Happy Father's Day

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

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

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

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.

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).
***************

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

CELEBRATE WILL'S BIRTHDAY WITH LAUGHTER!

HOW LUCKY WE ALL WERE FOR HIM TO BE BORN.

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.

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

God bless all the parents out there.

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

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!

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.

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

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.

LIVE SIMPLY, LOVE GENEROUSLY,

CARE DEEPLY,

LAUGH OFTEN,

AND LEAVE THE REST TO GOD.

This is a great recipe for life.

ANNIVERSARY TIME

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.
************
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

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.

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.

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

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!!!!!

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

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

GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

THE BEST GIFT IS OUR SAVIOR'S BIRTH.

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

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

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

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

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

They made these cookies with me.

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

How wonderful



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

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

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

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

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

Can't wait.

God Bless and stay safe.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello,

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

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

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

Thank you

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

IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME

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

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




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

I tell you, she eats like her mom.

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

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

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

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

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

GOD BLESS

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

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


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

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

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

Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

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

GOD BLESS

Sunday before Thanksgiving

We went shopping and found this fun hat.

The Cowboys just got off a scary win today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our God is awesome.

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

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

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

With God's Love,
Melissa Starnes

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

GOD BLESS ALL

One week already

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

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

A M A Z I N G!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

God Bless

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

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

Friday

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

This will be a great time to remember a great guy

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

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

God Bless

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

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

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

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

He was loved.

I will write more later, I am burned out.

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

Monday night

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

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

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

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

GOD BLESS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday night-Happy Halloween

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

Here are the best Halloween pictures.

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

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

How cute does she look?

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

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

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

I hope God pours out beautiful blessings on you all.

GOD BLESS

not again

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

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

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

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

GOD BLESS

home sweet home

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

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

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

Cute girls with one cute guy.

Molly, Jordan, and Kabina

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

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

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

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

GOD BLESS

wonderful week and wonderful weekend and the promised pictures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bella was fascinated with Kayli. Poke

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joe, Lisa, Mom, Faith and Jodi

The whole gang. Talk about a melting pot.

Here's a picture of Will with them.

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

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

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

Below is a picture of four generations.

My mom, Eileen, is holding baby Kayli.

Angel is holding me.

AWWWWWWWW how sweet.

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

God is so good to us.

God Bless