Robbie the Magician

I cannot begin this post without already starting to laugh at the memories. Do you have an entertainer in the family?  For me it is my older brother Rob. He was born an entertainer. My grandma has cassette tapes of him pretending to be an evangelist/preacher when he was only 3 or 4. In a most theatrical passionate voice he says  “If the devil tells you to steal someone’s nickel or kick them you say no! No, no, no!” Then he says a lot of words I can’t understand but finishes his point off with a strong proclamation “says THE WORD OF GOD”!

Around this same age he was going around the room asking every single person to tell a joke at a family reunion. Then he gets to Vartan. Great Uncle Vartan is my Grandma’s brother-in-law. He is a quiet, gentle, kind person, who may come across rather serious to a little child. So Robbie stops at Vartan pauses and then said confidently “No, he won’t have a joke.” Everybody in the room was either smiling or laughing including Vartan! He was naturally making his own jokes at a young age!

In early grade school, we have a video of him performing a solo at the school fair with a musical group called Sunshine Generation. When it’s time for his solo he hops up to the front sticks out his hand like two guns and starts sing a song called “Root’n, Scoot’n, Cowboy Joe” in the sweetest little voice ever. We were all afraid he was going to sing root’n, “toot’n” Cowboy Joe because that is how he practiced it everyday.

Throughout grade school and middle school one memory that stands out was his constant enthusiasm for magic tricks. Everyone in our family had the privilege of being the recipient and the volunteer for his tricks. Lots of times it was card tricks, sometimes it helping him make homemade videos of magic tricks, and then also I can remember plenty of times he would walk down the stairs, then seconds later be walking down the stairs again. He snuck outside, climbed the roof and went through the window, surprising us because we never saw him go up the stairs but he was magically walking down the stair yet again!

Now, he often volunteers in musicals at his local church, and he has a little protege just like him, my nephew Finn! Robert Finnley Fouch is his first born son! However, Rob himself is quite different from our Dad, who Finnley now calls Papa Bob! Papa Bob is an accountant! I love this fact. I love when God surprises us! It’s the hope of possibilities; like a serious accountant who has always loved math having a theatrical musical son that is a great entertainer and a grandson the same way! It just makes me smile!

Yesterday it was Rob’s 9th wedding anniversary, and my wonderful sister-in-law posted this picture of the two of them that I had taken during a magical moment in NYC. Another moment of surprise, that strengthened my hope in possibilities!  It was my first time in New York, first night out in time square. We look up at the buildings with the larger than life advertisements and videos everywhere, and all the sudden we hear Rob say something like “Hey, guys that’s my commercial, I edited that commercial.” See, Rob works for a small company that does video editing and graphic designing type stuff. I don’t know the specifics. Anyways, here we were in this huge city feeling small (not a bad small) but just aware of how vast, big, and how many people there are , when we look and see Rob’s work that he made in his little office in St. Louis displayed on the larger than life screen. It was yet another magical moment with Robbie! Love my older brother and appreciate the gifts and personality God has given to him.