Guatemala Victory

Maybe you heard about the sinkhole in Guatemala City last week. For us, this has been a pretty personal story. A father, son, and daughter were killed during this, among others. This family was a part of the church where our college kids ministered last summer, and where we are returning to this summer. The stories coming out of this have been unbelievable. Last Thursday, while eating dinner-sitting around the table, the sinkhole happened and in the blink of an eye the mother was left and the husband and two teenagers were gone. The mother and teenagers were very active in the church. On Monday, before this happened, the father had gone to a church service and accepted Christ! The mother, without a home and having just lost three family members, testified to the faithfulness of her God during the funeral services and as a result, 30 people accepted Christ through this tragedy. We have been receiving updates and have watched the whole story unfold this week. What a testimony to the God that we serve! Please pray for Francisca, the days ahead will not be easy. Pray even now for the college kids that will be going back this summer to minister at this church.

Alice is doing well, and will be released on Friday from the hospital. She is able to go now, but they were unable to get dialysis set up for her outside the hospital until Monday, so she has to stay in the hospital until after dialysis on Friday.

I won't be checking in for a few days. Cary and I will leave in the morning for a short get away and much needed rest!

The Robinson Weekend, part 2

First, I should have reported that Alice is still in the hospital, and is having her third surgery, today. They are putting in a more permanent port for dialysis. Yesterday morning our Pastor shared the facts about the new worship center we are wanting to build. After church we met Josh and Jen, and her parents, at Outback. This was the first time we had met them. We had a very nice lunch, and even were able to eat outside! The weather has been great for several days! Last night at church we had just a night of singing. It was wonderful. Today I made a strawberry pie, and a new recipe for dinner. I guess the second part of the weekend was a bit more sedate than the first part!

The Robinson Weekend

The Robinson family has had quite a weekend, and it's only Saturday evening! Yesterday morning we left town to head to Orlando to see the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic play. We took Carissa's friend, Shannon, with us, and we had to stop in the middle of the state to pick Kaylee up from her Science Fair Regional Competition. I was a bit bored in the car, so I decided while I had Carissa and Shannon to help this technically challenged mother, I was GOING to learn how to send a text message, and surprise Kaylee with a little message, cheering her on at the Science Fair! I did it, but Carissa didn't think I did, so I did it again, just to be sure! I knew Kaylee would be SO proud of me that I had FINALLY learned how to do this. In just a minute, I got a text back from her and I guess she got BOTH of the messages because her response was "are you UPSESSED with texting now???" Well, any good mother could not let this go without being addressed, so I texted her back, telling her I thought she meant "obsessed." So, Kaylee got a "Superior" on her project! We are very proud! And, the best news is that the Robinson parents are FINISHED with science projects! I mean forever!! Is there really a child out there that does it on their own??? I don't think so! She is being a real stinker about having her picture made these days, so I warned her that I was going to put whatever pose she gave me on the Internet. I keep my promises. Isn't it lovely??? Well, then we were off to Orlando. We have been going to a Magic game for the last few years because we have connections and like to take advantage of the opportunity! Joshua and Jen were driving up to meet us, as well as Cary's brother, Rob, and his wife, Laura. We had the tickets for everyone, which proved to be a bit interesting! Rob and Laura got there long before us and had to wait till we got there with their tickets. We arrived a good bit late, and Joshua and Jen arrived a good bit later than that! The traffic was unreal! So, we get in the general area, and all we want to do is get there so we can hand out the tickets. We found this lot where we thought we were paying to park, and then taking a "Cart Buggy" to the arena, for $10. We paid, parked, and got all five of us on the buggy! This was an experience! It was pulled by one fine young man, riding a bike. We finally got to the arena, and the sweet young man volunteered to take a picture for us. Cary attempted to tip him, only to find out that he ALSO charged $10!!! All I can say is, we had a BLAST riding the thing and it was worth any price we had to pay to FINALLY get to the arena!!! We had a great time, and, the PISTONS won! Since Jen is from Michigan, this was a real thrill for her! We'll see what the rest of the weekend holds!

Alice is in the Hospital

Alice is my oldest sister, and lives in Phoenix. During the time that we were going through everything with mom, Alice was starting the process of dialysis. Today we got word that Alice is in the hospital due to an infection related to her dialysis. When I was young, still living in Phoenix, Alice and her family lived there too. I grew up with her kids, in fact, she has a child older than I am! They lived on the other side of town from us, but we spent a lot of time on the phone. I was home alone a lot, and she always had time for me. She pretty much taught me how to sew over the phone! Even with five children of her own, she always had time for me. Please say a prayer for her today.

Company Is Here!!!

We had company today! Billy, Kristy, Gwen (known to us as Gweny-poo) and Kellen came by to visit. We were so glad to see them all! Our kids have always loved these kids and it was great to see them all together. They were just in town to visit for the week, and ended up spending part of the week in the hospital with Kellen. He had pneumonia and an ear infection, but seemed happy today! We miss them since they moved to Georgia!

Valentines Day

Yesterday morning I made a bunch of heart shaped chocolate chip cookies. Michelle and Claire came by for a visit and I gave them theirs, plus one for Grace, who was in school. Later, I picked up Timothy and Bradford after school and gave them theirs. Getting the Robinsons together in one place at one time gets more difficult all the time, so the Robinsons got presents in shifts! Carissa opened her gift at home before she went to her night class at college. Cary and Kaylee opened theirs at dinner time at Chick-fil-a. We had a couple of extras at dinner-Christian and Cy, Kaylee's baby sitting boys. Kaylee keeps us current on our children skills, since we have no grandchildren! She wants to be sure we stay in practice! We never did see Josh and Jen, so their presents are late, and probably a bit stale by now! I tried! Tonight Cary took me for a wonderful dinner since we were at church last night. We had a great dinner and then Starbucks-decaf, of course!

My Valentine

MY Valentine and I have been married for 23 and a half years, as of yesterday. This picture was taken last valentines, after renewing our vows on the beach. It was cold and windy, and my valentine hates this picture-sorry, I didn't have many to pick from! He's so wonderful that last night he brought home Starbucks for us at 9 pm. Only problem, the girl forgot the "decaf" part, and it was quite a rough night around here! This morning I woke up to beautiful roses! We first met on a singles retreat through our church. We were married before the next year rolled around. No regrets. It's been great. I called him Mr. Wonderful then, and I would still tell you that today. Even my mom thought he was Mr. Wonderful. We have three beautiful children, a dog, a wonderful and fulfilling ministry, lots of laughter, a home and two cars, and much more that we don't need! God has been good to us. Very good. Happy Valentines Day!

Susan Visits From Ireland

Last week our friends, Kelly and Susan were here for our missions conference. Susan and I have been friends for over 20 years. We've been through some thick, and lots of thin together! They have now been serving in Ireland for 10 years. They were here when the Lord first called them to go, and we went through the whole process with them. When we are together, Susan always challenges me to go deeper in my Christian walk and we always have to compare reading material! I'm so thankful for the time we were able to share last week.

My Friend, Erin

This morning I talked to my friend, Erin. Actually, we were STILL talking this afternoon. We schedule our phone calls-once about every two years, and just set the day aside to get caught up! Erin came into my life when I was 13. I had just moved from Arizona to Lancaster, CA, knew no one, had a new church, new school, new step-dad. We went to high school together and were active in the youth choir at our church together. We loved each other's parents, and either home was as much home as the other. We laughed a lot together. Lancaster had a lot of "round" driveways. That would best be explained as a circular drive, I guess. We used to think it was great fun to just drive through town and drive through random round driveways and honk as we'd go through. We did this a lot the year I learned to drive. She is a year older than me and that year she would let me "practice" driving often, of course neither set of parents knew this, and probably never did know it. We are both "orphans" now. Both sets of parents are gone. Somehow, it seems we are just blood related, simply because of all the shared life experiences. She was a part of everyday of my life for many years. We used to drink instant tea (I don't know HOW we ever did that!) and Erin thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. She would come over just to drink our tea. She loved vanilla wafers, and we always kept a stash for her. She went on our family outings to pick our Christmas trees. She spent the night the Christmas that I got an electric blanket with duel controls for my bed and we hooked it up, thinking life was going to be great now! Only problem was that we had switched the controls and one of us froze all night and kept turning it up, while the other nearly died from heat all night, wondering what in the world had happened! Erin wasn't much for medicine, especially if it didn't taste good. I tried my hardest, every way I could think of to get Nyquil down her. It always spewed everywhere. We're nearing 35 years of stories. She lives in Montana now, so many miles come between us. But, through thick and thin, no matter the distance between, we just ARE. We've watched each other's lives grow and change. College, marriage, weddings, kids, kid problems, kids leaving the nest, and we've shared our faith. We always talk about what the Lord has been doing in our lives. I don't have another friend that I have known this long. She wins the prize! There is great security in knowing that after all these years, I don't think either of us is going anywhere. We'll always be there for each other, no matter what is going on in our lives, no matter the distance between us or the time that lapses between those marathon phone calls!

Missionary Visits

This week is our missions conference at church. I LOVE this week, we get to see many of our friends that have come from all over the world to be with us for the week. The missionaries that our college kids worked with in Guatemala this past summer are here. We picked them up at the airport on Monday and had a wonderful dinner at PF Changs. Last night, Kathlyn MADE dinner for us, and it was GREAT! Pictured are Kathlyn, Diana and Kenneth. We look forward to going back this summer!

I haven't been blogging much, nothing of great importance has happened! Yesterday I had lunch with my friend, Frank. He turned 94 yesterday so we did lunch and had a little cake to celebrate!