Our NY Letter

 

Greetings!

2025 felt like 3 years in one for us. We began the year anticipating a surprise baby and expecting an impending PCS move, but little did we know how many layers would be added to those expectations! The biggest surprise came when our daughter, Cora Elise came about 3 months early in March 2025. In the long and heart-wrenching months of NICU life that followed, we were met with more uncertainty, as we were told she wasn’t developing normally or had an undiagnosed condition, and doctors continued to seek answers for her “delays” & setbacks. We visited daily trying to coax and connect with this tiny being, while fighting every fear and heartbreak we never knew existed. Meanwhile, our precious older 3, Aria, Annica, and Laurel, continued their little lives with parents doing their best to hold the family in harmony while asking God every day for hope and healing. We were immediately and continued to be overwhelmingly surrounded by blessing and support. With Colin’s family down the road in Denver jumping in to support with family and home life, and our amazing church family who sat, prayed, visited, fed, babysat, and blessed - from our closest friends to barely acquaintances- we felt the hands & feet of Jesus even while asking the hardest “whys?” of our life.

After 4 months, Cora was finally stable enough to come home to her “mini-NICU” in our bedroom. Colin was able to take advantage of the new paternity policy with a very supportive Command and stayed home from the time of her birth for a full 4 months as I recovered from surgery, through all the NICU back & forth, and finally to help Cora transition. Her sisters have done so well with their “super special baby” and are a lesson in living in the present while trusting a good Father, without certainty of anything to come. She has had an incredible care team and continues to develop at a slow and steady pace. While we don’t know if or when she will fully outgrow her conditions of prematurity in her lungs, motor & neurologic development, we are full speed ahead with supporting her with a slew of specialties & therapies that keep mama busy as her full-time nurse/physical therapist/case manager/patient advocate and driver 😊 We are so thankful for your prayers for her as we know that God means to reveal Himself to us and so many others through her unique life and our dependence on Him who loves us beyond what we can grasp!

After working with gracious assignment officers (yes, they exist when God directs them to!) for delays in our timeline to accommodate Cora, we have indeed moved to Greensboro, North Carolina! Bonuses- we are an hour from my brother/ sister-in-law and their new baby daughter (so the girl squad scene will be even richer as we get to overlap during this season), we get to experience the south and beautiful fall colors, & East coast history tours will commence asap! We will miss our Colorado family & Church - but we are relying on God to provide us a new church home and anticipating this house as our last with really little kiddos!

Colin was promoted to the rank of Commander and has assumed Command of Naval Reserve Center Greensboro! As the new CO, and also in his first reserve management role…it’s a whole new ballgame. We are so excited for this opportunity however, and know it will be beneficial for life after the Navy as well. (No idea yet when that will be…)

I am full time at home with no time for “side hustles” but never not planning my next trail run, diving into a new podcast on geopolitics, or experimenting on my family in the kitchen. Aria continues to grow in her curiosity and sense of justice and has a very tender and responsible vein that has shone brightly this year. She completed her 3^rd year of gymnastics, learned to ride a bike, and completed her first VBS at our church & pre-K semester at Evangel Christian Academy. Indy fills our home with laughter and antics and is our strong and fearless yet sensitive bear cub who also loves gymnastics, babies, & baking. Laurel’s personality has truly blossomed as she has transitioned from her babyhood into hanging with “the big girls”, following after them in everything, and delighting us with her language capacity and multitude of facial expressions. All the girls love riding their bikes together, exploring the “forest” behind our house, endless craft time and “dress-up parties”, and learning new songs together.

As far as 2026…we don’t even pretend to know what’s to come. We have already hosted Thanksgiving, celebrated a family engagement, enrolled Aria in an awesome Classical Christian school for Kindergarten Bridge, started music and gymnastics, set up care with 5 specialties for Cora, completed 3 Dad work trips, and planned a return visit to Colorado. But we know this: that we are called into salvation and relationship by a God who sent His Son Jesus to live the perfect human life that we cannot & die the death we deserve in breaking relationship with our Creator through sin. Jesus who has entered into our very lives, our pain, our joys and invites us to know Him, extends that invitation to us all, this and every Christmas- to turn from being the broken master of our own temporary destiny, be completely forgiven, know Him as the Good and Sovereign Lord of our lives, and be gifted eternal life. We have tasted and seen that He is good and hope you will know Him likewise as your Lord and run with Him this year as your most precious possession.

              “Taste & see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Fear the Lord you His saints; For those whose fear Him there is no lack of anything” Psalm 34:8-9

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found & hid again; & from joy over it he goes & sells everything that he has and buys that field.”            Matt 13:44