Life Interruption or Divine Intervention

 Robey Family September 2007

I just recently finished the Bible study, Jonah - Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer.  I have to say that despite the fact that this was the second time through the study (that's what happens when you move...), I loved it.  God really used this study once again to reflect on how what could have been perceived as interruptions to my life were actually divine interventions by God to get my attention and focus on Him and Him alone.

I'm still processing much of what God is showing me after this study.  I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to concisely say it here.  However, I did think back to a couple of times when it was beyond obvious that God was intervening in my life.  One specific event has come to mind over and over again these last few weeks.  I thought I'd share it here.  I hope and pray that it will touch the heart of someone out there.  This happened almost exactly six years ago, but it still brings tears, a rapid heart beat and feelings of awe at God as to how He alone orchestrated the events of that night.

It was the beginning of November 2007.  Luke had just turned 2, Hannah was about 10 months old and I was 8 weeks pregnant with Andrew (no one knew I was pregnant except Chris).  We had lived in Georgia for about 3-4 months at the point.  Chris had just left on his very first deployment as an Air Force pilot.  He was scheduled to be gone about 6 weeks if I remember correctly.  There is a lot of material our there on what to expect during a deployment and a lot of advice to listen to.  All of it it includes the proverbial big-thing-that-will-happen-while-your-husband-is-out-of-town event.  I was ready and I was waiting for whatever that event might be...

On Sunday evening, Hannah was sick.  As many of you know, there are not many places to take a sick child on a Sunday evening.  However, after jumping through all the proper hoops, I was told I could take her to an urgent care that would be open that night.  As it turned out, she had an ear infection and we headed home.  That was a new place and I really liked it.  I was pretty certain the doctor was a Christian.  So, Tuesday of the same week rolls around and Luke gets sick later in the day.  I again jump through all the proper hoops and request that he be seen by the same doctor Hannah had seen just two days earlier. {God intervention already - I had already seen and felt comfortable with this new, Christian doctor}.  I took him in, found out he had strep throat and off we went.  This is where God really started intervening on my behalf.  When we left the office, I could get his prescription filled at a nearby CVS or I could take it to one closer to our home.  I had every intention of taking it to the one closer to our home, but at the very last minute, I crossed 2-3 lanes of traffic and went to the nearby CVS.  I don't even remember making the decision to switch.  It was as if it it just happened.  I dropped of the script, went and got gas while they filled it and went back to pick up the medicine - all within a short distance to the doctor's office.  Then, I headed home.  I wasn't 1-2 miles down the road when I heard a strange sound from the back seat.  I turned around to see Luke in a full blown seizure.  Needless to say, I was scared!  {If I would have gone to the other CVS, I would have been so much further from any help - God intervention} It's kind of funny the things you think in those situations, but I had some very rational thoughts despite the circumstances.  My first thought was to take him right back to the doctor's office because I thought I could get there faster than an ambulance could get to us.  My second thought was not to run any red lights.  On the outside, I was screaming, but on the inside, I had the most amazing peace in my heart that Luke would indeed be ok.  It was a deep down peace that could only come from God.  I made it back to the doctor's office without running a red light, locked Hannah in the van (since I now had 2 children to carry) and went inside.  The place was empty.  I walked in, they took Luke from me and got the doctor who got right to work on him.  By the time, we were back to the doctor, it just looked like he was asleep.  However, he did have 1-2 more seizures after getting to the doctor.  In the meantime, the nurse came and asked about Hannah and retrieved her from the van for me.  The doctor worked to get Luke's fever down and I called a friend with the little battery that was left on my phone {God intervention} to come get Hannah.  We had known them at pilot training.  I just wanted them to take her, but they took her back to our house and put her to bed {Wow! is all I can say about that}.  Luke's fever finally came down and I was allowed to bring him home.  The next day, this same doctor called to check on Luke on his day off.  He then asked me to bring him back in the next day without a referral or appointment because he wanted to see him.  He gave him his stamp of approval along with a new set of hotwheel emergency vehicles.

As you can see, God was at work in this.  Luke has never had another seizure (the one he had was fever induced).  It was very clear to me that God was saying, "I'm going to take care of you."  Since then, we've endured another 6-7 deployments many of them longer than 6 weeks and numerous other short term trips.  God has always, always taken care of me.  In fact, He's done more than that and drawn me closer to Himself during that time.  Is this what I would have written for my life?  No.  However, I can honestly say, that it was a divine intervention that I will never forget.

Life since 2007 has had numerous other interventions.  I can think of our move to our current station and the first time I did this study on Jonah.  Chris was in the midst of his longest deployment - 90 days.  He returned at the beginning of May, we rented our house, bought our current home and were out of our previous house before the end of the May.  It was a crazy month, but one only orchestrated by God in His perfect way and His perfect timing.

What is my current intervention?  It's probably sending my trio to school this year.  This one looks a bit different, but God is at work.  It will be exciting to see what He has in store for me in the midst of this.

I'm thankful that God is intervening.  I pray that I will draw closer to Him through these moments.

My Halloween Thoughts

My Halloween Trio

Hannah as Aurora (Sleeping Beauty with brown hair)

Luke my Lego man*

Andrew as Peter Pan

Halloween is nearly here and I'm looking forward to Friday when we can move on to other events.  Needless to say, Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  It could easily be taken off the calendar and I would not miss it. not. one. bit.  I certainly don't go for all the gore and scary stuff and we don't do that.  However, I could also do without the fun part.  I don't want to get in the way of my trio having fun and a good time so we usually end up at a few events dressed up (ok, they are in costumes - not me).  I'm just not creative and am a creature of habit.  I would just rather wear the clothes that I wear all the time.  Plus, I'm cheap and the $10 I spent on costumes/candy was $10 too much in my opinion.  On top of that, it's all for candy, which they get plenty of anyway in various ways throughout the year.

As you can tell, I don't have the greatest attitude, but I am willing to give in.  This year was a bit different, though, because Luke announced that he didn't want to be a construction worker like he had been for the last 4-5 years.  I can't blame him, but it was so easy and I didn't have to buy anything!  Then, Andrew needed an outfit for his favorite book character.  So, off I was to work on costumes.  Hannah did her outfit all by herself.  I'm convinced that she wanted to be a princess because it is the one time all year that I allow her to wear my lipgloss.  Thankfully, Chris did most of Luke's costume.  I just glued the bowls on and he did everything else.  Andrew's didn't take long either after I collected all the items.  This is the trio that we took to the squadron trick-or-treating and will take out for just a bit Thursday evening.  So, if you see us, I will have a smile on my face and despite all my swirling anti-Halloween thoughts, we will have a good time as a family nonetheless. 

* Some of you may be wondering why Luke isn't wearing his glasses.  A couple of days earlier, he was playing catch with Andrew and got hit in the face with the ball snapping off the nose piece.  So, we are waiting for his new ones to come in.  In the meantime, we are making do with what he has.  They don't sit quite right on his face so I had him take them off for this picture.  Otherwise, he's been wearing them.

View from My Kitchen Window

I saw this lovely guy hanging outside my window a few days ago.  This morning, I found a beautiful web with a not so lovely spider hanging on it.  The web truly is amazing.  However, I must admit that I could do without the spider and his lovely neighbor that may very well be a black widow.  They sure do grow large spiders here - ugh!

Look Who Came to Visit!

 At Andrew's soccer game...it wasn't as cold as it looks, but it was drizzly, which we were thankful for, but is a rarity in these parts.

Yes, we had the privilege of having my parents here for a few days.  We truly are blessed that they consistently make the long trek to wherever our journey has taken us and our current location is no different.  We had a busy day and a half or so then we just hung out together.  It's always great when they get to see the kids do their "thing".  Andrew had a character parade at school, Hannah and Luke each received awards at their good grades' assembly, we did trick-or-treating at the squadron and Andrew had a soccer game.  They got to see and do all of that!  So glad to have them here.  Visits are always too short, but always sweet to enjoy!

 Hannah cooking a pumpkin pie with Grandma...oh, how she loved this!

Too much sugar, too much excitement, and too much running at the soccer game.  He just couldn't handle it much longer even during his beloved football games.

On Parade

This morning, we got to go to school and be the observers of the kindergarten character parade.  My handsome kindergartener, Andrew, wanted to be Peter Pan and he certainly likes this book!  Let's just say that any outfit is just a stretch for this Momma to come up with (they were to wear/bring just one prop to represent that character).  Thanks for Google and Pinterest to give me some nice and easy ideas!  I was impressed with the creativity and simplicity of some of the other outfits.  Besides my favorite kindergartener, my favorite outfit included one of Waldo from the Where's Waldo books. 

Just a Few Ideas...

When it comes to devotionals for my trio, I am quite picky.  Ok, I'm rather picky about a lot of things, but we can save that discussion for another post.  Now, that they are getting older and their thought processes are maturing, I find it difficult to find material that lives up to my expectations.  So, I thought I'd share some of the resources that I've really liked in case any of you are in a similar spot.  Also, if you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.  I'm always open to ideas.

This first one is the one we are currently going through.  When we were in Wichita, many of you know that we absolutely loved our church home there for a variety of reasons.  One of those was that they taught the kids, but it wasn't entertaining.  They used the Children Desiring God curriculum and I fell in love with it.  I was sad to find that our church here did not use the same material.  Anyway, it was much to my absolute delight when a friend introduced me to three children's devotionals based on the Children Desiring God curriculum.  I just finished God's Promises by Sally Micheal with the kids and loved it!  It integrates Bible stories with practical application.  There is really a lot you could do with the lesson or you could just read through it.  Whatever works best for you.  Anyway, we are now starting  God's Names and we'll later go through God's Providence. 

Another resource that we've gone through and will most likely go through again is the Bible.  I really liked the Family Reading Bible.  When we did it the first time, I don't know that the kids could have gone through every page of the Bible.  They just weren't old enough with a long enough attention span.  However, this particular Bible breaks it into a short path through the Bible or you can take the long path through the Bible.  There are questions with each passage.  Plus, it includes various topical studies as well.  It's very easy to use it in a way to accommodate any age group. 

We've also done a few lessons from the Heritage Builders series from Focus on the Family.  We tried doing these once a week, which in theory should work, but unfortunately, we've gotten away from it.  The kids loved it and frequently asked about it.  We should really start these again.  They are wonderful studies that do require a bit more prep work, but they plainly explain/demonstrate some of the more difficult Bible concepts.  There are several books in the series, but here is a link to one of the first ones and you should be able to see several other books as well.

The trio is now just getting old enough to transition to doing some of their devotions on their own.  The older two can now read and write well enough on their own that they can begin to go through these studies themselves.  I think it would be beneficial for them to have actual questions to answer.  So, this requirement has made it a bit more difficult to find good, age appropriate material.  It seems like there is a lot of stuff for younger preschool age children or older school age children - not much for early elementary.  Anyway, the kids are currently using Gotta Have God (boys) and God and Me (girls). 

So, this is where we've been.  A couple of other suggestions that I'd like to explore in the future are Jesus Calling for Kids by Sarah Young and Truth Chasers through Child Evagelism Fellowship.  Like I said, please, please share any other suggestions you may have.  I'm always open for ideas!

Snapshots of Fall Break

 Robey Family

I always enjoy having the trio home for breaks.  For some reason, I'm always ready for a break from school.  I do get a lot accomplished when they're at school, but there's also something special about having them home.  We don't always have to do anything special, but this time we took a day or so and took a short road trip for a little bit of fun and a little bit of relaxing.

Our first stop was the Braum's bakery and dairy tour.  Now, I know if you don't live in this part of the country, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  Sorry, but you're missing out.  Braum's is a regional fast food restaurant that's a combination hamburger/ice cream/small grocery store all wrapped up into one place.  They have yummy hamburgers and amazing ice cream.  Plus, you can always pick up some to take home with you as well.  Anyway, they have a farm not too far from here so we signed up for a free (that's always a plus!) tour.  The bakery, well, it just smelled divine!  The dairy didn't smell as great, but it all proved to be interesting.  The kids had never seen the behind the scenes of how that all worked so it was good for them.  As a special treat at the end, we each got an ice cream bar and a sugar cookie.  Sorry Nestle, but yours are not nearly as good as that one was!

Afterwards, we went to meet up with Grandpa Robey.  He lives out of state so this was a very special treat to get to see him.  He volunteers with an organization called God's Pit Crew.  They had been out in May shortly after the F-5 Moore tornado that devastated the area for clean up and some construction.  This time they were in town to build two homes in 17 days.  They did it!  We got to see the final product before the families got to see them.  What a special gift those families received.  The area is still devastated, but it's good to see building beginning to happen.

We finished up our stay with a family picture session and then off to do a wee bit of shopping and then we headed home so Chris could do his long run for the week in preparation for his upcoming half-marathon...

 Enjoying those ice cream bars - yum!!

 My construction lovin' boy, Luke, requested this picture of whatever they're doing

 This area used to be filled with homes.  As you can see, there isn't anything left.  Rebuilding is starting, though.

 One of the few semis they brought

 One of the completed homes - a bright spot for this neighborhood

Oh yes, Luke spent some of his birthday money from Grandpa & Grandma Robey on a Lego set.  What a treat to have Grandpa observe...he really doesn't need assistance.

Pumpkin Chunkin'

A few years ago, we watched a show of a huge pumpkin chunkin' competition somewhere out east.  When I saw that a nearby town was hosting a much smaller version of that competition, I thought it would be a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  What can I say, sometimes people have to get pretty creative for entertainment in this part of the prairie!

Anyway, the event didn't disappoint.  They had trebuches and what I call "air cannons".  I don't know if that's official name.  Anyway, they had different competitions for accuracy and distance.  I think the longest went somewhere around a half mile.  The ones on tv went somewhere around a mile - crazy!  The most entertaining ones, though, were for accuracy.  They had set an old school bus out in a field and used it for target practice.  By the end, it definitely had some holes in it.

Here is a link to a video that Chris put together of the event to give you a better idea of what it was like.  By the way, a few of those were not pumpkins.  Let's just say, bowling bowls can do a lot of damage.

Return to Me - A Book Review

In Return to Me, Lynn Austin does an excellent job of taking actual historical events and people and making them come to life with behind the scenes fiction of what life decisions may have looked like for the Isrealite exiles in Babylon.  I really enjoyed this book.  A couple of years ago, I read through the Bible again and the Old Testament came to life to me even more so than before.  Lynn does an excellent job of character development so it's much easier to find yourself in the story experiencing many of the same feelings, questions and emotions as the characters.  I was also challenged to parallel the events of this story to current events in our world today. 

I received a complimentary copy of Return to Me by Lynn Austin from Bethany House Publishers.

Robey Family Pictures 2013

 Today, we headed out for our annual family pictures.  It really amazed me this time around how much the kids had grown.  I usually notice differences, but this time, I was surprised as to how much they'd grown and matured.  Enjoy this years album!

 The Trio - Luke (8), Hannah (6), Andrew (5)

And a few extra for Luke since he just celebrated birthday number 8!

A Reading Sample

It truly is amazing to me how anyone teaches a child to read.  It's been so long ago that I learned that reading is second nature and hard for me to break it down to teach someone to read.  However, each of the kids has learned to read the basics by Christmas if not before.  A couple of them didn't even know all of their letters when they went to kindergarten.  Yet, somehow they are all avid readers.  At the moment, Andrew is insistent that we read 20 minutes each afternoon.  I thought you might enjoy a sample of what I heard last evening.  I still need to assist him with some words, but I think he's doing great.  I am a bit biased, though!

Andrew reading excerpts from Dick and Jane at the end of his first grading period in kindergarten

Common Core

When I first heard of Common Core, my initial reaction was positive.  We move so much that I thought it would be great for the curriculum to be the same no matter what state we lived in.  Those positive thoughts were short lived as I've learned more and more about it.  As a teacher, I'm appalled that they'd let the standards fall so low.  As a parent, all I can say is that the Mama Bear is coming out in me and I really want to fight and protect my children.  I've included a video that explains the beginnings of Common Core and where it could be headed and the implications that it has on us as parents, educators and citizens of the United States.  I know it's long, but well worth your time.

I must admit that after watching it, I was quite riled up.  My anxiety is high as to how to best educate my trio.  I'm deeply saddened as to how God must view this.  I'm challenged to trust the unknown future to my known God.  Thankfully, God isn't surprised by this and He is still in control.

The best thing for us to do to begin with is to educate ourselves and educate others.  I would really encourage you to watch this video on the dangers of Common Core for starters.  Thanks!