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April 29, 2007 Episode: The Collins Family

This week we're in Murfreesboro, Arkansas to meet the Collins family, Kim and Denis and their six children. Now Kim and Dennis, they're an awesome, loving family. They have two biological children and then they took in five children because of something really tragic that happened three years ago: Kim's cousin, Artie, and her husband were in a horrific car crash, leaving their five children orphaned. The Collins took those kids in. The moment that Kim called Dennis and told him of this news, he said: go get those kids. There was never a doubt that those children would live with them. I think that's the coolest thing. That's really what we're celebrating here this week: people opening their hearts and doing what's right — what you hope and wish that your next of kin would do for you and your children.

The Collins family has been living in this house for the last 17 years, and when it was just the four people living there, it worked out great. Now you have eight people living in this tiny house and they've done everything they can to make it work. They actually made the carport into additional bedrooms but it's not working. They're pretty much climbing all over each other in there. We're gonna fix that!

My project this week was taking care of Ashlee's room. I wanted to get to know her a little deeper, so we had a one-on-one. I let her know that I lost my father when I was just four years old. I told her to embrace those feelings you're going through — those are memories, those are thoughts, they're valuable, so hold onto them. I asked her, what do you like? What do you want to see in your room? She told me, "I like blue stripes and pink polka dots." It's awesome. I gave her exactly what she wanted.

Our builder Steve Butcher and his crew at Real Steel Homes know what we do and why we do it, you just can feel the heart and the soul of it, and I think that's the bottom line. They're here to make a family's life better and we're so excited to have their whole team with us this week. We've worked with them in the past, Steve and his team worked on the Teas Family episode where they built cabins for Camp Barnabas last season!

We also had The great people at National Park Community College step up with their overwhelmingly generous donation of 7 2-year scholarships for the Collins children.