The Gift of a Name

As I discussed earlier, I believe the naming of our children is a very important task. Bob and I put a lot of thought and prayer into it and take it very seriously. After finding out that this last baby was a boy, we began to tackle this task yet again. We soon decided his name would be

Caleb Robert

As you can imagine, Robbie continues to be a part of everything we do. I explained it to someone as though his picture and all of those thoughts and emotions are tacked on my forehead. Everything I see or think about is filtered through those memories. We wanted this child's name to reflect our family story.

One of the very first names that we discussed was Caleb. We both liked it and began to read more about Caleb from the Old Testament. He was an amazing guy! As you may know, he and Joshua were the only two men who accepted God's mission and believed they could accomplish it, which is no small feat considering that they had to literally fight and overcome giants. As a result, they were the only two permitted to enter the promised land. They were fearless and knew that, with God, they could do anything.

Caleb is constantly referred to as a man who "wholly followed the Lord."

"But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it." Numbers 14:24

And Caleb says: "So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then." Joshua 14:10-11

That is our prayer for baby Caleb. And, while we have a blue million Roberts in our family, Caleb is named for his big brother Robbie.

Because we recognize the great significance in naming a child, you can imagine how overwhelmed we were when our great friends announced that they would be naming their son after Robbie!

Meet Bennett Robert!

We have known Brian and Jenna since law school. They were married with no kids and were urging Bob to ask me out which is a post all on its own. The rest is history!


Bennett Robert joined their other 3 children - Lauren (not named after me!), Cade and Cooper. We do not live in the same state but vacation together as often as we can! Our Robbie and their Cooper were just a few weeks apart and played together on a trip to Gatlinburg in October 2006.





This past summer, we all went to Florida. The kids were so sweet to Eveley.







While we were in Florida, I found out I was pregnant with Caleb. And a few weeks later, Jenna discovered she was pregnant with her fourth. This was a MAJOR surprise, but we were all excited!

Bennett Robert was born on Christmas Eve. He is a cutie! I'm sure he and Caleb will be great friends.

We love this family! They have stuck with us these past several years -- good times and bad times -- and constantly remind us that they are praying for us and remembering Robbie.

We need to plan another vacation!!