I feel like I haven't talked to you for a long time-that I just keep writing notes and song lyrics and stuff. Sorry about that! It's hard though I guess. It makes me miss you more if that's even possible.
Hope and I got your quilt square done for the Gift of Life event this weekend. It was a struggle but it turned out great. When I realized that I couldn't get a copy/printing store to print out a Word document on a piece of fabric, I had to figure out another way to get your picture onto the fabric. I remembered that Hope used to get iron-on transfer paper to print out things (like your Freddie Freeze shirt that you didn't like) so that was the plan. We put the picture together with the text and read on the directions that we couldn't use a laser printer because the heat would activate the iron-on.
The next plan was to get our old printer out and use it. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the plug-in cord (not sure how it got separated from the printer), so we decided to go to Grandma Joonie's and use her printer. While we were there, we realized that anything we printed had to be a mirror image to show up right on the transfer. Hope had no problem flipping the picture around, but the text was a different story. We could move it any other way but couldn't flip it backwards. I then decided we should try to go on the website of the maker of the transfer paper because you could make designs there and print them out. It was no problem to flip the text there so we printed out a few copies of everything. After that I ironed everything on, and it looked beautiful. A fitting tribute. We posted a picture online and got a ton of likes (because that's SO important!) That literally made my day to finish that and have it turn out so well.
The event itself was amazing. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. There were 800 people there, I found out later. There were 170 donors honored. The longest part of the program was the slideshow tribute. They read all the names, but only the first names were on the slide, for privacy issues. There were only two H's-someone named Halle and you! Wonderful, beautiful you! When they said each name, the family got to stand up for a little bit. I was so proud of you! For the words on your slide I said: "Hayden was an amazing son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. He was a gift." That part wasn't read aloud but it was on the screen for everyone to see.
I also saw someone I knew in the "G's" that was a customer at the office-Gordon Vanvalkenburg. You two ended up on the same quilt. Amazing! Another highlight was meeting the Kimball family-their son Evan who was your age died in a similar car accident a month or two after yours. We knew about them from a connection from Mr. Rudnik and followed their story online. We saw Evan's slide and saw them stand up, so we knew where they were sitting. We went over and introduced ourselves, but they already knew who we were, Dad at least. They give us both big hugs. We talked for a while and hope to get together with them sometime.
When we first arrived, a Gift of Life lady greeted us by name. We found out later that she was Abby Kowalchik's mom who knows Hope and she took great care of us and helped us find a seat right away since we arrived close to the starting time. She also helped us after with the quilt square pinning. I will have to check with Hope because I think the Kowalchik dad was killed in a car accident a few winters ago Up North. (By the way-we were running a little late because Carter spent the night at Matthew, Connor and Jack's the night before after the annual Kamp meeting. They live in Brighton, so we picked him up on the way to Novi after church).
It was an amazing afternoon, and it was all because of YOU! You continue to be a blessing each and every day! LOVE YOU!
P.S. Last week I emailed a copy of the letter from Ruby Watts who received your liver to Pastor Matt. He shared most of it in church on Sunday and it was very special. There was a lot of sniffling! Hope was in the orchestra that day and said there were a lot of people crying from her vantage point. Afterwards, a lot of people thanked me for allowing that to be shared, even Kevin Collins who never talks to me. I wasn't sure what to say back-like thank you, I didn't know. I was glad people were ok with it and appreciated it. I didn't know if it would be upsetting. Everyone loves you so much Hayden! Lydia kept looking back at our row with big tears in her eyes as he read it and even Pastor broke down a little at the end. My sweet boy!
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