2010 – What a year! And it’s only May…

Psalm 40:11 “As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!”

Brace yourself….it’s a long one…

Ok, to say A LOT has gone on in the Robbins’ household since the beginning of the year is an understatement. I would love to say all the crazy stuff is exciting and wonderful, like the birth of our daughter, but unfortunately I can’t. But what I can say is that we serve a faithful and loving God who is in complete control and watching over us! And here is why….

March 12:
I’m 9 months pregnant, and about to pass out in Target due to high blood pressure. I’m rushed to the hospital for monitoring, but fortunately, the baby and I are safe and are sent home.

March 17:
I’m in the hospital getting induced. All seems well with my blood pressure, but the baby just doesn’t seem to want to come out. A very stressful beginning to a labor turned into a miraculous and wonderful birth. We finally meet our little girl, Emma Josephine Robbins, who is perfectly beautiful and perfectly healthy. A rough start to a labor, but a wonderful and smooth ending!

April 13:
I arrive home from the grocery store with a severe pain in my upper abdomen. Thinking it’s just typical indigestion, I try to sit down to help it go away. The pain intensified, and got to a point where I could not breathe. Literally. I started to feel as though I was going to pass out, with Seth by my side and Emma still in her car seat. After calling both my husband and mother-in-law, I dial 911 (first time, and hopefully last, in my life). The paramedics show up and immediately give me oxygen and hook me up to check my heart. The two things we thought it could be: heart or clot. My family has a history of bad hearts (but oh so loving!), on both sides. My dad has had 2 heart attacks, my grandpa died from one, my mom had a heart defect…the list goes on and on. So, I get it honest. The other issue it could have been was that I threw a clot of some sort. With Emma only being 3 weeks old, I could have very easily had complications from the birth that were showing up now.

Immediately, the heart was ruled out. Thank the Lord! I’m sent to the hospital, and after a chest x-ray and EKG, clot was also ruled out. The Lord is good!! What it turned out to be was gall stones. Yes, my gall bladder. Apparently I have gall stones and will probably have to have my gall bladder removed. What that looks like exactly, I’m not sure, but I’m meeting with a surgeon at the end of the month. All I can say, is that the pain was WORSE than childbirth. Yes, I’d give birth to a baby any day of the week over that. And at least at the end of that pain, I get to hold a sweet little baby. After the surgery, all I’ll be able to hold are some icky stones. Go figure.

April 29:
We learn that Seth has a wheat, dairy, pollen, and mold allergy. He has had bad skin since he was an infant and has itched his whole life. This poor little man does not know what it’s like to not scratch himself. But fortunately, the eczema is the way his allergies manifest themselves – could be life threatening, but it’s not – he just is uncomfortable. While I don’t want my little boy to be uncomfortable, I am thankful I do not have to fear for his life if given wheat or dairy. So we are working on some treatments that can hopefully heal this, but any prayers directed towards that would be appreciated!

And then the doozy…..

May 4:
It’s about 8:30 and I had just put Seth to bed. I was sitting on the couch, feeding Emma, when my doorbell starts ringing frantically. I open it to find my neighbor from across the street saying my house was on fire. When I opened the door, smoke billowed into the house and I see a small flame on our siding. I hand him Emma, run up to grab Seth, scooted the dog to the backyard, and ran out through the garage – no shoes, no phone – just my kids and my fear. His wife had already called the fire department, and I could hear them on their way. The fire was not that big to start with – just about 2 ft high beside our front door. But as I waited for the fire dept to get there, I watched my house turn orange with flames. The flames grew up the side of the door and just above it, under our roof. The fire department got there just in time to contain the fire to that part of the house and stop our house from becoming a pile of ash. I stood in fear, holding a very tired and confused Seth, and watched as 4 firetrucks and hundreds of neighbors from around the neighborhood fill our street. Although surrounded by neighbors, I felt very scared and alone – Matthew was in Seattle. I call him to alert him as to what is happening. Of course this freaks him out, and he hops on the first red-eye flight back to Cincy, getting home about 7:30 this morning. But in the meantime, I just stood there, watching the firemen come in and out of our house with fire hoses, wondering what is going to be left of our stuff when this is all said and done.

But that’s what’s amazing. At that moment, I did not care about our stuff. I did not care about our clothes, furniture, anything. I was more concerned about the ‘what ifs’ that could have happened. What if I had been asleep when this fire started? What if my neighbor wasn’t sitting in his front room and saw the fire through his window? (Which he claims he rarely hangs out in there – this night, he had) What if this fire started in another room of the house? (We have since learned it was an electrical fire started by the outside outlet – which nothing was plugged into – because all the outlet wiring in our house was done poorly. It seriously could have started anywhere) What if it started in Seth’s room, and I didn’t notice it until it was too late? What if the fire department had been there 5 min later? What if? What if? What if?

But I serve a God of no “What Ifs?” He is in complete control. Every detail of this incident was perfectly orchestrated in his hand. He placed my neighbor in that spot of the couch to see the fire. The fire did not start while we were sleeping. The fire department arrived in 4 minutes, just enough time to contain it to the front of the house. My computer, cameras, hard drives, client files, etc, were all just feet from the fire – completely untouched. Not even one piece of furniture, picture, knick-knack, was affected by the fire. Except for cosmetic damage to the inside and outside of our structural home, there was no damage. The Lord is faithful.

My family is safe.

I praise Him in this fire for so many reasons. Not only in how He spared our family, but how He has shown me His grace towards me and my family, taught me that the value of our stuff has no value, and that He is all I need. As I stood in my neighbor’s driveway, I clung to his promises and his mercy. I praise Him for opening my eyes to seeing him and only Him, and to depend on Him alone. I tend to value my stuff a lot – and we have more than we need. You always ask yourself, “What if I lost it all? How would I feel?” I am so THANKFUL that I felt such a peace about losing our stuff. Now granted, we were blessed that we didn’t, and I know so many have, like so many in Nashville right now. And it’s easy for me to say I would still be thankful, but I pray that this feeling of contentment would have been the same no matter the outcome.

So now we begin a long process of repair to our home. But I’m grateful for so many things, I can’t even describe! I try not to think of what could have happened, cause I’ll start crying. We are very appreciative of all the love and prayers we have already received. And if you want to pray for us, you can just praise the Lord for all he has done!

So anywho, that’s our year so far! Hopefully the rest of 2010 will be less eventful. And Matthew and I now joke that we are “that” family in the neighborhood. In a matter of weeks, we’ve had both an ambulance and a parade of firetrucks show up at our house. We’re just making sure things don’t get boring on our side of town. 🙂

Our neighbor was gracious enough to take pictures with his phone of some of the damage and commotion. After everything was all said and done, I kind of wish I had my camera to document everything, or at least another photographer to shoot the chaos. But my emotional and mental state of mind was in a different place then. Now, I feel differently. Oh well. Anyways, here are my neighbor’s phone pics….

So that’s my family in a nutshell…..