Haley
was born in the Bay area of California and lived in Fremont for the
first 12 years of her life. That is just 45 minutes outside of San
Francisco. She lived there with her parents, Harry and Tiffany Young
and her older sister. Haley and her sister were only 19 months apart.
Not only were they close in age, but they have a very close
relationship. They did everything together all the way up through
high school.
Some of the fun things Haley's family did together were attending San Jose Shark hockey games (they are avid hockey fans) and a lot of camping on the California beaches. When they camped in Northern California they would just play on the beach because the water was too cold to get into. They would discover all sorts of fun treasure and over time collected a whole box of sand dollars (Which they recently just found). When they camped in Southern California it was at Pismo Beach. Here they would play in the water and boogie board.
Haley's maternal grandparents lived by them in Fremont but the rest of their extended family lived in Utah. Therefore the Young’s created extended family in their ward. They became extremely close with the Grimm family. They did everything together. They all got along superbly even though the Grimm's kids were a few years older than the Young's girls. They would go camping together and do New Year with them. They ate a lot of Sunday Dinners together and would just hang out enjoying each other's company.
While in California, Haley's parents looked for alternative options to public school. The public schools in California weren't that great. Haley's mom homeschooled a bit but then they found a Christian private school for their daughters to attend. It was a very small school and the faculty and parents and students were very close for example Haley's 5th grade teacher came to her wedding and her dad would golf with the principal.
This ended up being a huge blessing because during her 4th grade year, Haley started having severe stomach issues. The stomach pain was so bad she ended up going to the hospital and staying for weeks and months. She was having all kinds of tests run. At the end, they still weren't sure what was causing it. They said she had all the symptoms of Crohn's disease but it wasn't testing like Crohn's disease so they would just call it that. Over the years of paying attention to what triggers her body into pain, she has been able to control it better by staying away from the triggers. She has also had good luck using essential oils. The school was great in working with Haley and her parents and keeping her up on her school work so that she didn't have to repeat 4th grade.
After living for 9 years in Fremont California, Haley's dad retired from the Military and her family moved to Utah so they could be closer to more extended family. They all moved up to Kaysville East of the freeway in the Hess Farms neighborhood. Haley was 12 years old and entering 7th grade. She of course didn't want to leave her friends. Moving to Kaysville was culture shock for Haley. She missed the diversity of friends that she had in California. She missed how being Mormon gave her a different identity then everyone else and was exciting to tell people. Now she was just like everyone else. She says that was good too however.
After finishing Jr. High at Farmington Jr. High, Haley started at Davis High School. But she didn't enjoy it, especially after her sister graduated. So many of her friends went off with her sister to college and Haley was left at Davis mostly alone. She auditioned for the theater classes and even though she was told her audition was flawless, she didn't make the class. This left her with no motivation to want to stay at Davis. She says she was sitting one day in class and just realized if she had to stay at the school another year, she would be miserable. So that day she went her counselor and got all the paperwork on taking her GED. She came home that night and told her parents she wanted to test out of high school an enroll in College in the fall. They were completely supportive.
After getting her GED Haley got a full ride scholarship to Southern Utah University in Cedar City Utah. Cedar City just happened to be the city where the Grimm family (there close friends from California) had moved to. She was excited at first. But as the day for going to school drew near, Haley started having very strong feelings that she needed to stay home. It got so bad she was having anxiety at the thought of leaving. She told her parents that she wanted to postpone leaving for SUU for a semester. They were again supportive.
Not long after she made that decision Haley's mom, Tiffany, became very ill. At first they thought it was asthma, but one day she went to the hospital and they told her she had blood clots in her lungs and part of her left lung had died. The hospital told her dad that this is something people don't get better from. But, miraculously, Tiffany did get better. However, she was still very sick and would be bedridden for the next year. This was quite a big deal since not only did Tiffany need help around the house but they also had a granddaughter living with them while her dad was deployed. Haley stepped in to fill the gap, taking care of her niece, her mom and helping out around the house.
In January, Haley's niece had gone home to live with her dad. The ward and especially Kim Nielson, who used to live in the ward and was a nurse, were taking care of Tiffany, giving her her shots and helping out. So Haley left for SUU and started her college life even though she was still really worried about her mom. She would panic whenever her dad called her, scared that her mom would be in the hospital again. Not only did she have this trauma, but she was having a really hard time adjusting to be alone from home and dealing with roommates. Finally one night she called her dad in tears. He told her to go visit with their friend Bro. Grimm who was serving as a bishop in a student ward in Cedar City.
She went and saw him at his bishop's office. At first he didn't recognize her because she was so grown up but felt sheepish when he realized it was Haley. When she got into the office she burst into tears. He was afraid she was going to tell him she was pregnant! How relieved he was to know the only issue was acute homesickness and college roommate drama. Haley started going over to their house for Sunday dinners and the Grimm’s pulled her through that difficult time. They became extremely close.
As the end of the semester approached and Haley was preparing to go home for the summer Brother Grimm suggested that Haley start writing to their son Daniel on his mission. Haley wasn't too keen on the idea and besides she was already writing to a missionary and feeling pretty serious about him. Still, the Grimms didn't let up, suggesting that writing Daniel was a really good idea since he would be home soon. In fact they went as far as to say she was the last chance to merge their families!
Once home for the summer, however Haley was feeling really bored. She had had knee surgery and couldn't leave the house for a month or so. In July she received the ok to drive herself places. She was dying to get out. She wanted to go back to Cedar to see the friends she had made. When she told her parents this, they weren't too excited to let her drive to Cedar alone. Haley reached down deep and in desperation to get out of the house she said, « Its Daniel's homecoming. I should go down and support him. » With that they relented. Haley had figured out how to work the situation. She didn't want to show up at the homecoming and have the Grimms think she was there to date Daniel, so she took a friend with her to have someone to set Daniel up with. But as Haley sat in the chapel, waiting for Daniel to come in she started getting really, really nervous and anxious to see him. She didn't really understand why. Twice her friend asked her if she were ok. Then the friend asked Haley if she wanted to date Daniel herself. Haley said no. Then Daniel entered the room. They made eye contact and Haley had the strongest feeling, almost like someone were saying it in her ear that she was going to marry Daniel. She looked at her friend at that point and her friend said, « You love him. » After the meeting Daniel gave her a huge hug and it was really different than the 100s of times she had hugged Daniel before. She didn't remember him being so cute before his mission.
When she came home, she told her parents that she was pretty sure she needed to go back down to Cedar City and date/marry Daniel Grimm. So after the summer, she went back down there only to find out that Daniel was already dating someone he had met on his mission in Georgia. The girl had even flown out to Utah on the guise of checking out colleges. Daniel didn't know it, but Haley was mad at him! Still she just started texting him friendly texts.
One day she invited him to hang out with her and her friend. Haley was kind of afraid to be alone with him because she would normally feel very awkward around guys. Daniel came over and it was so easy. They didn't have one uncomfortable pause in the conversation. It was very comfortable. They kept hanging out and combined their group of friends. One night all the group of friends had to go home early but Daniel and Haley stayed by themselves to hang out. This gave him the opportunity to kiss her which he took. She looked at him and said she wasn't in it for playing around. He needed to choose between her and the Georgia girl.
Well the next day he did. He chose Haley. 2 ½ weeks later they said, « Ilove you. » and started talking about marriage. At first they were gong to wait until March to get married, then December, but finally decided on the end of November, 1 month after they started dating they got engaged. They were married and 3 months later Haley found out she was pregnant. Their baby Addie was born just 2 weeks shy of their 1 year anniversary.
Still living in Cedar made it hard for them to make ends meet. With it being such a small town and the jobs going mainly to locals, they couldn't nail down jobs that paid anymore than minimum wage. This led Haley to call her parents wondering what to do, they offered their basement to Haley and Daniel. This was such a blessing to them. They lived with the Youngs for 2 years. After 2 years, Haley and Daniel were feeling secure enough to go out on their own. They rented an apartment in Layton. There were lots of problems with the apartment and then they had a mice infestation. Haley couldn't stand it. That coupled with the fact that she recently found out she was pregnant made them think moving back into the basement at the Youngs was a good idea.
So now they are back in our ward. Daniel will graduate from the University in April, their baby will be born in June and Daniel will leave for officer training with the military in July. He will come back in October and they hope to have an idea of where they will be heading then. Either military bound with the National Guard or maybe continue to work for Wells Fargo.
I asked Haley what's one piece of advice she's learned in her young life. She said, « Follow the promptings you receive. » She said she would never have imagined her life would be where it is right now. Married to Daniel with kids. But its a better life than she planned for herself.
What a joy it was talking to Haley. She is very easy to talk with and enjoyable. I hope you get the chance to get to know her.
Some of the fun things Haley's family did together were attending San Jose Shark hockey games (they are avid hockey fans) and a lot of camping on the California beaches. When they camped in Northern California they would just play on the beach because the water was too cold to get into. They would discover all sorts of fun treasure and over time collected a whole box of sand dollars (Which they recently just found). When they camped in Southern California it was at Pismo Beach. Here they would play in the water and boogie board.
Haley's maternal grandparents lived by them in Fremont but the rest of their extended family lived in Utah. Therefore the Young’s created extended family in their ward. They became extremely close with the Grimm family. They did everything together. They all got along superbly even though the Grimm's kids were a few years older than the Young's girls. They would go camping together and do New Year with them. They ate a lot of Sunday Dinners together and would just hang out enjoying each other's company.
While in California, Haley's parents looked for alternative options to public school. The public schools in California weren't that great. Haley's mom homeschooled a bit but then they found a Christian private school for their daughters to attend. It was a very small school and the faculty and parents and students were very close for example Haley's 5th grade teacher came to her wedding and her dad would golf with the principal.
This ended up being a huge blessing because during her 4th grade year, Haley started having severe stomach issues. The stomach pain was so bad she ended up going to the hospital and staying for weeks and months. She was having all kinds of tests run. At the end, they still weren't sure what was causing it. They said she had all the symptoms of Crohn's disease but it wasn't testing like Crohn's disease so they would just call it that. Over the years of paying attention to what triggers her body into pain, she has been able to control it better by staying away from the triggers. She has also had good luck using essential oils. The school was great in working with Haley and her parents and keeping her up on her school work so that she didn't have to repeat 4th grade.
After living for 9 years in Fremont California, Haley's dad retired from the Military and her family moved to Utah so they could be closer to more extended family. They all moved up to Kaysville East of the freeway in the Hess Farms neighborhood. Haley was 12 years old and entering 7th grade. She of course didn't want to leave her friends. Moving to Kaysville was culture shock for Haley. She missed the diversity of friends that she had in California. She missed how being Mormon gave her a different identity then everyone else and was exciting to tell people. Now she was just like everyone else. She says that was good too however.
After finishing Jr. High at Farmington Jr. High, Haley started at Davis High School. But she didn't enjoy it, especially after her sister graduated. So many of her friends went off with her sister to college and Haley was left at Davis mostly alone. She auditioned for the theater classes and even though she was told her audition was flawless, she didn't make the class. This left her with no motivation to want to stay at Davis. She says she was sitting one day in class and just realized if she had to stay at the school another year, she would be miserable. So that day she went her counselor and got all the paperwork on taking her GED. She came home that night and told her parents she wanted to test out of high school an enroll in College in the fall. They were completely supportive.
After getting her GED Haley got a full ride scholarship to Southern Utah University in Cedar City Utah. Cedar City just happened to be the city where the Grimm family (there close friends from California) had moved to. She was excited at first. But as the day for going to school drew near, Haley started having very strong feelings that she needed to stay home. It got so bad she was having anxiety at the thought of leaving. She told her parents that she wanted to postpone leaving for SUU for a semester. They were again supportive.
Not long after she made that decision Haley's mom, Tiffany, became very ill. At first they thought it was asthma, but one day she went to the hospital and they told her she had blood clots in her lungs and part of her left lung had died. The hospital told her dad that this is something people don't get better from. But, miraculously, Tiffany did get better. However, she was still very sick and would be bedridden for the next year. This was quite a big deal since not only did Tiffany need help around the house but they also had a granddaughter living with them while her dad was deployed. Haley stepped in to fill the gap, taking care of her niece, her mom and helping out around the house.
In January, Haley's niece had gone home to live with her dad. The ward and especially Kim Nielson, who used to live in the ward and was a nurse, were taking care of Tiffany, giving her her shots and helping out. So Haley left for SUU and started her college life even though she was still really worried about her mom. She would panic whenever her dad called her, scared that her mom would be in the hospital again. Not only did she have this trauma, but she was having a really hard time adjusting to be alone from home and dealing with roommates. Finally one night she called her dad in tears. He told her to go visit with their friend Bro. Grimm who was serving as a bishop in a student ward in Cedar City.
She went and saw him at his bishop's office. At first he didn't recognize her because she was so grown up but felt sheepish when he realized it was Haley. When she got into the office she burst into tears. He was afraid she was going to tell him she was pregnant! How relieved he was to know the only issue was acute homesickness and college roommate drama. Haley started going over to their house for Sunday dinners and the Grimm’s pulled her through that difficult time. They became extremely close.
As the end of the semester approached and Haley was preparing to go home for the summer Brother Grimm suggested that Haley start writing to their son Daniel on his mission. Haley wasn't too keen on the idea and besides she was already writing to a missionary and feeling pretty serious about him. Still, the Grimms didn't let up, suggesting that writing Daniel was a really good idea since he would be home soon. In fact they went as far as to say she was the last chance to merge their families!
Once home for the summer, however Haley was feeling really bored. She had had knee surgery and couldn't leave the house for a month or so. In July she received the ok to drive herself places. She was dying to get out. She wanted to go back to Cedar to see the friends she had made. When she told her parents this, they weren't too excited to let her drive to Cedar alone. Haley reached down deep and in desperation to get out of the house she said, « Its Daniel's homecoming. I should go down and support him. » With that they relented. Haley had figured out how to work the situation. She didn't want to show up at the homecoming and have the Grimms think she was there to date Daniel, so she took a friend with her to have someone to set Daniel up with. But as Haley sat in the chapel, waiting for Daniel to come in she started getting really, really nervous and anxious to see him. She didn't really understand why. Twice her friend asked her if she were ok. Then the friend asked Haley if she wanted to date Daniel herself. Haley said no. Then Daniel entered the room. They made eye contact and Haley had the strongest feeling, almost like someone were saying it in her ear that she was going to marry Daniel. She looked at her friend at that point and her friend said, « You love him. » After the meeting Daniel gave her a huge hug and it was really different than the 100s of times she had hugged Daniel before. She didn't remember him being so cute before his mission.
When she came home, she told her parents that she was pretty sure she needed to go back down to Cedar City and date/marry Daniel Grimm. So after the summer, she went back down there only to find out that Daniel was already dating someone he had met on his mission in Georgia. The girl had even flown out to Utah on the guise of checking out colleges. Daniel didn't know it, but Haley was mad at him! Still she just started texting him friendly texts.
One day she invited him to hang out with her and her friend. Haley was kind of afraid to be alone with him because she would normally feel very awkward around guys. Daniel came over and it was so easy. They didn't have one uncomfortable pause in the conversation. It was very comfortable. They kept hanging out and combined their group of friends. One night all the group of friends had to go home early but Daniel and Haley stayed by themselves to hang out. This gave him the opportunity to kiss her which he took. She looked at him and said she wasn't in it for playing around. He needed to choose between her and the Georgia girl.
Well the next day he did. He chose Haley. 2 ½ weeks later they said, « Ilove you. » and started talking about marriage. At first they were gong to wait until March to get married, then December, but finally decided on the end of November, 1 month after they started dating they got engaged. They were married and 3 months later Haley found out she was pregnant. Their baby Addie was born just 2 weeks shy of their 1 year anniversary.
Still living in Cedar made it hard for them to make ends meet. With it being such a small town and the jobs going mainly to locals, they couldn't nail down jobs that paid anymore than minimum wage. This led Haley to call her parents wondering what to do, they offered their basement to Haley and Daniel. This was such a blessing to them. They lived with the Youngs for 2 years. After 2 years, Haley and Daniel were feeling secure enough to go out on their own. They rented an apartment in Layton. There were lots of problems with the apartment and then they had a mice infestation. Haley couldn't stand it. That coupled with the fact that she recently found out she was pregnant made them think moving back into the basement at the Youngs was a good idea.
So now they are back in our ward. Daniel will graduate from the University in April, their baby will be born in June and Daniel will leave for officer training with the military in July. He will come back in October and they hope to have an idea of where they will be heading then. Either military bound with the National Guard or maybe continue to work for Wells Fargo.
I asked Haley what's one piece of advice she's learned in her young life. She said, « Follow the promptings you receive. » She said she would never have imagined her life would be where it is right now. Married to Daniel with kids. But its a better life than she planned for herself.
What a joy it was talking to Haley. She is very easy to talk with and enjoyable. I hope you get the chance to get to know her.
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