A New Direction

Do you have a favorite time of year?  I love October and it's right around the corner! Last October I was writing about transitions and how I would share more when we hammered out details and firmed up plans.  Well, it took us awhile, but we've hammered out some details, firmed up some plans, and now we have some super exciting news.  

Compelled by God's love and mercy to be a voice for vulnerable children, the Robinson Family is preparing for a move to Santa Rosa de Cópan, Honduras to serve with Legacy of Hope Foundation in the development of family-based solutions for orphaned and vulnerable children.

Our ministry first began 16 years ago when God opened our eyes to the number of vulnerable children in our community in need of the love and nurture of a family.   Since that time, God has allowed us to serve Him with our lives through foster care and adoption ministry.  These experiences have transformed our way of life as God has increasingly used our family to minister to children in need.  Drawing from educational, professional, and personal experiences, our ministry has grown from foster parenting to providing individuals, families and organizations with professional consultation, education and training, compassionate insight, understanding, empathy, and support as they care for orphaned and at risk children. 

As we’ve continued to seek God’s leading in our lives, He has directed our steps into international ministry and introduced us to our friends Matt and Marianne at Legacy of Hope Foundation. We’ve been dreaming and praying with them about this move since we met them and heard about their ministry. God continues to reveal to us His love for the vulnerable child, and we are excited that He has led us into ministry in Honduras.  We are looking forward to living and working in Honduras and are thankful for the privilege of being a voice for orphaned and at risk children. 

Please pray with us!  We covet your prayers and encouragement as we continue developing partners and raising financial support, and as we transition our family to Honduras.   

Partner With Us!  In order to provide for our financial needs while we are serving in Honduras, we’re asking family, friends, and even strangers to prayerfully consider partnering with us as we minister to orphaned and at risk children. These children need and deserve the love of a family and advocates who will stand up and be a voice for them. God has given us the faith to step out and say “yes”, but we cannot do it alone.  We need others to come alongside us as we minister to vulnerable children in need of the love of a family!  Will you say “yes”? 

We are currently raising funds for monthly support, as well as, initial investment costs of our ministry, including:  travel expenses, resident visa expenses, language school, and transportation for our family in Honduras.

Financial gifts for our ministry are tax-deductible and can be made to County Line Church.  Please designate “Robinson Family Missions” on the memo line and send your check to:

County Line Church

2552 County Line Church Road

Warm Springs, Ga. 31830

Thank you so much for praying for us and partnering with us as we step out in faith to be a voice for orphaned and vulnerable children!  If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach us by phone at (678) 758-6749 or by email at ministry@raisingteamrobinson.com.

A little update

The last time I wrote, a farmer friend had given us a hog, and we were amping up for the good life of raising livestock.  That was two years ago.  Suffice to say, raising livestock is no picnic.  I wish there had been time along the way to share all the highs of being a hog farmer and the fun of being a goatherd during kidding season, along with all the spiritual parallels and stories of great personal growth.  There was no time for that, y'all.  It's all sort of a blur.

When I last posted, we were four months post-adoption with Wyatt and Jubilee.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I was in hog heaven with two babies in the house, but I was also exhausted and stretched thin for awhile, too.  I could write pages and pages about what it's been like around here as we've focused on meshing together, bonding, attachment, finding the new norm, learning sign language, and the family dynamics shift.  In the midst of it all, we were overjoyed when we were able to adopt three more children in September.  The newest Robinsons have lived with us over the past few years, and their adoption is the answer to the prayers of so many.

While it looks like a lot to the onlooker, we love having so many people up in this house.  Between the littles, the middles, and the bigs, a buzz of activity swirls around us morning, noon, and night.  Surprisingly, it's peaceful, if that makes any sense to anyone. We've got our flow and it works. Have you ever just shook your head and said to yourself, "I'm not sure about this.  I just can't see how this is all going to pan out"? You wonder if what you're doing really matters and if you're doing it right.  Then time and again, God whispers to your heart, "Trust me", and you say, "Okay." Then all of a sudden, the clouds break and you see clearly that He is doing it right and you are in His presence...and it is panning out.  That's where we are.

October brings with it a bittersweet transition away from the people and the work I've loved in recent years as God leads me into a new line of work and our family into a new season of ministry.  We are so excited (and a little intimidated, too), and I'll share more as we hammer out the details and plans are firmed up, assuming I get better about posting updates more than every two years (yikes).  We covet the prayers of those who know and love us, as well as anyone we feels led to pray for what God is doing in our lives.

Princess Oinkers

A farmer friend called and said, "You want a hog?"  Um, YEAH!  Who doesn't want a hog!?!

We don't have anything in which to transport a hog, but no worries.  I called my friend Laurel.  She always knows what to do.

A trailer, a cage, some straps and a few hours later and we were on the road to pick up this beauty!

Meet Princess Oinkers, the newest addition to Team Robinson's little farm. Of course, we had to hook up this homemade livestock trailer to our big ole van to go pick her up.  Everybody wanted in on this homecoming!  Princess Oinkers made quite an impression on the passersby during her ride home.  People kept honking at us and waving, and everyone at the gas station in Pine Mountain stopped by our pump to say hello.

In true Robinson farming fashion, we experienced a fencing malfunction promptly upon arriving home, so Princess Oinkers had to hang out in the cage and have a little snack while we figured things out.  

In no time at all....or six hours later, however you want to look at it....the meanest hog I've ever met was settled into her enclosure and tearing up the place.  A few days later we happened to be out by the enclosure watching her thrash around and wondering what might be wrong with her, when our wondering turned to amazement.  Princess Oinkers had piglets!!  Now we know why she's been so mean. By the way, a hog AND piglets are so much cooler than just a hog.  The kids were over-the-moon excited to have seen the deliver - until Princess Oinkers started eating the babies.  Now they're split into two camps, those that are traumatized and those that think it was an epic day!

The kids named the two surviving piglets Bacon and Pork Chop.  These aren't exactly pigs of the pet variety.  They're thinking ahead, which is good.  Aren't they....um, adorable?

Here's to hoping that hogs are easy to raise! 

High on a hill is a lonely goatherd

All the blogs about being a goatherd make it sound so grand.  That's not really true.  They don't really make it sound grand, but I really did think it would be grand anyway.  My rock star farming friend, Laurel, makes it seem pretty grand.  Maybe she's putting something in my tea when she welcomes me to her table for an afternoon chat. Hmmmm.....

About a month ago we took this little farm of ours up a notch.  We had to if we wanted to call ourselves farmers.  The crops died again.  The pep talk we gave ourselves during planting just wasn't enough. So we're not good with things that grow up from the ground.  That's okay.  Maybe we're just supposed to raise livestock.  I'm proud to say that we've kept all the chickens, and now the ducks, alive for quite some time.

So we got some livestock. (I love how if you look close you can see the tiller parked next to a garden bed  in the backyard. Ha!  Makes me laugh every time I look at this picture.)

Meet the livestock!  This is Brutus and his ladies.

They're beautiful Oberhasli dairy goats, and they joined Team Robinson in early August.  They are the reason that I haven't blogged in forever - they and the 12 kids that now live here. Holy Goatherd, Batman!  Dairy goats are a lot of work!!

Notice in the photo above that the goats are on the back steps, trotting up to the porch like they're part of the family.  Well, we've been having a little fencing problem, which apparently isn't uncommon for farmers raising livestock of the goat variety.  We would know this if we weren't city folk.  We're learning.  We are learning. And we're fencing.  Every.Single.Day.We.Are.Fencing.

"Goats are out" has become the most common phrase heard in our house.  We come home from church and "goats are out."  We get up in the morning and "goats are out." We pull on our boots to head to the barn to feed them and "goats are out."  We keep fencing and they keep getting out.  We may not be the sharpest tacks in the goat shed but I think today we finally figured this thing out.  Only time will tell.

In addition to the challenges of fencing, being a goatherd can be lonely, too, especially when the family fails to get as excited about caring for livestock as they should.  When that happens, I take to yodeling on social media to a) heckle Dean publicly, and b) entertain myself and....let's see....4 other people with witty quips using lines from my favorite musical. No other musical has both goats and lots of kids!

Looking beyond the joys of fencing, we are discovering that milking isn't all that grand, and you can't skip it if you just don't feel like doing it that day. In the beginning I was so eager, excited even, to add milking to my daily routine.  I was so excited I even let someone take my picture looking seriously not fancy and milking into a feed bucket. Yep, we're that good at this milking business!

Now, a couple of weeks later, we've come a long way with this milking thing.  We've got the proper setup and we're not milking into a feed bucket any longer.  We've also learned that milking is not very exciting.  Morning and night, there's milking to be done. I will say God's using milking to do a work in me.  It's hard to keep on being fancy when you're milking goats. I've stooped to letting people take pictures of me in camo pajama pants now.  Not so fancy! The coffee keeps me sane and the cell phone lets me complain about my situation to anyone who will read my texts from the pasture.

I mustn't ignore the pluses of being a goatherd.  Goat's milk everyday - SCORE!  Cheese - WIN!  Friendships that are deep and abiding - MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD!  I'm beyond thankful to my dear Laurel who keeps me in the know about everything between the hooves and the horns and from the milking stand to the table.

Gotta go!  Time to milk the goats!

Ducks!

I went to visit a sweet friend today and came home with a gift of five ducks.  My friend Laurel is a REAL farmer, meaning she plants crops AND harvests them.  She's the real deal.  I'm fascinated by that.

Just a few weeks ago I wrote with renewed passion about how we weren't giving up and the crops were again going in the ground.  The seeds did go in the ground, so only time will tell.

No worries, though, the Piggly Wiggly still has frozen peas and Laurel believes in our farming potential - believes enough to entrust us with 5 ducks, which says a lot considering how the last duck raising attempt turned out!

I wasn't expecting such an amazing gift when I arrived at Laurel's house, so I was unprepared to transport them home.  Laurel offered that I carry the ducks home in a rabbit cage, and her son set about rounding up sweet things.  Within a mile of her house, I was hanging my head out the window of the van.  How on earth do 5 ducks make the likes of that smell in the span of time it takes to drive a mile?  I didn't think we'd make it home.  

When we arrived home, I drove right past the house and straight down to the pond.  My head was already hanging out the window, so I hollered for the kids that I had a surprise and to meet me down at the pond.  They were indeed surprised!  As they slid the van door opened, the overwhelming smell knocked a few of them off of their feet!

The foundations of a beautiful relationship were formed today on the banks of our little pond.  It happened so fast, and I was too busy snapping photos to remember to tell them about how these ducks are raised for meat. A real farmer would've already established this with the farmer children before bringing home edible farm additions.  Oops!

The kids played and named and showed the ducks the water.  They were surprised when the ducks wanted nothing to do with the water and spent more than an hour trying to convince the ducks that they would love the experience of swimming out onto our pond. I am not surprised that these ducks don't seem to like water.  That's just the way the farming goes around here.

Farming

3 years and 208 days ago, God gave us a vision that was a real game changer for Team Robinson.  So, we packed up the house and moved way out in the middle of nowhere to give our kids the great outdoors and live off the fat of the land.  Oh, to give our offspring the chance to breathe deeply the smell of fresh air and feel the sun's warm glow on their sweet faces.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to gaze upon the stars at night, unhindered by the smog and lights of the city?  Since we're going country, why don't we try our hand at farming?

We knew it would take time to adjust and that we might not be good at it at first, but we were determined to give it a go and see what happened.  We are hard-workers, not scared to put our hands to the plow or afraid to get a little dirty.  Well, three years and 208 days later, I  have determined that no matter how handsome my man looks while driving the tractor....

We.Stink.At.Farming!!

Two winters ago, when Dean brought the tractor around and plowed up the acre of land where my grandparents tended their garden, I had such high hopes.  Each night I nestled all snug in my bed while visions of cucumbers danced in my head.  I spent hours collecting homemade salsa recipes - in vain, it seems.  If my expectations were more realistic, I would've been more  prepared for the overwhelming disappointment I feel every time I dip my tortilla chip into commercially jarred picante sauce - mild, because we've got some newcomers 'round here that aren't quite up for the heat of hot yet.  Every time I pick up a bag of frozen peas at the Piggly Wiggly, I'm reminded of the fact that all of our crops died.  Actually, the only thing that we've managed to grow here is two stalks of corn, which by the way, grew by accident from the feed we were throwing out for the ducks.

Aren't we a sad, sad song?

It gets better...or worse....however you want to look at it.  Our failure in farming is not limited to just the crops.  We kill animals, too - and not like real farmers who do it on purpose.  We have learned a lot about what not to do with farm animals, that's for sure!  The first to go were the ducks.  We waited too long to put them out on the pond, and they kept waddling back up to the house.  I guess they got a hankering that fateful day for the sweet faucet water in the backyard and just didn't see Jethro coming.  Apparently, they also forgot they could fly.

The free-ranging chickens were the next species to experience casualties.  Two of them free-ranged a bit too far from home and couldn't outrun the dog next door.  Poor gals.  And then there was Brownie, poor Brownie the goldfish thief.  She just wouldn't stay out of our vehicles and eventually ran out of lives.  We had a funeral one Sunday afternoon for that hungry girl, which is crazy by the way.  The whole time I'm thinking, "What are we doing?  It's a chicken.  Aren't we going to eat the chickens anyway?"  Maybe we didn't explain this whole farming thing to the kids correctly?

If I may give you a word of advice here:  If there is a food shortage, and you get it in your mind to head toward our house for help, you'll get here and be hungry with the rest of us, folks.  You might want to revamp your backup plan.

Now that my sob sorry is all out there, I'm finished feeling sorry for Team Robinson.  It's time to look toward tomorrow.  God isn't finished with us yet.   All of this failure is for a purpose, and we trust Him.   Inspired anew and enamored with He who cast the vision, we're ready to try, try again.  We're no quitters!  We gave our little fieldhands a pep talk, cut down some pine trees that had grown up in the garden and got the tiller back out.  We're planting corn- on purpose this time - along with beans, squash, onions and pumpkins, for our fall garden.  I have a feeling it's going to take off and grow like never before.

After we get the seeds in the ground, the chickens are getting a new pen, and we're firing up the incubator for some new little chicks, maybe even some new ducks. No more free-ranging birds, but they'll have plenty of space to roam in their colossal pen.   Fencing is also going up for the herd of goats we're buying.  Yes, it's a herd.  Some people get a goat or two, but not us.  We go for the whole herd.  Go big or go home.  That's what they say, right?  (Please, Lord, bless our hands at goat keeping that the goats may live long, happy lives.)

It's going to be a busy week between all the working, farming and schooling that has to get done.  Dean says farming is a lifestyle and we'll get the hang of it.  Okie dokie, then.  I guess we'll see now, won't we?

We'd love it if you'd say some prayers for us this week.  We're going to need them.  

Summertime

We've spent a lot of time at home (or close to home) this summer "finding our new normal." So far we've not found it yet.  Ha!  It's being elusive! Some days are easier than others, but every day I'm humbled and thankful for the honor and privilege of loving the precious children God has given us.

I've struggled a bit with my attitude toward all of this rain!  There are 12 children under my roof, and when it rains all day, every day, I get a little stir crazy.  In between torrential rain and daily heavy lightening, we've walked every square inch of this property, enjoyed thousands of blackberries and tracked buckets of dirt into the house. The best thing about the weather is that the rain turned the main road to the backside of the property into a river.  We, of course, couldn't keep the kids out of it.  They have played for hours on end in Rio Robinson.  

As the river slowed, turned to puddles and then eventually dried up, Riley discovered a "family" of tadpoles flipping and flopping around in the mud. A rescue mission was quickly executed and the soon-to-be frogs are safely swimming around in the pond where the catfish might or might not snack on them.  Do catfish eat tadpoles?  

Around about the middle of June, the words "I'm bored" began to echo through the house, so I agreed to allow a little fun-boosting project.  As a result, in true superhero fashion, I saved countless teens from certain peril by halting the construction of an epic slip-n-slide designed by one Blake Robinson.  Before any of you way cool moms, dads and teens calls me a party pooper, please know that somebody would've certainly broken something if I hadn't stepped in....and that somebody would've probably been Dean.  

The way less epic slip-n-slide was still a lot of fun and has provided quite the entertainment around here.

Boredom threatened again around mid-July, but then I got this hare-brained idea (from my dear friend Stephanie) to take the kids out to eat some free food.  I almost bailed at the last minute, overwhelmed by the need for 13 head-to-toe cow costumes.  The tween girls sensed my weakness and wavering, though, and quickly sprung into action.  They jump on any opportunity to head to town!  A few hours later, we were all clad in black and white, with masks and tails in hand, and piled in the car for the 45 minute drive into town.  I'm so thankful we did, too.  We had a great time and dinner was delicious (and free to boot).  There was even a bonus:  Team Robinson won the best dressed herd contest at Chick-fil-a's Cow Appreciation Day!!  Thank you Chick-fil-a!!  

No summer is complete without a little heart-pounding adventure, right?  Nothing gets my heart pounding like creepy critters!  I've tried to keep an open mind about snakes, and I've even been nice to at least one.  I took a picture to demonstrate the fair treatment this little specimen received during a summertime science lesson with cousins.

Rattlesnakes, however, get another treatment altogether.  This little guy was spotted by my sweet Olivia who happened to look down while we were all trying to find the source of the odd buzzing we could hear.  

Can you spot the little critter?

I was certain I would find a hornet's nest hanging high above our heads.  (Heads up, folks - I'm probably not the best person to approach with your outdoorsy, hey-what's-that, questions.)  I'm so thankful Olivia spotted the snake before he struck her.  I know all might not agree with the swift justice applied, but I have a solid "no rattlesnake" rule in the backyard and violators will be dealt with swiftly.  Thank you, Blake!  

After the deed was done, several of the kids insisted on holding the snake (not me) and having their picture made with the snake (not me).  Comedian Brooklyn innocently smiled  for her picture.

Then promptly scared the bejabbers out of everyone by hollering and wiggling the gross thing at me.  Of course, I screamed and about wet my pants.  She's unrepentant.

We've got a little more fun to pack in before Fall pokes its head into this corner of the world.  Hopefully, we'll make it all the way to first frost without any more snake adventures!