For six-plus years, Ashley Harvey has been forced to take things one day at a time. From the moment doctors told her at her 22-week ultrasound that her son, Asher, would be born with a heart anomaly, she and Asher's father, Evan, put their focus and attention on the day and hours directly in front of them.

"You really, you can't take anything for granted," she said, shaking her head as she tries to encapsulate six years of impossible lessons into one piece of advice.

"You have to celebrate one good day, and if something doesn't go well, then that's OK. It's one day, and then there's another one that comes after that. So I think that what helped me was just keeping one foot in front of the other and just focusing on getting to that next place."

Friday was a good day.

When the Harvey family first found out Asher qualified as a Make-A-Wish participant, the Mooresville, N.C. native's request was simple.

"I want to go to a Carolina Panthers game."

His parents, both North Carolina natives themselves, have been Panthers fans most of their lives. After Asher discovered football last year, he grew to love watching games on Sundays, especially seeing the stadium from above. As he stood on the field Friday night, finally taking it all in, his eyes constantly flicked upward, scanning the skyline.

"Where are the drones?" he finally asked.

The drones?

"That show it on TV," he replied, because that's the only way he's ever known this stadium before.

But back to the initial Make-A-Wish request. After his simple ask, his parents and the Make-A-Wish foundation tried to explain, you can do so much more than just attend a game. What is your greatest wish?

So, he dug a little deeper, looking into what his mom calls his "special heart," and really thought about what he most wanted to do in the world.

"I want to meet Bryce Young and Sir Purr," he landed on, something he recounted Friday night in the locker room, loud enough to draw a smile from Young in the locker next to Asher's.

Once Asher settled on that wish, Make-A-Wish got to work.

The Harveys, mom, dad, and sister Emory, first came by the stadium Thursday for a preview tour with team historian David Monroe. In the team archives, Asher got to try on a Greg Olsen game-worn jersey and gloves, a special moment for a family of Panthers' fans, made even more special by all the Olsen family and their charitable work has come to mean to the Harvey family.

Asher's heart anomaly is called tricuspid atresia, the transposition of the great arteries, and a coarctation of his aorta.

"For lack of a better term, he essentially only has half of the heart," explained Ashley. "His heart has to work a little bit differently in order to pump blood through the rest of his body."

That meant an open-heart surgery at six days old with another planned at six months old, though the latter was postponed due to COVID-19. He would go on to have another at four years old. The initial window between the surgery at six days old and six months old, though, can be the most trying time for a family, something with which the Olsens are familiar.

Olsen's son, TJ, was born with a congenital heart condition that required multiple surgeries in his early days and eventually a transplant, something Asher will one day have to undergo as well. As a result, Greg and his wife Kara founded “The HEARTest Yard,” partnering with Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte to assist families walking the same treacherous path they did.

That assistance was a godsend for the Harveys in the early days of Asher's life, by providing nursing care in the home. Ashley and Evan have a daughter, Emory, who is two years older than Asher, but as Ashley explains, Asher's situation "was like being a new mom all over again."

The HEARTest Yard helped alleviate some of that uncertainty.

"We had so much support and so much preparation so that when he was born, we would be able to have a little bit less worry and hopefully have a cleaner, smoother, less bumpy ride to figure out what we needed to do for him," shared Ashley.

"When he was little, when he had just come home, there was that stage between being a 1-month-old baby and having 6-month surgery, and that was very frightening because his oxygen saturations could drop at the drop of a hat for anything. If he got a cold or if there was some sort of restriction in his airways, it could be very dangerous for him.

"It was nice to know that there was a medical professional who was there with me….it was mostly for the support and the peace of mind of knowing that that person was there."

So, understandably, having that moment in Olsen's jersey felt full-circle.

It also helped that they were just a short drive from Levine's Children's Hospital, the place they would've have trusted their son to regardless. But they had the luxury of doing so from home.

"I tell everyone that this was, obviously, very unexpected. This is not a path that anybody wants to walk down, but if we had to be somewhere, we were here and we were so close to the hospital," said Ashley.

"I think that the quality of care that the Children's Hospital offers is incredible, and it's very, it was just a great place to have to experience something that was really hard."

On Friday, when it was time to return to the stadium, Sir Purr was waiting at the players' arrival gate, the only fitting entrance for Asher's day. It immediately provided a balm to the emotions and adrenaline that were weighing down on young Asher.

Once inside, general manager Dan Morgan was waiting in the signing room to meet his new player and put pen to paper, making it official. Asher took his time, carefully writing each letter of his name on the all-important contract, in the way only a kid who's recently learned how to spell their name can do. Morgan was patient, waiting with his "signing bonus" and basket of goodies when all was said and done.

It was then time to head downstairs and meet his team.

Canales was waiting for him in the football hallway, promising players would be coming shortly after.

"Even Bryce Young?" Asher quietly asked.

"Yeah," Canales laughed. "Even Bryce."

When Young came down the hallway a moment later, spotting Asher at the door to the meeting room, the quarterback circled, ensuring he could meet his new friend face-to-face.

Asher glanced up, and his eyes widened; his breath caught. This was what he had been waiting for all day, all week, for months even. He threw his short arms around Young's waist, squeezing tight, without a moment's hesitation or a single word.

Though nothing needed to be said that wasn't relayed in that hug.

From there, Young had Asher join him in the team meeting and the subsequent offensive meeting, where the new QB got to learn some of the hand signals used in games. He attended the quarterback meeting where he drew up his play for the day, and shot hoops with all the passers. It's their favorite thing to do in their downtime, something Asher could relate to, as he and his dad do the same.

"It's been an incredible journey to see him develop," reflected Evan. "When we first found out, I don't know if it's just being a parent or being a father, I think one of the things that I asked in the consultation with the doctor was, is he going to be able to play, is he going to be able to play sports? Because you just don't really know what you're getting into.

"But to see him from birth to growing and going through surgeries and to get to this point in life where, yeah, he's amazing at all things, actively, in the backyard playing sports, he picks everything up very quickly. It's been incredible to see him kind of come into his own, and knowing that he's just going to continue to do that."

After he made a couple of baskets, effectively beating Young and Pickett in that game of pick-up, they asked if he was ready to go to the locker room. He was all too happy to follow along, throwing a "bye" over his shoulder to his parents, but not a second glance, leaving them both laughing through happy tears.

Asher was getting his wish, and they were getting theirs; to watch their son thrive despite it all.

"So many of these kids, all they know about whatever their medical condition is, is sad and heavy and frustrating and lonely," dwelled Ashley. "Asher, he loves to run, but he just can't run like everybody else. He would love to play football, but as he grows, his ability to keep up with his peers is just not going to be there.

"So to be able to have this thing be a part of his memory, and we get to do it because his heart is special, it's different than everybody else's, but because of that, we get to have this experience," she trailed off.

Added Evan, of what his son has taught him with his fierce independence and zest, "Even with limits, you're not limited. I feel like, with his heart and the things that he's gone through in his life, he doesn't seem fazed. He doesn't think back to those moments; he doesn't let that hold him back.

"I think that's where we live with our joy, is all of those first moments for him."

Once in the locker room, Asher came alive.

He received his helmet and gloves from equipment and dabbed once they were on. He high-fived all the defensive backs and boldly told Jaycee Horn he was going to score on the Pro Bowler. He signed trading cards and exchanged his own with players like Derrick Brown and Tetairoa McMillan.

He toted around a football to have everyone sign, and when Isaiah Simmons gladly told him "anything for you," he considered Robert Hunt's advice to now, "ask him for $100 then Asher."

He requested to wear No. 26 moving forward, to which Chau Smith-Wade happily told him, "Sure, man. You're the vet, you get the number."

And he stayed glued to Young and Pickett's side whenever they were near. They helped him dress, checked the straps on his pads, and ensured he was comfortable and calm. And when it was time, they made sure he led the group through the tunnel and to the field. From there, he was able to handle things on his own.

Asher shot out of the tunnel and was to the logo, playing to the crowd, before the rest of the quarterbacks caught up. He circled the sidelines at full speed with the exuberance of every six-year-old, played catch with Young and Luke Fortner, high-fived his parents, and didn't stop until a crowd of fans asked him for an autograph.

Everything he did was at full speed, refusing to live any other way.

"Asher has taught me that it doesn't matter what happens to you," preached Ashley. "It doesn't matter the things that other people may look at you and think are restrictions or hardships. What matters is how you move through life because that kid is unstoppable, and I don't know what he'll end up doing, but whatever he does, he does it with all of who he is.

"Whatever that happens to look like, he doesn't let his physical limitations hold him back, and he asks questions, and he wants to know things, and what that has taught me is that really, it's the mindset that you carry that impacts the way that something affects you for the long term."

Because while his heart might have to work twice as hard, it also gives him twice the spirit, twice the gumption, twice the, well, heart.

With just under two minutes remaining in the Fan Fest "game," Asher started to get ready. He hopped off the bench, made his way to the sideline, and waited for his moment, hyping up the crowd one last time on the Jumbotron. Jonathon Brooks and Chuba Hubbard stepped over, coaching him through celebrations and how to take a handoff. Then, run game coordinator Harold Goodwin turned and pointed.

The message was clear. We want you.

He lined up to Young's left hip, blockers in front of him and the end zone in sight. There were three possible lanes on the play, but Asher has spent six years running wide open, never afforded the easiest route. That didn't change on his first touchdown scored in an NFL stadium.

"It was an automatic touchdown," scoffed Canales in his post-practice press conference, praising Asher for his "speed" to get around the defense. "They couldn't touch him, so he walked it in there, and it was a really special moment after a really nice drive by Kenny and the group.

"Did you see the explosion? He bounced it to the left, saw another angle. He had three holes he could have scored in on that play, but he picked option number three and punched it in there."

Jaelan Phillips scooped up Asher in the midst of the celebration, lifting him high above the raucous melee so he could fully soak in the moment. After he put Asher down, though, it took but a second for him to squeak out between the legs of those around him and take off once again.

He sprinted down the field, eating up yards, dancing for the cameras, flipping across the Panthers logo at midfield.

"Look at him go," laughed Pickett, pointing to the screen as he and Young stopped just to take it in together.

Look at him go indeed; at that point it was impossible to look away. Because after he slowed enough to face back towards the camera, Asher moved on to a part of his celebration dance that he'd only added once on the field, almost as if on instinct after seeing players do it a thousand times before on TV, banging his little fists on his little chest, beating a bass line right over his big heart.

It mirrored the steady (and perhaps erratic in that moment) beat that served as a reminder: despite all the surgeries and worries, long days and longer nights, uncertainty and hours of research, in that moment — on his perfect day — Asher was not only alive; he was living.