The Steele Story

We started dating in 1996.  We were married in 1999 and started a great adventure.

Here are some stats so far: 7 different homes in 2 states (NM & TX), 2 home purchases/1 home sale, 13 different jobs (Only 2 jobs in last 10 years. There was a lot of changing early on.), 3 kids, 9 foster kids,3 dogs, 4 cats, 25 fish, 20+ chickens, 11 cars, 3 churches,  0 cheatin’!, innumerable friends

MILESTONES
In 2001, we became pregnant for the first time.  Thirty weeks into the pregnancy we faced  an extremely difficult diagnosis.  Our first child would be born with severe brain damage.  Kennady, our daughter would most likely not be able to see, hear, walk, talk, eat, or any other function on her own.  She was given approximately 2 years to live.  Now, many years later, she is very much alive, but with a lot of special needs.  Get more details on Kennady’s condition.  We had two other kids (both boys).  Jude in 2004 and Avery in 2006.   They were born with completely healthy, normal brains.  We thought, “Oh, cool. Normal kids!”  We were wrong.  They were born with severe food allergies.  Jude has allergies to egg, wheat, soy, and all nuts while Avery is only allergic to eggs.

We planted a church in 2003 with 30 people and it has grown to over 1000 members. It is a thriving family that is the body of Christ.  We often see God moving all around us while we go home to a seemingly unanswered prayers (Kids with issues).

Instead of becoming bitter, God’s grace has been tremendously influential in our daily life.  We have a new God-shaped ‘normal’.  It is not the normal that we were looking for in 1999, but we would not trade our new normal for any old normal.

We write here on this blog because we want to connect with other families.  We love sharing our story and we love hearing others.  We share what our life is like as we strive to be a family that lives out the Good News of Jesus.  Sometimes it looks really cool. Other times it looks really ordinary.  Sometimes it is awfully difficult.

Check out the significance of our blog title ‘mademeaningful’.

In 2020, Robin released a book called “How To Be Made Whole” that shows how God speaks through Kennady’s story and proclaims Good News!  You can get more info here.

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR STORY
We would love to connect with you.  What are your challenges? What makes you unique? Of course, you can comment on this post, but if that seems a bit to public, then send us a private email: hey@mademeaningful.com.

+ Robin, Erica, Kennady, Jude and Avery