The fun part of our weekend

The other thing we did this weekend was hang out with our three-week-old nephew Micah. We gave his daddy Nathan "the night off" on Friday and Saturday. We're happy to report that Nathan got plenty of rest and everyone else survived! We really had a wonderful time, and Micah was a good boy--he even slept for 5 hours Friday night (which is a lot more than the usual 3 hour cycle).

It is a joy to spend time with the Robison men, especially the little one. He is very special and we love getting in lots of quality time with him right now because he is growing and changing so much every day. It also helps to be with Nathan & Micah while we're walking this journey of grief. We're grateful God gave us such a good brother-in-law and nephew.

Difficult Decisions

This weekend we had to make a difficult decision about our adoption plans. We have decided not to continue with our Russian adoption.
When we originally decided to adopt from both Guatemala and Russia, we were expecting the two boys to come home several months apart from each other--possibly Spencer in March/April and Nathan in October/November. However, since last October, when we made that decision, things have been going smoothly in Guatemala, but our plans with Russia were delayed because of Janet's surgery. This week we received an update from GT that made it look like they could be coming home almost at the same time this summer. Add that to the fact that we're grieving our sister and helping take care of our nephew, and our circumstances are very different than what we were expecting.
So, after a lot of prayer, thinking, and talking about it, we feel it would be wiser to wait a year or so to adopt from Russia so that we can give Nathan the care and attention he needs (and not be overwhelmed ourselves). It is hard to let go of the plans we had made, but we trust God to lead us to another child in Russia in the future.

Sunset, Sunrise

As one "sunshine" rises, another one sets.

Last Friday April 4, our sister Kathy gave birth to a healthy baby boy named John Micah. Shortly after his delivery, however, Kathy's heart stopped working, and despite the best efforts of numerous doctors, they were not able to revive her.

Kathy was the "sunshine" of her husband's life, and a bright light to all who knew her. Although her light has been obscured, we now have a new source of illumination: John Micah. He is our new "sunshine", our bright, soft, squirmy, squeaky, hungry little source of joy.

We are obviously still in shock from the events of last Friday, but we have also been overwhelmed with the love and support shown by friends, family, church families, co-workers, doctors, nurses, and other members of the community. Kathy was incredibly special to us and many others--there just aren't enough words to express that adequately. That is why we are having such a hard time accepting her death.

But someone reminded us that, although the death of such a remarkable person at such a young age may seem like a waste to us, in our time-bound perspective, in God's eternal perspective her brief life and self-sacrificing manner of death are being used to accomplish His plans for her and us and Micah. He sees the big picture and asks us to trust Him as he guides us through this time. We trust that he will lead us "through valleys of sorrow to rivers of joy".

I'm sure we'll have more to say about all this, but for now we just needed to update the blog. There have been too many sad posts on our blog, it seems like. But we don't grieve without hope. We have confidence in God's plans for us now and in the age to come. He is our strength, and our portion forever.