Spring 2017
It’s been over two years since I last wrote a “life” post. After the March furnace fires of 2017, things quieted down… briefly. Here is a shorter summary of our life since the fire (for all the people we haven’t been able to catch up with very much).
After the fire Mari and I moved into the on-campus missionary housing at SBTS and finished up our semester there.
At the end, my parents came up to help us move everything into a friend’s garage. We surprised my parents with some long-awaited good news: Mari was pregnant.
They were ecstatic (duh), but there was a catch: after we heading back to Norway for the summer, I would return alone to Louisville in the fall while Mari would work in Norway to get maternity leave. Because I need a Master’s degree in theology to get a visa to do any theological work in Norway, getting my degree was top priority. I would have until the end of 2019 (when Mari would finish) to get it.
Summer 2017
Mari and I had a great summer. We drove around Jotunheimen National Park where Norway’s tallest mountain stands.
Fall and Winter 2017-18
In the fall, my parents helped me move into a new very small apartment, just big enough for one person, where I smashed five classes together. I came back to Norway for the winter to my wonderful, very pregnant wife. Micah was supposed to be born on January 3, and the plan was that I would stay with Mari and Micah for two weeks, head back to Kentucky on the 19th to continue my classes, and Mari and Micah would visit later that semester. But then Micah wasn’t born on the 3rd, but on the 14th… five days before I was supposed to leave for Kentucky. Our plans changed the moment he was born. How could I leave in five days?
After emailing Southern and making numerous class changes, I was able to stay in Norway for another month to help Mari take care of our newborn baby boy, Micah Jonathan Robinson. It was the best lack of sleep I’ve ever had trying to figure out our little boy. This time when I had to head back to KY, I was leaving two loves. Thankfully, I only needed to wait five weeks to see them again.
Spring 2018
I crammed all of my work into those five weeks where I was apart from Mari and Micah. Then I relished the six weeks I spent with then when they visited. We drove all over to see friends and family, but unfortunately we could not fit everyone into our schedule (always the problem). M&M flew back to Norway. I packed up our apartment, and two weeks later I flew away too.
Summer and Fall 2018
We went through Philippians with our church’s youth group on Wednesday evenings, and in July I taught a Bible study through Colossians at our church. We were all back in Kentucky for the fall. Micah slept very well and was a crawling, cute, happy, patient ten-month-old who liked to laugh and read.
Winter 2018: York, UK
Visa issues returned. While back in the States, Mari was not yet an on-campus student, so she had only a visitor’s visa. That meant she could only be in the US for 90 days. (90 days in and 90 days out.) Mari had to leave the country by Nov. 11, but because of my own visitor’s visa I couldn’t enter Norway until Nov. 21. What did we do with those 10 days in between? Return to one of our dearest places on earth: York, England. We had a great time seeing dear friends and making some new ones as well.
Spring-Summer 2019
We spent the winter in Norway, saw a bunch of family, a few friends, got sick, and we soon returned to the States. I finished up with one online class, and I graduated in May with an M.A. in Theological Studies. Mari’s parents came to visit and were able to see me walk and get my diploma. After seeing my parents, we spent the summer in Norway. It was a great summer, and we got to visit a dear friend in Germany as well.
Fall 2019: Job Opportunity
Mari is finishing up her last batch of classes in order to graduate this December. What will happen after that? We are waiting to hear back from our church in Norway about a job offer. Although not all of the details have been worked out, I would be working at a Lutheran Free Church in Norway as a youth/family worker. It would be a three year contract, and since Mari and I don’t have visas to each other’s countries, this would solve our visa issues. We find out tomorrow (Wednesday) if the Free Church synod approves my application. There is more that could be said, but that will have to wait. We need to see if I get the job first. Please be praying. There is a need in that town for Christians. We would enjoy serving at the church with some great people, and it would be great to finally have some definite plans.
spoiledmilks 