Christmas Newsletter

The Collins Courier

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  Once again, this year's Christmas card is electronic via the family blog in order to save a dime or two.

2012 Year in Review
This was another big year for us.  The highs were really high and the lows were pretty darn low.

After a year on the market, our house in Nebraska sold in March!  With our adoption nearing the end at that point, we begged the buyers for a 60-day closing so that we wouldn't have to change any of our adoption paperwork, delaying our daughter any further.  They were more than happy to oblige.  I had to head home from California for a required adoption homestudy update meeting and while there, my mom and stepdad drove out from Chicago and helped me pack up the house in a whirlwind 2 days!

So long, Nebraska!

Unfortunately, mid-April brought horrifying, unexpected news.  Just one year after joining the staff of a small church in the Sacramento area, Jay was dismissed from his role as Associate Pastor.  The timing was horrible (as if there's ever good timing for those things)!  We were living with our 3rd host family out in CA, enjoying their trailer on their gorgeous, peaceful ranch.  We had been looking at houses and we had found "the one" for us in the most desirable neighborhood in town, with the best schools, near our best friends, for a phenomenal price and we would have put an offer on it that weekend.  Instead, I had to call the day before our scheduled appointment and tell the realtor what happened with Jay's job and that we had to decline the showing (and offer) we planned.  Tears flowed for days and weeks.  We were so hurt and just crushed.  We had been through this before and never expected to be living it again.

While Jay began job hunting, I was planning my trip to China to pick up our Quiet Tiger.  Thankfully, Jay's employer agreed to keep him on the payroll until she came home so we didn't have to change any of our paperwork.  But we had a big problem... we had no home to bring her home to and living in a trailer on our friend's property wouldn't meet the international adoption agreements we had signed with our social worker.

So, we packed up the little we had in California, while our home in Nebraska was packed up into a storage unit in Lincoln by friends and we started a long 3 day drive to Texas.  Why Texas?  Well, we had to provide a stable home for L, complete with her own bedroom as part of the adoption agreements.  We couldn't do that anywhere else other than my mother-in-law's winter home.  It's a 3 bedroom condo in a resort community and since she was spending her summer at her summer home in Wisconsin, the condo was available to us.  So, we drove from Northern California, stopped at the Grand Canyon the first night, then made it to Albuquerque the second night and then finally to Horseshoe Bay on the third evening.  There was no time for sleep.  We unpacked and set up house for 5 quick days before I flew off to China, leaving Jay and the boys at the condo in Texas!  It was physically and emotionally exhausting.

Family picture at the Grand Canyon - May 2012

One of my friends whom I've known since preschool offered me the use of a travel voucher to fly from Texas back to California since my flight to China was already booked and couldn't be changed.  Thank you, Kimberly!  You have no idea how that served us!!!  I spent 1 night with a friend from high school in the Bay Area (thank you Margaret - what a fun night!) and flew out to China the next day.  Feel free to go back and read my China posts by clicking here.

L on Gotcha Day in Xi'an, Shaanxi China - May 29, 2012

Jay was busy sending out resumes, taking phone interviews and networking feverishly.  Yet when I came home from China, he was still unemployed and the last paycheck rolled in and we lost our health and dental insurance.   The amazing adoption community surrounded us during those first few weeks home and helped us raise funds to pay for our first post placement report for China.  I love how God provides "just enough" exactly when we need it.  He's just like that.  My sincerest thanks goes out to all you amazing Winter DTC/Safe Haven friends for supporting us in our time of great need.  I want to forever pay it forward in honor of your generosity!  What an amazing community.  I love you all!!!!!

Our first picture as a family of 5 - L's Homecoming June 7, 2012

We spent the summer staying in, not spending any money, bonding with L, playing with the boys, swimming in the condo pool and occasionally seeing Jay's aunt and uncle who have a lake house nearby.  No ministry jobs could be found and Jay ended up making a drastic career change.  He has now finished his training courses and is employed with Edward Jones as a financial advisor.  Feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance in your investments.  He can help anyone across the country.

Swimming at Aunt Patti's community pool.

I enrolled both boys in public school near the condo, C in 4th grade and E in kindergarten.  Just days before school started I learned that their day would be extremely long, boarding the bus at 6:30am and not returning home until 4:15pm.  While I trusted my 4th grader would be able to handle it, I didn't like the fact that he'd be gone so long and would be coming home with at least an hour or 2 of homework each night.  And surely, I thought that such a long day would be too much on my 5 year old.  So, within about 24 hours, after speaking with a half dozen friends for their input, we made the decision to home school.  Two of my best friends offered curriculum for me to borrow and shipped them to me.  I have to say that I absolutely love home schooling!  We're hoping to be able to budget for it and to continue to home school through elementary school.  Then we'll see about junior high.

Home school is in session at the condo - August 2012

Early this fall we battled the home buying process as we needed to get out of the condo so that my mother-in-law could return to Texas for the winter.  We found a great house an hour and 45 minutes away in San Antonio where Jay's office would be, only to find out that the home was in a flood plain.  We let that house go and immediately found another home and placed an offer.  Unfortunately, the home buying process is a nightmare these days following the housing crisis and new fair housing laws which hardly treated us fairly at all.  It took us well over 30 days to close on the property, but on November 15th we finally closed and moved in.  We camped in sleeping bags for a couple weeks before our stuff arrived from Nebraska (we had left it there since we didn't know where Jay would end up finding a job - no sense in moving it to Texas if he ended up getting a job elsewhere).  Thanks to Scott and Hannah for arranging a crew to load up the storage container and see it off!

Hello, Texas.  Our new home!

Thanks to new friends from Oak Hills Church, our new church home, a team of volunteers was here helping us move furniture over the course of 2 evenings because Jay was conveniently out of town for his official Edward Jones graduation and final training.  It was such a gift and I can never thank Mary and Jorge and all our new friends enough!  We are looking forward to simply attending church once again and not having to work each Sunday and every holiday.

For Christmas we will be here just enjoying the simple pleasure of HOME!  We certainly pray that 2013 will bring us out of the drama we've been living and we'll start to feel some peace and security again.  Thanks to those of you who have been faithful friends and have stuck by us through thick and thin!  There are so many of you I want to name, but if you stop by my blog regularly, then this includes YOU!

C's Column (now written by Super C himself)

This year has been fun but a little crazy!  Living in other peoples' houses, moving to Texas, buying a house in San Antonio -- it has been awesome.

My favorite things in California were apple picking with my friends at Apple Hill, going to see the Bay and the ocean in San Francisco, visiting the huge Redwood trees and going through a corn maze with more friends.  I went to Awana and every year there is an Awana Grand Prix.  It's a pinewood derby race where you get to make your own car.  I based my car on the Lego Ninjago character Sensei Wu and I won TNT People's Choice Award.

C in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jay and Super C with his award winning derby car.

I was sad to leave California because I had made many friends there and I didn't want to leave.  My best friend at school was Jacob and my best friend at church was Ethan L.

The Grand Canyon was fun to see.  We had to bring our dogs on leashes and our guinea pig in a bag because we couldn't leave them in the car since it was too hot.  That was pretty funny!  I loved seeing the river at the bottom of the gigantic hole in the ground.

I loved seeing my sister for the very first time.  I remember when dad, E and I went upstairs to meet mom and L at the airport but she came down the elevator instead because she had L in the stroller!  E and I made signs and other people who were welcoming L home made more signs.  I really missed my mom and we were waiting so long to see L.

C meeting his baby sister for the very first time at the airport.

One of my favorite things to do over the summer was to go tubing with my cousins on the lake Aunt Patti lives on.  I got dunked off a few times and my cousin always jumped off with me.  I turned 9 in September and my dad made me 9 balloon animals and I got Legos, a Webkinz walrus and some Hot Wheels cars.  Our new house is great!  In the summer I'm going to jump in the pool!  I really liked seeing all of my toys and bunk bed after over a year.  We got our Wii hooked up and E and I have had fun.  Home school is really fun too.  I loved learning about parrots and other birds in science.  Things have been great around here.  We are so glad to have our stuff back.

Merry Christmas to you all.  From, C.

Super C - age 9 - enjoying tennis at the condo for PE

E's Column

Kids are resilient, but I think this past year of living like nomads has been tough on E in a way he can't verbalize.  My sweet 5 year old seemed to cling to me more than usual this last year.  His world was rocked and the only security he found was in mom and dad.  I'm proud of him for putting up with such craziness and I wish it could have been different.

My and my 5 year old on his birthday in the trailer in CA.

In California, Super E enjoyed Awana and his pinewood derby car won the Best Design Award for his Cubbies Division earning him his first trophy!  I cried such happy tears at that Awana event because he really, really deserved something amazing, fantastic for pushing through all our family drama.  He turned 5 at the end of April and we celebrated very quietly at our 3rd host family's ranch before we left California.  Leaving California was hard for him because I think he really had his first set of friends that were all his own while we lived there.

Jay and E with his first trophy for Awana Cubbies Best Design - Tiger Car

E did great while I was in China for 2 weeks.  I worried about him so!  He has a bit of a strained relationship with his baby sister.  At times he really seems to enjoy playing with L, but 90% of the time, there is a good sized animosity between the two.  It's like my brother Darin and I.  I've told my mom that this is all payback and I owe my brother a 25 page apology letter for being an annoying baby sister.    I pray that these two littles will grow to love one another dearly.

E and L playing in a fort at Grandma's condo.

E enjoyed our summer at grandma's condo but he's not a fan of tubing behind the wave runners at Aunt Patti's lake house.  A speed demon he is not!  He'd much rather ride on the boat.  He became a fantastic swimmer overnight since we were in the pool every day.  He can swim anywhere and no longer needs a life jacket, pool noodle or an adult within arms reach.  He's a fish!  He'll even dive to the bottom for a pool toy.  He's my athletic one and really enjoyed getting into tennis this fall.  The tennis courts were just a few doors down from the condo and my mom bought the boys some racquets so we could do some PE during home school.  He has a really good backhand!

Super E enjoying tennis 

For school, he loves science and math.  He finished the first of two math books early in November, long before the end of the semester.  He has great handwriting!  Learning to spell is helping him learn to read.  That feels a little backwards to me, but it really helps him.  I think for the most part, he just needs to find confidence in reading.  He's left handed and I think that has something to do with it too because he still mixes his "b's" and "d's" and often times spells words completely backwards, but he's learning and I love teaching him!


L's Column

It's hard to put into words what it's like to finally have L home after a 3 year long adoption filled with ups and downs, twists and turns that made us sick to our stomachs.  But she's home!  She's no longer in an orphanage.  She has a mom, a dad, 2 big brothers, 2 dogs, a guinea pig, a new house, tons of toys.  She is loved!

L turned 2 here in Texas and my mom was able to fly down from Chicago to celebrate with us!  Words have exploded from our baby girl's mouth and she understands everything we are saying and expresses more and more each day.  She is a sweet girl who is quick to give me or Jay a hug or a kiss.  She loves her baba (Chinese for daddy) and her oldest brother C.  She has strong jealousy other big brother E.  She loves her dogs, likes to be tickled, loves to swim, she's obsessed with stickers.  She's a naughty little thing too!  She's pretty much a typical 2 year old.  A good word to describe L is "determined."  Since she was born with 1 full hand and another hand that is missing most of her palm and all 5 digits, she will sit longer and with more patience than any 2-handed 2 year old would do to complete a task requiring fine motor skills of both hands.  She's certainly a one-handed wonder!

Grammie (my mom) and L on her 2nd birthday.

For 3 years we've hung stockings at Christmas, always with 1 unclaimed for the daughter we were praying for.  This year she's home!  She's seen her first Independence Day, her first Halloween, her first Thanksgiving and now her first Christmas!  On Christmas morning, I'll see my daughter scooting down the stairs to see the gifts, the stocking, the wonder and spirit of Christmas and she'll be with us as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  What a dream come true!  If you've been by my blog long enough, you'll get sick of me saying this.  But I can never thank those of you who helped bring L home enough!  From your financial donations, your prayers, your words of support, we couldn't have done any of this without you!

L playing toys at the new house before furniture arrived.

We hope this Christmas will bring you joy and peace, wrapped in the love of our Savior!  And we pray for His blessings to fall upon you in 2013.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Oh come let us adore Him.  Christ the Lord!