Caney resident Robin Dixon is using her pen to tell how inspiration and faith have overcome a series of heart-breaking tragedies.

Dixon is the author of “Character Bites: Building Strength in Character Through Life’s Most Trying Times,” which has been released through Tate Publishing and Enterprises. The book chronicles the struggles that Robin and her husband, Mark, faced in a span of five years, including the deaths of two sons, a lawsuit against a funeral home operator and an adoption of a child caught in the middle of a dysfunctional family crisis.

“Believe, there were days when I woke up and looked in the mirror and said, ‘There isn’t any way I’m going to get through the day with a smile on my face.’ But, I made joy a choice. I believe that the way you deal with hardships comes down to a simple question that you have to answer: do you want to be happy with life . . . or do you want to be miserable?

“Despite all of the problems that my husband and I faced, I chose to be happy.”

And, happiness can be seen in the bright smile on Robin’s face as she talks about her book, even though the 97 pages are filled with stories that show a married couple beset with hardships.

The Dixons’ struggles began with the death of their 4-month-old son, Alex, in 1997. A coroner determined that Alex had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

On the day after Alex’s funeral, the Dixons caught an individual stealing the temporary grave marker from Alex’s gravesite. The individual turned out to be the director of a competing funeral home, who, the Dixons said, made a habit out of stealing temporary gravesite markers, spray painting them to avoid any evidence of their ownership and reusing them on the gravesites of their own clients.

Robin said she and her husband were crushed to see the brazen and cold-hearted nature of people in the time of tragedy.

They promptly filed a lawsuit against the funeral home director. And, the legal wrangling persisted more than one year, causing the family to have to relive the moments when they found a grave marker robber removing the identity of their deceased baby son.

During the time of the lawsuit, Robin became pregnant again. But, when little Garrett Austin Dixon was born in March 1998, doctors discovered abnormalities. Doctors eventually diagnosed him with 5Q Minus Syndrome, a disease where a portion of the fifth chromosome is missing, thereby affecting his genes. The absence of that small portion of chromosome resulted in poor vision, digestive problems, seizures, delays in verbal communication, delays in many other motor skills, and poor muscle tone.

The first year of Garrett’s life was spent in hospitals, where geneticists, endocrinologists, gastrointestinal specialists and pediatricians probed and pricked Garrett’s limp body. There is no known cure for 5Q Minus Syndrome, and doctors made it known that Garrett would lead a life of constant care.

Those genetic abnormalities led to Garrett’s sad demise and eventual death at the age of 2, forcing the Dixons to deal with yet another death of a child at an early age.

During Garrett’s hospitalizations and therapies, the Dixons dealt with other issues, including the raising of a step-nephew, plus the lawsuit against the funeral home operator who eventually agreed to a settlement.

However, during each trial that the Dixons encountered, they believed that their faith carried them through the most difficult times — even when all situations seemed to go against their favor.

“Without God, I would be in a loony bin,” Robin writes in her book. “It really has been his strength. The trials we have endured have taught me a lot, but the biggest lesson is that God has a plan. It’s his plan, not mine. It’s his time, not mine. It’s his strength, not mine.”

Robin said that during the family’s many hardships, she was reminded by a verse written in the book of Romans that talks about the strength of character. The verse, Romans 5:3-4, reads, “Trials helps us learn to endure, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our expectation of salvation.”

“We made the decision to have full faith in Christ,” Robin said when recalling her and her husband’s tribulations. “He was the light for us at the end of a very long, dark tunnel.”

Robin said she initially wrote the book in early 2007 not as a publication but as a simple memoir for her family.

When family members read it, they encouraged her to submit it to a Christian publisher. Within three weeks of submitting the memoir to Tate Publishing and Enterprises, the publishing firm offered her a publishing contract.

“I remember it so well because it was the day of our anniversary,” she said. “I got a phone call from Tate Publishing saying they had accepted my book for publication. So, I hung up the telephone and the tears started streaming down my face. I never in my life thought that I would someday write a book about my struggles.”

The Dixons moved to the Caney area in 2006 where Mark Dixon commutes each day to Jane Phillips Medical Center (he is employed as a nurse). Mark, a Parsons native, also is a 2nd Lieutenant with the Kansas Air National Guard.

Meanwhile, Robin works at a local bank and also is the mother of two sons: Mark David Dixon and Brian Dixon. Both boys are students in Caney Valley schools.

Robin said her family’s move to Caney helped her in her recovery of tragic loss that she faced.

“Coming to a town in the Midwest has helped us a lot,” she said. “We wanted to seek a move that would help us grow as a family, and it has. We enjoy living here.”

Dixon’s book can be ordered through barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, target.com, or directly from the publisher at orders@tatepublishing.com. An audio version of the book is also available from the publisher.

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