The Story of How Our Little Family Came to Be...and Our Journey to What We May Become

I am the fourth of ten children born to Bryan and Vicki Robinson.  As one of the older half, I was able to witness 5 younger siblings being brought into our family.  The only birth I don’t remember is Rochelle’s because she is less than two years younger than I am, and I was too young to remember my life before she was a part of it.  Growing up, nothing was more exciting to me than knowing my mom was expecting another baby.  It would often be my first happy thought upon waking each morning.  I just loved babies!  My love for children and babies would continue throughout high school, and as a senior, I was unsurprisingly voted, “Most Likely to Have 20 Kids.”

I met my husband for the first time when I was 18.  Two years later, he finally asked me out.  The next year, on my 21^st half birthday, I married him in the Mount Timpanogus Temple in 2004.  In December 2005, our first little bundle of joy arrived.  Our second bundle of joy arrived 18 months later, our third 21 months after that, and our fourth 26 months after that.  Today, I am 23 weeks pregnant, expecting our fifth child and fourth boy in July.  Motherhood is blissful.  I tell people all the time that I have my dream job.  I am a WIFE and a MOTHER.  

While my life is beautiful, and I have been incredibly blessed, it isn’t always easy.  Marriage takes a lot of work.  Raising children is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  The scene in our home, at times, hasn’t been very pretty.  I have realized that I am imperfect in more ways than I thought possible.   At times, I’ve questioned who in the world gave me permission to have this family when I feel so inadequate in being the wife and mother they need me to be.  And that’s when I realize, that’s the whole point.  We don’t have families because we ARE everything we are supposed to be.  We have families because they help us BECOME everything we are meant to become.   That is why we believe that FAMILIES are central to the PLAN OF SALVATION.    See  "The Family: A Proclamation to the World".

Being a wife and mother has helped me grow, stretch, and change in ways I didn’t even know were necessary.  When I was single, I thought I was a good person.  I didn’t know marriage would teach me how much selfishness I had to overcome, nor did I know that it would take parenthood to teach me patience and compassion like nothing else had.  In the very act of mimicking our Heavenly Parents, I become more like them.  I have come to understand that this family of mine is my “trial run” for the eternities.  We believe that if we reach our fullest potential, we not only get to live with our Heavenly Parents again, but we get to be like them and have spirit children or our own for eternity.  That thought has always been so exciting to me!

My parents taught me about my divine potential from such a young age that when I first read “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” when it was published in 1995, all of it seemed so basic to me that I wondered why the leaders of our church felt the need to put those statements in writing in such a formal manner.  Now, as world views change and I can see the generally accepted definitions of family and marriage being altered, I am beginning to understand.   Finding a traditional family is becoming more and more uncommon.  I had a dream recently that I felt could represent the growing trend.

In the dream, Craig and I were going to prom, something we had never done in real life.  The dance was going to be held in a high school, even though we weren’t actually high school students anymore.  I knew we were married in the dream because, as we walked hand in hand to the dance, I was telling him that I was just beginning to feel the baby’s first movements in my belly.  In the dream, I was pregnant but not yet showing.  It’s funny, but I remember exactly what we were wearing.  Craig looked handsome in his black tuxedo, and I was wearing a simple but elegant, long, emerald green dress.  I remember that the dress had three quarter sleeves and a high boat neckline.   I felt regal.  I knew, even in the dream, that my dress would not be considered trendy or fashionable at a high school dance these days, where short, sleeveless dresses are more in style.  Nonetheless, I had never felt so beautiful.  When we got to the gymnasium dance floor, I realized that over half the student body was treating the dance like a stomp instead of a formal event.  I saw many girls in tank tops, shorts and flip flops.  In addition, many people had come without a date and were attending stag.  The music was fast and loud, and many were dancing alone.  There were still others that were dressed up formally like we were, but there were so many doing the exact opposite that I wondered for a moment if I should feel out of place.  In the end, I decided that I didn’t care.  I liked being dressed up, I loved feeling so beautiful, and I was so excited to be there with my sweet husband.  I remember thinking that I was finally at a school dance where I knew I was completely in love with my date!

I feel, in some ways, that this silly little dream can represent how many people view marriage today.  So many are treating marriage casually, exemplified by the rising divorce rate, the number of people who cohabitate before marriage or instead of getting married, and the number of childless couples who are married, that our beliefs about abstaining from premarital sex and having children are being viewed as old-fashioned.  (See Time Magazine’s cover The Childfree Life: When having it all means not having children.)   I feel the fact that Craig and I were dressed up so formally could symbolize that our marriage resembles one that is more traditional.  We are certainly not alone in valuing traditional marriage, but there are so many with differing views that it is easy to wonder if we are the ones becoming the minority.

I am here to testify that traditional marriage is as important today as it ever was.  I feel so blessed to have a husband that does all in his power to provide for his family.  I feel so blessed to be a homemaker as I strive to raise children who know a loving Heavenly Father.  I feel so blessed to be able to use the Atonement of my Savior as I fall short of perfection every day.  I am grateful each day, for the opportunity to become a better person, a better wife, a better mother, and a better daughter of God.  

The following is a Mormon Message about fathers and how parenthood teaches us about the nature of our Heavenly Parents.  It is beautiful!