Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Cards for Heather....

Last week a dear friend of mine, Cindy, told me about a little girl at her church who has Ewing's Sarcoma (cancer)....she is 11 and her name is Heather. She is at the end stages of this fight for her life....with limited activities one of her highlights of her day is getting mail. The plan is to send cards to Heather...cards from all over. She wishes that she could visit other places, but its not going to happen. She doesn't know that the end for her is soon.



I sat down and told the kids about Heather and her fight to live. I want them to see that sometimes, even Children of God are taken from their family way too soon. I wanted them to think about the bigger picture. I think that we all sometimes get caught up in our every day life, and all its complaints, and forget that there are people out there who are hurting way more than us. Makes our little every day complaints seem senseless. I wanted to be able to remind them of Heather when they are arguing with their sibling...when they are complaining about washing the dinner dishes and homework....and even those days when they think that they hate their parents.

It was hard for them to sit down and write to Heather. I didn't prompt them and let them say what was laid upon their hearts. I asked if I could share their words with you and they agreed. The following is what Alexandria had to say:
Hi my name is Alexandria. I am 12 years old. I am from Texas. Kyle Texas to be exact. You have inspired me so much. I hope you get to feeling better. Keep fighting. I believe in you. I will do my best to spread the word and hope that you get tons of cards. I am praying for you. I wish you the best.


Andrews card read: Hi I'm Andrew from Kyle, Texas and I'm 9 years old. I saw your pictures and noticed you like hunting, guess what I like hunting too!!! That buck is big, even my Dad says it is. I'm sorry that you are sick. My mom has told me about you and you are very strong and brave. I hope God can wrap His arms around you.


Zachary's card read: I wish that you feel better. I am sorry that you feel bad. I am praying that you feel good. From Zachary. I am 6 (his 6 was backwards)


Lessons learned? After the kids were all done making their cards and after we had eaten dinner I asked them what this project meant to them.

Alexandria said:
Make a difference...to encourage people to help other people...even people they don't know. That no matter if you know someone or not you should still try to help so they can feel like someone is appreciating them. I learned that things can change in the blink of an eye. Even one card can make someone's day.

Andrew said: Life can always change and we should treat each other nicer. It made me feel that I need to treat Lex and Zach better because I can never take back something hurtful after I have said it. When things aren't going my way I will think of Heather and how she is suffering from cancer and that she is going to soon die. It made it think that I need to treat people nicer because some day they are going to die and I can't take back the bad things that I have done to someone. Heather made me think that I should respect people and that I need to respect people. Heather is a fighter who has not given up.


This was hard for Zachary to understand....It makes me think about everything that has happened to me...meaning like...I don't want anyone to die. And it makes me sad what she is trying to fit in for the last of her lifetime. It makes me think about my brother and sister and when we fight it makes me sad because they are fighting so much...it makes me sad. It taught me that life changes very fastly...and she is a young age to die.

Alexandria texted several of her friends who are making cards tonight and bringing them to school with them tomorrow. She is so excited to be able to send even more cards to Heather. Here are the cards that the kids made....Daddy picked out a special FROG to send to Heather. Heather loves frogs....but even more loves the saying Fully Rely On God....


Thursday, January 21, 2010

A little bit of catching up to do…


Well here we are....the beginning of another year.  I thought that this would be the best time to start our family blog....I have had intensions of starting a family blog for well over a year just never took the time to do it. So I'll catch you all up in the happenings of the Collins' family.
PhotobucketAlexandria turned 12 in September. She is in the 6th grade and is doing better than we could have hoped for! 5th grade seemed to be somewhat of a struggle for her and we were dreading a new school year….but she has turned it around and made A/B Honor roll all year long! She is playing trombone in the band and has made it all the way to FIRST chair!! Her band director pulled her aside and told her that he sees so much potential in her and that she could really go far with this…he is encouraging her to take some private lessons. We are sooo proud of her!


Photobucket

Andrew is 9 and in the 4th grade. He is still a whiz in math and enjoys challenging himself to math that Alexandria is doing. He is still interested in paleontology and is also showing some interest in archeology. He applied and was accepted to the Robotics club and looks forward to every Monday's club meeting. One of the leaders said that see an engineer in the making!! He hasn't played ball since last fall….we took a break to go to Disney this past summer and he hasn't begged to go back so for now its just Robotics.

Photobucket

Zachary will be 6 tomorrow! I can't believe how quickly time has flown! He is enjoying Kindergarten and is reading! He has become quite the ladies man….he HAS to have his hair done just right each morning and must must must put his cologne on as well. He has a few gals that are his "girlfriends"…one is Sophie (she has been his love since he was 2) and Zoe (she is in his class and he is quite smitten with her as well).

We added some chickens to our family last fall…we have 1 rooster named Rocky and 6 hens. The hens don't have any names….we just call them all "ladies". Having Rocky crow every morning is a great reminder that I am blessed to be living in my family home. It was built by my great grandfather in 1920 and we are so proud to call this home!

Photobucket


Photobucket