Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2019!
Merry Christmas!
It’s hard to believe 2018 is coming to an end and it’s
already 2019! It’s been quite an
eventful year. We are blessed more than
we deserve and grateful for so many friends, family, and community that enrich
our lives daily.
Dale’s been the rock of our family this last year. He balances quite the array of chaos on a day
to day basis. I’m spoiled by his service
to our family, making sure grocery shopping is done, kids are off to various
activities, Noah is taken care of, meals are made, coffee is brewed, and my gas
tank is full. He accomplishes all this while
running the photography business, working for The Great Hunt for God, and
working for Praise Church. He gets up
each weekday to work out and runs a Men’s Bible Study and continues to mentor
young adults through the One80 Ministry for Young Adults.
I’m still healing from our auto accident from Fall
2017. I’ve had several MRI’s,
ultrasounds, and blood tests over the last year and I am hoping that the pain
and numbness will go away and that I will get my energy back. This last Fall I enrolled in college,
again. It’s been over 20 years since I
last attended college. I figure it’s a
great time to finish what I started so long ago.
Hayley has been dealing with moderate to severe knee pain
over the last 6 years. This year, she
tried Physical Therapy, home care, and a cortisone shot, and still experienced
quite a bit of discomfort. With her
upcoming trip to Slovakia through YWAM, she didn’t want to end up in another
country in complete pain. After a lot of
prayers, she was able to get into the surgeons schedule and had surgery on the
21st of December. The surgeon
is confident that Hayley will recover in time to leave for Slovakia. She will be working at the Wings and Waves
Water Park until she leaves, January 18th. Hayley has worked very hard to raise the
money she needs for the trip. She is
still raising money to cover the costs of tuition, living expenses, travel fees
and insurance to attend the University of the Nations in Slovakia from January
20-July 8. If you would like to learn
more you can visit the website here. If you would like to make a contribution
towards the expenses of her trip, you can do so with the Paypal link here
.
Hannah is a senior in High School! I know it’s crazy, right? She has had quite the eventful year as
well. She went to Costa Rica on a
mission trip in August and started a new job at Wings and Waves, working in the
back of the house, cooking. She started
guitar lessons in the Spring and launched her Instagram page for
Hannahcollvercakes, which showcases all her delicious creations. She put together an amazing dessert for The
Great Hunt for God’s Annual Banquet in October, raising $150. Hannah is in Advanced Women’s Ensemble and
Advanced Choir and continues to volunteer at Church on the Hill in the children’s
department. She’s currently practicing for
her first High School Play which debuts in January. She’s really looking forward to graduation
and has applied to work at Tadmor Christian Camp this Summer.
Hayden started high school!
I have pinched myself a few times and it appears that she really is old
enough to be in High School. She is in
the AVID program. More information can
be found here. Hayden played Volleyball in the Fall,
improving her skills and was recognized for being a great encourager and having
amazing team spirit. She really helps
out a lot at home and takes care of Noah for extra cash. She’s looking forward to getting her permit
this Summer and saving enough money for Summer camp.
Noah is officially a Collver! He’s such a sweet addition to our
family. While he has been part of it for
nearly his entire 5 ½ years of life, we are all so relieved to move past the
constant DHS presence, court cases and unknowns. Noah is attending a preschool class where he
is learning everything he needs to know about school life in a very small group
of children and has one of the very best teachers we have ever known. He’s learning so much and impresses us
daily. He will certainly be ready for
Kindergarten next Fall. We feel so
blessed to have this opportunity for him this year. He loves attending POCO music at the Humlie
School of Music. He finally had much
needed dental work done a few months ago, which left him with 2 gaps in his
mouth and a love for the song “All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth”. He’s grown so much, it’s hard to keep
up. His dream is to become an Astronaut,
Firefighter and a dad.
As a whole, our family is incredibly blessed with the love
and friendship of those around us. This
last year has been packed full of adventure, closure, new beginnings and so
much more. We were fortunate enough to
take some time off to visit very dear friends in Baker City, OR, Hayden, ID,
and Bend, OR. What a blessing to visit
and enjoy the great company of friends. We
started a remodel of our kitchen in the Fall, which included an upgrade to our bathroom
and some work throughout the home. It’s
not complete, yet, but we look forward to a day very soon that we can open up
our home to sweet gatherings that bring us closer to our guests and create
memories to last a lifetime. This New
Year will bring new life to the One80 group and we are both very excited to
host the group in our home. We’ll be
hosting a graduation party for Hannah before she heads off to camp. We’d love to hear from you this year, share a
coffee or a meal and visit. Sometimes it’s
really easy to get in the habit of waking up and doing the day to day tasks and
before we know it, we are wrapping up the year and looking forward to the
next. Our hope and prayer is that this
year we will be more intentional in meeting with friends and family and finding
ways to express our gratitude.
May your home be richly blessed in this New Year,
The Collver’s
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