my angel.

this is where it all began.

here you have maddie & i in san diego, california.

after one of the famous LFO {larsen family organization} reunions, shar decided that we needed to come to california to extend the girl family time. we jumped at the idea. we met with our parents and after some consideration they were a yes.

we rode in the backseat while ryan & shar were in the front.

the next few days were days that could/will never be forgotten.

maddie-shar-me

we are all different ages and i think we are kindred spirits.

we are closer than any "normal" cousins would be, and that's a fact.

because maddie & i are a few years younger, we of course looked up to shar like a big sister

maddie & i thought we were SOOO cool wearing shars clothes {in above picture}

doing what shar did.

eating what shar ate. {sometimes}

listening to what shar danced to.

even learning how to kiss like shar did ;)

even though this picture is a tiny bit embarrassing to post-- i love it because of the memory it has attached to it. we have all had a strong connection since this trip.  i always look up to shar. she is my rock.

she is so cute, loving, giving, & has the strongest testimony of anyone.

shar isn't like any other cute blonde california girl...

for MANY reasons

one of them being because she had cystic fibrosis

sharlie was born with cf along with her sister lexi. it was something completely new to our family and we learned first hand what it was like and what it would be like for them to live. lexi passed away when she was 14. she still looks over our family and most importantly her sister. shar has lead a life full of desire, hope, courage, and has been a walking miracle. she has passed her life expectancy by MANY years, traveled, married her amazing sweetheart ryan, and gave birth to her cute boy, harrison. all of these were "unattainable" dreams in doctors eyes. we all know in our family, "if anyone can do it/have the faith--it's shar"

some of these next pictures are of me skyping with maddie/shar/harrison/ryan when maddie lived in california with them. i was jealous because they had awesome cousin time without me but i made some visits out there to make up for it!...and let's be honest...we have a private blog we started a long time ago!

{notice shar & ryan kissing in the back. i tell ya--those two taught me + maddie how it's done! haha}

this picture below was last year when sharlie spoke at a gala to raise funds for cf. it was a beautiful night & one of success but also an incredible night to celebrate her & those with cf. cystic fibrosis is basically when mucus builds up in your lungs and makes it harder to breath at a normal rate. shar isn't able to run for long periods of time or ride a bike for example. so at this gala she was the lucky winner of a motorized bike!
{she was very happy}

she was at my wedding the end of april and i felt like the luckiest girl. i had written a bucket list in 9th grade & on that list was to have her at my temple sealing. she made such a special effort & i know that it wasn't the easiest thing for her to do. since then her health has slowly been declining. she is currently functioning with one lung because her other one ruptured. she now breaths with 17% of one lung and is currently on 24/7 oxygen.

she has been on & off of the transplant list but recently decided to get on the "list" for a double lung transplant. she did all of the required testing for several days about 2 weeks ago. her family came into town and they were expecting to hear back from stanford with positive news. the call that they received that night with positive news didn't happen. her lungs were rejected. they determined that they thought she wouldn't make it during surgeory. our family along with so many others were surprised and sad at this outcome. shar still had hope and they were searcing for other options. duke was the next pick and so the test results were in the process of being sent over there when stanford called back and said not to give up on them. they were going to make a few more calls to other surgeons and see if there was the possibility of doing a double lung/heart transplant. 2 weeks have now passed and sharlie found out last night that she was accepted for the double lung + heart transplant.

what a miracle.

my heart was bursting last night when i heard the news. yeah, it still is very scary but it's what we've all been anticipating, and it is the next step for her to extend her life.

she is incredible and has had unwavering faith all along.

next week she will be heading up to stanford with ryan, harrison & her mom coco. i can't imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes. the Lord has blessed her so much but He's also never given her a trial she couldn't handle. so many thoughts & prayers are with her and i'm also asking that you join in.
you can follow her blog with updates at http://sharliesangels.blogspot.com/
you can also watch this touching short video with more explanation & photos of her + loved ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg7W_0_JW1M

i consider myself the luckiest to have her as my cousin/sister/best friend. i know my mom would agree that there couldn't have been a better role model for me growing up & still today. i'm not the best at expressing myself when it comes to heartfelt deep love for someone. {i get it from my dad:)} i'm working on it...but today when i was privileged to talk to shar, i couldn't. i cried. well at first. i can blame it on the birth control, but it's not. she holds such an important place in my heart. and thank heavens when we were saying our goodbyes we were laughing really hard. not to mention that maddie text her when we were talking. {kindred spirits right} i thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of Shar & her life.
please keep her in your prayers.
life is precious.
love you to the moon & back shar
xoxo