way home and give him licorice. I think the nurses knew, they just looked the other way. The world needs more people like her, for sure. We love her and her family so much.

As you can see, Will has had a very busy weekend with everyone home for the holiday. He got to see a few old friends that he hasn't seen in quite a while. We didn't get out in the boat (maybe tomorrow) because everyone was on the river this weekend. He likes to drive the boat so we shouldn't have too many boats out there, right???

My dad turned 79 this week and they were throwing him a big party in Elko. We wanted to go but we couldn't get into dialysis any earlier because it was booked up. But Dad, if you are reading this, we really tried and I know you had a great time. Happy, happy birthday and I'm glad I get to be your daughter. We will celebrate when you get back to Boise. I love you

One of Will's closest cousins, Christi, had her birthday the day before my dad's. We didn't get to talk to her on her birthday but she knows that we thought about her all through the day. She's also getting married this summer.

I have one more week of school (Angel has two more weeks lol). Then "here comes summer" and fishing, fishing, fishing (with a little housecleaning in there somewhere). I hope all of you are getting ready for fun in the sun. Next week, on the third, we will be heading back down to SLC for Will's clinics. Hopefully we will get good reports all around. Please pray for that, thanks.

I might blog tomorrow night if we get more company. I know everyone likes pictures on here.

I pray for you all and hope God gives you all the blessings you need.

Sunday May 17, 2009

2009-05-17T21:39:00.005-06:00

ANOTHER PARTY AT OUR HOUSE

(Pictures below)

This was a party for Will's cousin Shannon, his Uncle Jack and Will who all have birthdays a few weeks from each other. So they celebrate together. It was an unbelievable beautiful day, the sun was out and there was hardly any wind. We had lots of people with lots of gooooood food.

Will's week was pretty much the same. He went to dialysis and had to evaluate his dry weight again. We think he might be losing weight but it might be muscle mass building. It is so hard to figure out. I know his blood sugar is more stable and he's needing less insulin.

Because of the change in weight, I don't think the dialysis people are taking enough off so Will is having a little more trouble breathing. This should be fixed this week we hope. But we did miss a good friend's wedding on Saturday. Will was really looking forward to going, but after dialysis he wasn't up to it at all. Andy, if you are reading this, we really did want to come.

I haven't had much time this week to blog and I apologize. This week was crazy with a capital C in school. We just have eight days left and we had our field trip on Thursday which I loved. Then we have so many little things happening. Life will be busy for the next two weeks so if I don't get on to blog like normal I will after school gets out. The last day is the 28th. It seems hard to believe that the school year is almost out.

Above and below: Uncle Jack, Will and Shannon

Happy Birthday

Above: Here's little Carson showing off for "Uncle Will" and Aaron. Isn't he cute?
Candace was down for the weekend and we had a lot of fun with her. Angel got some cute pictures and I will get them up on the blog so you can see how big she is getting. She went out fishing on our boat with her daddy and she loved it.

Above: Here's Will with his other Uncle (Tom's other brother, Bill) and Shannon. I think Tom is cleaning off the table. He's such a good helper.

GOD BLESS

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2009

2009-05-11T01:23:00.004-06:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

We had a great day today!

We started the day by going to church and I love my church. Then we came home and went over to Kim and Richard White's house (across the field) to have lunch. Will(and the rest of us) sat outside on their new and improved patio (I forgot my pictures,sorry) and ate a hot dog. Then we jumped on the boat and went fishing!!! The weather was perfect and hardly any wind-amazing for Idaho. It was everything I thought it would be and then some. Look at this perfect day.

ABOVE: Will is sitting at the back of the boat just waiting for the "big one" to bite (it never did).
Kim is back there helping Will fish. After almost hooking him in the eye (yes, his good one) she was fired. But we sure laughed. Aaron is fishing on the other side of the boat. He was the only one, of six who fished, who caught any fish (4).

ABOVE: Angel and fishing just don't get along. So she brings a book. My mom even got a fishing license but she didn't get a worm wet, maybe next time.

Above: Here is my mom's dog, Tinker. She has a yellow doggie life preserver on. So Will put his life preserver on so Tinker wouldn't feel so embarrassed.

ABOVE: Will is taking a break from fishing and is enjoying a rice krispie treat. He's got it rough, doesn't he? Hayley and Riley White are fishing in the front of the boat. I guess Will didn't share his treats with them.

ABOVE: Aaron is bragging to Will about the "big" one he just caught.

ABOVE: On the way back to the dock, the sun went down and it got cold, even for Will. Poor Will, he had to squeeze in between those two.

This is one of my favorite quotes about mothers:

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

For all you mothers out there-you know what I'm talking about.

MOTHER'S DAY 2009, WILL GO DOWN IN MY HISTORY AS ONE OF THE BEST!
I hope your day was as great as mine and I thank God that I was able to have my mom and my two kids with me.

GOD BLESS

May 7, 2009

2009-05-07T01:56:00.003-06:00

What a beautiful day we had today, well at least the afternoon was pretty. The morning was rainy but even that was beautiful because the wind wasn't blowing.

Will is feeling good and today he goes to dialysis. He won't feel like it tonight but I bet we get the boat out this weekend FINALLY. That's all I want for Mother's Day is a good time on our boat and a little fishing thrown in. I can't think of anything better.

So that was a gentle reminder for everyone to not forget their mothers on Mother's Day this Sunday. If they are still with you-celebrate, and if they are not, remember and celebrate. Mother's are great people and I happen to have my fabulous mom close to me and my wonderful step-mom not too far away in Boise. I feel very blessed.

We go back to Salt Lake in the first week of June. They will be so surprised. We were just talking about how much we miss all of our wonderful friends in the hospital. If you are reading this, we love you all and will see you soon.

Will has been spending a lot of time with the TV set watching the Boston Celtics kick some serious fanny. They are very, very good. If you haven't been watching the playoffs-you are missing out. It's great to have Will able to watch the game. He doesn't get it all, but I remember last year in ICU listening to the game on XM radio because he couldn't see the TV at all. Will has come a long way since then. Thank you God.

We will have some great pictures of Mother's Day on Sunday night. Have a great rest of the week.

GOD BLESS

Sunday, May 3, 2009

2009-05-03T15:38:00.006-06:00

HERE ARE MY TWO DARLINGS HAMMING IT UP WITH THE "DUKE"
I know several of you are wondering---
yes, that is a life size cutout of John Wayne
in our family room (it's really called the John Wayne Room).
We have pictures of him on all the walls.

Here is a fun picture of them trying to teach the dog, Roxie, to sit and behave at the dinner table. No, she does not eat with us at the table. Roxie's not even allowed on the chairs.

I wanted a picture of Angel's little bump, which is now changing into a very big bump.
Angel is trying to make Will talk to his niece but he's not buying into it at all.

This is a great picture. Will is on the four wheeler and he took it for a drive down the lane to Brent's house. (all by himself) Angel is just trying to jump on but he left without her.

The pictures say it all. Will is feeling better and stronger than he ever has since surgery and Angel's get bigger and better.
Life is great!!
The weather was lousy all weekend again, on again off again rain and storm, so we couldn't take the boat out again. This is beginning to sound like a broken record. We are so ready.
Stay tuned, maybe we will be getting our boat out this week.

MAY IS OFFICIALLY CYSTIC FIBROSIS AWARENESS MONTH!

PLEASE GO OUT IN WILL'S NAME AND MAKE SOMEONE AWARE OF CYSTIC FIBROSIS AND THE NEED TO FIND A CURE. THANK YOU FROM OUR HEARTS-THE HARBISONS

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Someone sent this to me and I thought it was beautiful. What a way to describe our awesome God.

When I fall, He lifts me up!

When I fail, He forgives!

When I am weak, He is strong!

When I am lost, He is the way!

When I am afraid, He is my courage!

When I stumble, He steadies me!

When I am hurt, He heals me!

When I am broken, He mends me!

When I am blind, He leads me!

When I am hungry, He feeds me!

When I face trials, He is with me!

When I face persecution, He shields me!

When I face problems, He comforts me!

When I face loss, He provides for me!

HE IS OUR EVERYTHING!

GOD BLESS

April30, 2009

2009-04-30T00:08:00.001-06:00

Everything is still going great. Not much has been happening here. Will is still trying to exercise as much as he can. The weather is still crummy and we want to go out in our boat so we are pouting right now. I hear the weather will be changing next week for the better though. So, watch out fish---here we come.

Nothing much has been happening here. Angel is getting bigger and bigger. She's not that happy with it, but I sure am. I will get an updated picture as soon as I can.

I hope your week is going well.

GOD BLESS

Monday April 27, 2009

2009-04-27T07:53:00.002-06:00

Again, I didn't do the blog when I said I would. So here it is on Monday. We had a busy weekend with company but we didn't really do anything special. We played on the Wii on Wii fit most of the time. That is so good for Will. Some people might not know what it is but it's a "game" for the TV but it's an interactive game so you can't just sit and play. Well, my nephew, Danny, has found a way to do it but that's another story. The Wii fit is just for exercising and it has great exercises for Will to build up his core strength and it's really working. So we play it a lot and when company comes over we play it.

The weather was lousy over the weekend so it was good that we just stayed in. Will is feeling so good lately except for right before dialysis and right after. Things are really coming along. We go back to Salt Lake City for appointments at the end of May and I bet Will will surprise all our "people" there.

I hope everyone has a great week.

GOD BLESS

2009-04-24T10:03:00.002-06:00

Sorry I didn't post on Wednesday. It was just a slip up. Nothing is really happening this week. Will had dialysis and dialysis and dialysis. But he is feeling so much better and he is starting to eat sooooooooo well now. I think it's time to get rid of that feeding tube. We will see what our wonderful Dr. Cahill says about that when we go down next month. There were a few beautiful spring days and then then this morning I woke up to little bits of snow. Idaho weather????????
So we haven't been in the boat except for that first time. We will be going as soon as this latest storm goes by. I will post this weekend, I promise.

GOD BLESS

Monday

2009-04-20T22:56:00.004-06:00

This is one of those priceless pictures.
Imagine where we were this time last year.

Here is us just cruisin' the river. We let Will drive(like we could have stopped him)
and he did pretty good. We just had to tell him which way to turn and things went so smoothly.

below:
This is a picture of Will and Riley. The Whites (our neighbors) went with us and showed us lots of things we need to know about. We don't know much about boating but we are very eager to find out. There is so much we need to learn but we love it already. It's everything we thought it would be and then some.

Below: This is Will just chillin' Doesn't he look great?
When I said chillin' I really meant it. It had to be 30 degrees out there after the sun went down but finally Will was able to be cool. He's always too warm.

We didn't get started until 7:30 Sunday evening and we knew we only had less than an hour of daylight left. We just wanted to try it out and see how the boat felt. Well, it felt great.
There was a little bit of excitement right away to start with though.
We were just learning how to unload the boat and we saw a little boat capsize with five people in it. Then a lady fishing on the bank came running over and said there was a baby on board. Tom and Richard White got the boat in very fast and went to help them. They were very lucky to have capsized over a sand bar. The baby was on the shoulders of her mom. Anyway they would have been fine without us there, very cold but they would have made it. I was very nervous that this maiden voyage would not be starting out well, but everything was fine after they all got back to shore and Tom and Richard were able to go get their things out of the river. Then we just got on our boat and took off. Needless to say, I was really angry at this mother that would put her three month old with five other people on a boat that holds 3 people and get this....without a life vest on. I really thank God that He sent an angel to watch over that little baby.
Anyway...after that bit of excitement, the boat ride was very relaxing. It was so fantastic to see Will's face because he was having a great time on the water. I'm sure we will be putting lots more pictures on here of the boat trips.

I can't put into words how blessed we feel right now. Lots and lots of good things happening to our family and we know to thank God and praise Him for them all.

GOD BLESS

April 20, 2009

2009-04-20T01:32:00.001-06:00

SPRING IS HERE FINALLY

What a beautiful spring day today! We had a wonderful day with good food and good family. Will was feeling really, really good today and he sat on the patio for most of the afternoon. We had our Boise family down for dinner. My dad and step mom Cherie, Christi (Will's cousin), Ryan (Christi's fiancee) Noah and Elliott (Christi's boys), Billie (Will's cousin and Christi's sister), Matt, Billie's husband with their two children, Sadie Kaye and Coby. Arron and Megan (also Will's cousin and Christi and Billie's sister) with their cutie Rustin. We had a houseful and I loved it!

Above: Elliott holding little Coby for his first ride on our horse, Honey.

Above: Noah holding Sadie and Coby for a little ride. I'm not really sure that Coby is liking this horse ride too much.

Above: Here is Rustin on Honey also

Above: Rustin and Sadie eating Will's birthday cake

Above: Willhas his back to the camera but everyone is singing Happy Birthday.

Here is Will just helping Sadie dish up the ice cream.

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

As you can tell we had a full day. Will had a great time and doesn't he look great. We were all commenting on how this time last year we weren't really celebrating his birthday too much. I have some more good pictures but I'm going to upload them to the blog tomorrow because I need to get to bed now. Don't miss them though, they are stupendous!

GOD BLESS

April 16th Will's birthday update

2009-04-16T23:31:00.005-06:00

We had such a great day HOME with Will.
Here is Will with our neighbor, Hayley, who also has a birthday today.
She turned 13 today.

Here is another picture of the birthday gang.
Hayley, Will, and Coach (whose birthday is tomorrow)
I had the cake say all three names.

Now for the birthday present of all birthday presents...

Yup, we got a boat. It's not really Will's present. We just happened
to get it now. It's a 24 ft.Pontoon boat that seats 12 comfortably.
AWESOME
He got an Ipod and some games for his Wii.

This is the first time Will got into the boat. We had to help him down but he's
so psyched to get it into the water. I think he was out looking for fishing worms after he got off the boat. I know my pole is ready.

We are going to have to replace the carpeting(it's an older boat) and a few other touches but
I can see us on the water every chance we get.
****************************

Will did have dialysis today and they still took a couple of liters of fluid off anyway. So we came home and had a nice dinner. Of course, artichokes (Will's favorite food) was served. Then we just had a few people over. My mom, the Whites, Coach and Donna Clark, Brent and Stacee, Sylvan, and our other neighbors, Victoria and Jax. Will really had a great time.

I didn't want to write a book today but I forgot that I haven't told everyone what happened in SLC. Will went into his normal appt. after doing his xray, PFT's (that's how well the lungs are functioning) and blood work. Well, some of the numbers were not looking good and the xrays showed that his lungs were really "wet" so Dr. Cahill put him in for a few more tests and three days of dialysis. It worked because his numbers were up and his lungs looked better. So we got to go home. She was afraid that it might be pneumonia again. She was being very protective and cautious but still Will was not happy to be in there. But he's home now and doing very well.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes to Will
GOD BLESS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WILL

2009-04-16T02:46:00.000-06:00

YEA! We got him home just in time for his birthday. So happy birthday to Will and I think that was Dr. Cahill's present to Will. He got his wish and we will celebrate his day at his home his way with just a couple of friends over for cake and ice cream. We probably will have a family dinner/celebration on Sunday so it doesn't interfere with dialysis. Of course all the pictures will follow. We are so happy it wasn't a long stay and he is home.

It's been a long day/night so I will blog later today and fill you in with what all has been going on with the continuing soap opera, Days Of Will's Life, starring Will, Dr. Cahill and all the supporting staff with guest appearance by Tom Harbison AKA the best dad in the world. (you can tell I'm a little bit tired when I start writing this way)

By the way-Aaron (Angel's husband) felt the baby kick him tonight. It's really happening.

If you all want to leave a quick birthday message for Will-I will read them to him tonight.

Thanks for the prayers so we could get out of there and God Bless

Tuesday update

2009-04-14T17:44:00.002-06:00

Will had to go in to the hospital yesterday after some testing. Some of his numbers from tests they did on Monday were not good, so Dr. Cahill wanted to err of the side of caution and put him in until she could run more tests. She said he has gone sour so many times and so quickly that she just doesn't want to take any chances and we understand that, even though the hospital was the last place we expected to be because Will is doing so great. He feels better than he has since surgery. You just never know. It was really hard to leave Tom and Will back there but I had to get back and get ready for the sub and pay the taxes. Uncle Sam doesn't take any excuses, ya know?

Most of the tests have come back so what needs to be done may be able to be done at home. It looks like I might be able to go back to Salt Lake after school tomorrow and pick my guys up and bring them home, just in time for Will's birthday. The last two years Will hasn't been able to spend his birthday at home and he was really looking forward to it this year. So when he got slammed in the "joint" (I'm using the word like our good friend Sumer) he was really, really, really upset (and that's putting the term nicely). So he must have paid off Dr. Cahill to let him go home in time for his birthday. I don't care how he did it, just that he did do it.

So this is good news, there is one hitch. There is one more test that we are waiting for the results. They will be back about 11:00 tomorrow morning. If those are okay, and I'm sure they will be, he will be home by midnight tomorrow night.

As always, I will keep all you wonderful friends and family informed of his doings. Please pray they his body is just fine and that Will can come home tomorrow.

GOD BLESS

April 14th Tuesday

2009-04-14T01:02:00.002-06:00

Just got back from Salt Lake. I will blog later in the day with all the news from there. Right after school for sure.