Yes – Tyler and Elyse are expecting in October. The working title for the baby is “Rowena” until we actually know the gender, which we’ll find out from them this weekend.

Yes – Sarah and Nathan got engaged on Sunday night. They are excited to start planning a spring wedding in Tulsa and I’m already looking online at mother-of-the-bride dresses.

Yes – We made it through six hours of kidney transplant consultation meetings on May 22. A couple more tests to go and then Tim should be placed on the list soon.

Lots of excitement happening with the Hartley Family. All four of our kids will be home for a long weekend and we can’t wait to celebrate! In fact, James Taylor will be singing to us LIVE Friday night, along with a few thousand of our friends.

I took this photo of James in August of 2015 when we saw him in concert at Fenway Park in Boston.

“You’re going to be a very boring patient” is what Dr. Jose El-Amm, the medical director for kidney transplantation at Integris said to Tim. Who knew being called boring would turn out to be a good thing. The transplant team will meet next week to review Tim’s case and then we’ll know when we are “a go” to be placed on the list.

They did take 17 viles of blood yesterday and told us we will know his blood type next week. We did find out O is universal and that + and – don’t matter. Many friends and family members have indicated their interest is seeing if they are a match and we’ll let you know about blood group compatibility in the next week or two. We know, without doubt or fear, that God is in control and the right living donor will work out.

Dr. Scott Samara is the surgical director and he walked us through the process of the surgery. He termed Tim’s case as a pre-emptive transplant, meaning they want to give him a new kidney before he needs to be placed on dialysis. Dr. Samara feels certain we can achieve this goal. We are in Stage One now, then Stage Two is the actual transplant and Stage Three is life after the transplant.

All the professionals we met with yesterday were thorough, optimistic and compassionate. We know we are in good hands!

My husband is strong and can always seem to find good in the information being shared. For example, when Kayla, our transplant social worker, told him he wouldn’t be able to travel to any third world countries after the transplant, his response was “great, I’ve never wanted to do that anyway and now I really have a legitimate excuse.”

The morning of our appointment, five friends sent messages that they were lifting us and the medical team up in prayer. We both got teary eyed. We truly cherish the support and love from our family and friends.

Until next time…Live Happy!