Jaxon's Home

hey all! here's a few pictures of Jaxon and us....we are all home now and doing great. Things are going pretty smooth - feeding is finally going well and Jaxon sleeps really good between feedings. Speaking of feedings, I have to go because jax is hungry!!! I'll write more details later. Oh yeah, click here to see more pictures. They're on our Facebook page and you can see them even if you don't have Facebook.











he sleeps with his arm up just like his daddy :)


so far he likes the sling! :)




finally going home!!!

Jaxon Daniel Collins

Well here it goes. I don't ever do this blog thing, but I am going to give it a try for my wonderful wife. She and I would like to introduce you to our son - Jaxon Daniel Collins. He was born today at Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie at 9:01 am. He weighed in at 8lbs, 8oz and he is almost 22 inches long. He's healthy and doing extremely well. Mom is doing well and recovering well. We feel extremely blessed by all your support and prayers. Laura will put some more pictures up soon.

last belly pics

We got the amazing offer to get some pictures taken by a wonderful woman from our church, Grace...she takes professional pictures from her home. We went this morning and these are some of our favorites. As of today I'm 38.5 weeks. These are the last pictures you'll see of the baby before he comes out!!! (2 more days, 3 more sleeps!)

Mya's 1st Birthday

A year ago at this time we never would have dreamed we'd be celebrating our baby's first birthday without her.

In some ways it's hard to believe that a year has gone by already, and in other ways it feels like it's been longer than a year. Looking back to those first days, weeks and months without our Mya, I shudder thinking about how dark of a time that was. We were so lost and so aching to hold our sweet baby. Kiss her and smell her just one more time. There were many hopeless days and nights that felt like I would never feel free and happy again. Times when I thought I would never be able to look at another baby again. Hopeless is a pretty good word to describe how we felt for a while.

Now, a year later, looking back and connecting the dots from that dark time to now, it's obvious that it's been God that has gotten us from there to here. We still have people coming up to us telling us that they're still praying for us, and I truly believe that it's those prayers that have kept us going, and have gotten us where we are today. God has been so good to us and has truly helped our hearts begin to heal. He helped us through those "first times" that were so hard, and by His grace, those second and third times got easier to bear. Looking back, we can really see God's timing in preparing us for what was about to happen to us, and how He already had everything figured out.

There's been lots of questions that Dan and I have asked God in our minds in the last year, and many of them are still not answered and some that are still not worked through. I am personally still working through learning how to find comfort in saying "I trust You, Lord", because I now know that trusting Him doesn't necessarily mean that the people I love are going to be safe. It sure doesn't mean that there won't be hard times ahead. I'm learning that it means "I trust that You will uphold me through whatever happens"...but somehow that's not quite as comforting. I suppose I can be thankful that God is making my faith more real and helping me understand how it really is.

Many times we wonder what it would be like if Mya was still here. What would her smile look like and how would her giggle sound? I try to picture how her face would light up at the sight of her mommy and daddy. I wonder if she would be walking by now and if she would be saying words. Would she have curly hair or straight hair? Would it still be dark or would it be blond? What is she doing in Heaven right now? Is she celebrating her birthday there?

To all of you who have supported us in any way, thank you! We honestly have experienced the Body of Christ in the way that God intended it to be through this year. People have been the hands and feet of Jesus to us and we have many times been in awe at that.

Here are some pictures from our short time with Mya:




Such a good daddy.



Trying to soak up everything about her



Her cute little face. So perfect!

36 weeks

This is 36 weeks! Don't I look huge!? When I saw the picture after I took it I was shocked at how large that belly is! I'm not sure how my poor skin can stretch any further. Good thing I only have 3 weeks left (I'm having a scheduled c-section on August 23rd).




to compare, this is a 37-week belly picture from when I was pregnant with Mya:

yard sale

On Saturday we had our first ever yard sale! When we unpacked all our stuff that we hadn't seen in a year, we realized there were things that we really didn't need anymore. It was good stuff...we just didn't need it. SO we had a yard sale! We really weren't sure what to expect as far as how much money we would make or if people would want to buy our stuff...but we made $150!! And I have to tell you - God is so good. Last week we needed to get something fixed on our car (that we weren't expecting) and we really tried to just leave it in God's hands, knowing that He knows our needs and He would provide. Well the car repairs cost $130 and we made $150...so we even had enough to buy a palm sander that we wanted from Canadian Tire :) Thank you God :)








near the end of our yard sale when things started to slow down, Dan got motivated to "install" our firepit in the backyard...followed by a fire with junk from the front lawn