Happy Birthday Bubby!!

Today is our son Seth's 21st Birthday. We are so blessed to have him. He is a compassionate, determined, opinionated and strong young man. We are so proud of the man that he has become. We are looking forward to celebrating this next season of life with him as he marries his childhood sweetheart! We couldn't have hand-picked a better wife for him. We look forward to seeing how God uses him in this next season. Seth, may God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you. As you get married, you are going to find that you need Jesus more than ever:) I pray that you are surrounded by people that are racing hard after Jesus! Thanks for being our boy! We love you!

Does He Know Its Christmas Time??

Last night I took Faith to the mall to do a little shopping and have dinner. One of her favorite things to do during this season is to ride the train. As she was riding, I began to cry. I was enjoying watching my little girl enjoy something so simple. I was imagining what my life would have looked like without her in it. I can never thank God enough for the joy that He has given me through this little girl. I was thinking about our little guy a continent away and wondering what Christmas will look like next year with him home!
This year we have taken a different approach to Christmas. We have slowed the pace way down. We have decided to be intentional in our focus. We bought an Advent wreath and candles and have been joyously anticipating the coming of our Savior. It has been so fun watching Faith see Christmas for its true meaning. I have asked myself if I wait for Christ return with as much anticipation as I wait for my son to come to America.
In the midst of all of the joy of the season a part of my heart is missing. It is on another Continent thousands of miles away. It is with a little boy who doesn't even know yet that he has a mom, dad, brother and sisters who can't wait to get him here! Does he know that his next Christmas will be completely different? Please pray that a court date would be granted soon!
I will leave you with one of my favorite Christmas songs. When this video first came out I loved it. Not because of its meaning but because most of my favorite singers at the time where in it! Little did I know that as I sang this song for so many years, that I would be adopting from the place that they were singing about. So enjoy!

How is it possible???.......

How is it possible to have so much love for a child that you have only seen in pictures?? I am amazed by this. I feel so much love for him that at times I think my heart might just explode! As I think about horizontal adoption, I am led then to think about my vertical adoption. God's word says: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.Ephesians 3:16-19. To know this love that surpasses knowledge.....So could it be that I am beginning to understand this verse at a heart level and not just head level?? How amazing is it to know that God who knows everything about us, yes every thought, even the ones that you would not want anyone to know, loves us like this?? This is what leads me to fall on my face and worship!!! If you even have the slightest conviction to adopt, I say do it. The amazing thing about this is not what our son receives from this adoption(although that is important) but more so how much more I get to know and understand the love of my heavenly father! As I begin to get a hold of this love, the more I desire to be like Him!

We said YES!

We have accepted a referral for a little 3 year old boy. We are so excited. The people who have just traveled have described him as "sweet". The past several days have been very difficult and we are learning what stepping out in faith is. God has been so kind to continuously confirm each step that we take. He has brought people from all over the US to encourage us and pray for us. Please pray that we would get our court date soon. We are hoping to travel around the beginning of April. Thanks for all of your support and prayers! Can't wait until he is officially a Robinson so that we can share pictures of him.

6 years ago......

So this morning I woke up thinking that it was December 5th only to realize that it is the 6th:( You see December 5th is the day that Faith officially became a Robinson six years ago. So today we will celebrate like it is the 5th because her daddy will be home from work and that will make the celebration even better! My heart is so full as I reflect on our journey that led us to our baby girl! I am amazed at our God's mercy. You see I don't deserve any of this. In 1994 my life was a mess, my marriage was over and then God stepped in. Not only did He save me and heal me, He restored my marriage!! Then as if that wasn't enough, He promised to add children to our family. It was a seven year journey to Faith. I knew that He had promised us a child, actually a son who would look nothing like us, is what I believed in my heart. It was seven years of praying, fasting, repenting, and laying my desires at the foot of the Cross. Little did I know when that phone rang on October 4th letting us know that they had a baby and would bringing her to us, the joy that she would be. The fifteen months leading up to her Gotcha Day were some of the hardest yet sweetest days. I learned more about God's love for me through that time than any other. I learned to walk in a greater dependence on the Lord. I began to understand my adoption in Christ in an even greater way. Leading up to the time that Faith came to live with us, I thought so much about what we would be doing for a child. Little did I realize that it would become more about what having her has done for me. So today we celebrate God's gift to us. We remember the courage of her birth mom to realize that she was unable to parent! We thank God for all of the joy, laughter, tears, and fun that have been added to our home because of Faith. Well I have tried to add a picture and after 5 time of my computer crashing, I have to stop and get ready for church. So Happy Gotcha Day Faith!! We love you and are so glad God chose you to be ours!!


By the way, we now only need $2670 to accept our referral! Woohoo! God provided $425 in two days!

Possibly Introducing Another New Robinson

Well friends, I want to update you on what is going on with our adoption. After much prayer and conversation, we really have had peace with just bringing one child home. The Lord knows our frame and also knows the other crazy stuff that is going to be happening all during this time. That being a wedding in June in Florida! Woohoo! So all that to say, our adoption coordinator emailed us on Monday about a little guy who is 2.5 years old. She wanted to find out if we were set on bringing two children home or if one would be ok. We also talked about what the time frame would be if we accepted a referral right now. Our concern would be that our travel would interfere with the wedding. After checking the calendar, we realized that we would be traveling probably in April. How cool would it be to have the entire Robinson family at the wedding? She then began to tell me about him. I spoke with Doug and we decided to go ahead and see his picture and info. Our intial reaction in seeing him was fear. All of a sudden it really hit us that we were bringing another child into our home and life as we have known it was going to change. We had to remind each other of why we were doing this. We went back to what God has spoken to us from the beginning about adoption. The rest of the evening was spent talking with our children, looking at his picture, reading about the area he is from and praying. Let me just tell you that he is the cutest little guy. When Seth saw him, he said, "he looks sad". That is one thing that I have noticed about every referral picture. The children look so different after they have been placed in a family. It has really challenged me in how I look to others. Does my countenance reflect the reality of my adoption in Christ? He comes from an area that is hardest hit by the drought in Ethiopia. Only 22% of the water is drinkable. The great thing is that he is a chubby little guy and looks very healthy. We passed his medical information on to a friend who is a doctor to review. With the little information that is given, he said that everything looks great.

So what happens next? We have two weeks to officially accept his referral. At the time of accepting his referral, we will need to give the agency $6915. We have $3870 in our adoption fund. We are short $3045. As we have walked this journey, we have continuously stated that this has to be all God. It is easier to say that than to walk it out. We have applied for many grants and are waiting to hear about them. One of the grants is a matching grant that we were hoping would match the money in our fund. We are also looking at doing some kind of event in February. Not sure yet if it will be a spaghetti dinner or a trivia game night.

Here is where we need your help. The first thing that you can do for us is to pray! We only want to say yes to what God has said yes to. If this is our son, our God WILL provide! Please pray that we would clearly hear from Him during this time. The second thing is I have 200 cookbooks that need to sell. That would give us $1400 which is half of what we need. We do have the rest in savings so that would be amazing! If you would like a cookbook, read the previous post on how to do that. If you would like to sell some cookbooks for me, let me know and I will get them to you! Lastly if after reading this you feel lead to contribute to our adoption fund, you can do that by writing a check to New Life Community Church. Your contribution will be tax-deductible. I hesitated in adding this but feel that I would be disobeying God if I didn't. James 1:27 tells us that we are to care for widows and orphans in their time of need. I do not believe that everyone is called to adopt but I do believe that as Christ followers, we are all called to care for orphans. Sometimes that means just being able to help another family bring one home. As you read that please do not feel motivated by guilt to participate just be moved by grace. Also pray that God would move upon the hearts of the people reviewing our grant applications. Please pray for our little guy. Pray that God would continue to keep him healthy. Pray that if this is not our son that God would provide a loving family for him. Pray for his birth mom who had to bring him to the orphanage because she had no way to provide. She will forever be a hero to me. How much courage and love it must take to be able to do that. Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers!