Love and Thanks

February 14, 2011 / Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

On this Valentine’s Day, this day of love, my life is full of people, places, and things to be thankful for. My heart just overflows and I can’t help but give thanks to the Giver….

1099. beginning to to get some answers

1100. wild, abundant encouragement, support; we are blessed!

1101. files with our name on them

1102. God love that leaves me speechless and teary-eyed

1103. a photo of her

1104. dinner with a new friend who loves Haiti

1105. lemon bars made by the ten-year-old

1106. Cheshire moon in the middle of the night

1107. ballet sunsets

1108. peace

1109. good small group discussions

1110. friend’s new baby girl

1111. Valentine’s Day

1112. husband who leads

1113. special gifts

1114. beloved making Valentine’s dinner

1115. daughters cleaning the kitchen

1116. God who loves first

We love because He first loved us.

~ I John 4:19

Week in Review

February 12, 2011 / Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

This week has flown by, carried by joy, anticipation, and your wonderful encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your outpouring of support for our new journey, adventure, wild God-thing.

The week was normal, all things considered, with ballet and basketball and piano and school. Today was basketball and riding lessons. Now I stare at glowing screen sipping coffee, heat on always-tight shoulders, Michael Buble on iTunes. I clean out inboxes, de-clutter desktops – both digital and tangible, and catch up on tedium neglected throughout the week.

A new Blackberry arrived in the mail last week and time was spent pulling old photos off old phone before making the switch. I have laughed today as I sort them out on my computer. I’ll close today with some of them. So funny to see the moments of silly randomness that are caught with the ever-present phone-camera…

(Admittedly, most of them are of Ellie. That kid is always doing something goofy!)

What happens when Ellie dresses herself.

Sunrise on the road

Grace and me in Chicago last summer.

Ellie in the fountain at Legend's

Getting her hair chopped early last fall

Princess and Unicorn - this kid is the total package! 😉

Geared up to learn to ride without training wheels!

Look! Ellie fits in a carry on. 🙂

Cowgirl Chandler

The trouble with home schooling - fluid schedules make it hard to answer questions in math. 😉

Team prayer before an Upward game.

Maybe I’ll have to do Blackberry Photo posts more often….these truly are the photos I have of real, every day life in our home!

Hoping your weekend is filled with memories and laughter and good things!

~ Sara

What’s Going On Here

February 8, 2011February 8, 2011 / Sara Vincent / 4 Comments

Husband comes home from Haiti. Both of us have hearts heavy for these children. We leave the airport and drive south to breakfast. We sit long in a booth at Mimi’s Cafe and talk over all he has seen and thought and felt in ten short days.

We discuss options, what both our hearts have felt, and agree to pray. He sleeps hard. I finally rest, no longer alone. The next day my heart still burns, anxious for what I feel the Lord saying. I never expect him to agree, so it seems not-as-scary to think these things. We talk over the sound of his shower, while I do my hair for church. My heart stops – he’s on the same page! Now it beats hard at the possibilities and how this will change everything.

There lives in Haiti a little girl, who from the first picture Matt sent back, my heart said that’s my daughter. I do not know what will come from this, we continue to wait for phone calls, but I know how my heart aches and I know how my husband looked at her in the photos taken by other team members. And I think of the vision Matt had once, years ago, of five daughters and how we have never had another one naturally…. She is ours in our hearts, and I can only pray that one day she will be ours in reality, if that is the Lord’s will.

There is also a little boy, whom my heart loves, but he has a sister there at the orphanage, and we will not separate siblings, and we do not feel called to adopt three, so we feel God is telling us no about the beautiful boy we wanted to bring home. And there are two other boys that we asked about, and both are in the process of adoption. And my heart is wildly happy for both of them and I laugh that perhaps God really doesn’t want us to have a son as He continues to close that door.

We do not know what the future holds. We are excited to see what God has in store. This could be a long, slow ride to bring our fifth daughter home. Or this could be a very fast trip toward a closed door. Or it could be something in between. We covet your prayers and promise to keep you posted.

Holding to His Wild Grace ~

~ Sara

Blink

February 7, 2011 / Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

This song, on the radio over the weekend, speaks to my soul and triggers my heart….

Blink

by Revive

Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Taking all the colors before they fade to gray
I don’t want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there’s no stopping time
What is it I’ve done with my life
It happens in a blink (x2)

When it’s all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don’t want to miss even just a second more of this

Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it’s too late

It happens in a blink
it happens in a flash
it happens in the time it takes to look back
I try to hold on tight but there’s no stopping time
What is it I’ve done with my life
It happens in a blink

It reminds me of the value of counting, numbering the gifts. Every second, every moment, a gift. I don’t want to miss a single one.

*Counting the gifts and sharing some recently edited photos of a pre-Christmas trip to Crown Center in Kansas City

1085. cuddling with my oldest

1086. watching the oldest mature and grow as a sister and a leader

1087. learning to wait

1088. anticipation

1089. husband who takes girls sledding

1090. quiet afternoon at home

1091. home school basketball games

1092. husband who knows to bring nachos from the concession stand without even asking

1093. early Valentine’s with my beloved

1094. shared joy

1095. old friends and the Super Bowl

1096. thoughts of friends far away as they celebrate the Green Bay win

1097. spontaneous Sunday afternoon run

1098. a new week that will hopefully bring some answers

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

~ Psalm 90:12

Blame Shifting

February 3, 2011February 7, 2011 / Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

So, this was my Facebook status at one point yesterday…

Sara….is wondering if, the next time a certain child of mine sees a new housing development and mourns the loss of the trees, I should point out that she and her sisters have probably decimated a small forest with all the paper dolls they’ve been making this week?

Last night, Matt made a comment along these lines to said children and the oldest replies, surprisingly quickly, “Well, it’s Mom’s fault, since she won’t recycle paper.” 😮

Snow Days

February 2, 2011March 27, 2013 / Sara Vincent / 2 Comments

I think I’m officially over winter. Actually, I’m not minding winter (all that much), but I think I’m over snow days. At least for a while. Maybe I’ll be ready for one again about the end of February. But in the past three weeks, we’ve been snowed in twice for three days in a row. I’m typically all for breaks in the activity schedule, but I think we’d all like some routine back. AND TO GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE! May have something to do with the fact that I was home alone with the children for ten days just last week….

Also, I’ve been wearing two pairs of socks AND my Ugg boots. And my feet are still freezing.

This is what I think of ol’ man winter right now:

Come on Spring!!!

Spinning

February 1, 2011March 27, 2013 / Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

What do you do when you feel God asking something hard, something impossible? When your head spins at what it will mean, how it will change everything. You have the chance to walk away, to say no. But your heart won’t let you, because you know your God is bigger than all these things. He is mighty and able to do more than you could ever ask or imagine. How do you know the difference between emotion and the Holy Spirit?

My heart is both heavy and light – heavy with the burden of logic and reality, light with the joy and hope of the possibilities. Prayers are coveted.

God never rebukes us for risking too much,

only for trusting too little.

(Words I’m clinging to this week.)

A Simple List

January 31, 2011 / Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

Haiti-changed Husband home now three days….my head still swims a bit at what God is showing us. A simple list today, while I continue to sort things out.

1071. five blessed hours of silence

1072. three more sleeps

1073. dinner date with one of my favorite friends

1074. photos and texts from Haiti

1075. a productive, energized day

1076. ready for his return

1077. one last girls night

1078. a head rub from my mama

1079. running! outside! in the sun!!!

1080. quietness and sunrise as I drive

1081. he is home!!!

1082. wonder

1083. hope

1084. amazement at how He moves

Week in Review

January 28, 2011January 28, 2011 / Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

Friday night is here again. Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Pot Pie for dinner, followed by How to Train Your Dragon. The girls sprawl on the floor, sharing the dog’s bed. I sit in a chair, heat on my neck, fighting off a wicked head ache. I reply to intermittent texts from my beloved. We are now on the same soil. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, I will hold him in my arms again. And we all give thanks for this time and this opportunity and we give thanks that tomorrow he will be ours again. And I wonder tonight at the changes that may be in store, at what God has done in my husband’s heart and mind these past nine days. I await, with eager anticipation, to see him, to hold him, to talk to him, about all the Lord has done.

Praying that your weekend is filled with anticipation of the Lord’s goodness ~

~ Sara

More Photo Catch Ups

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011 / Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

Emma’s birthday follows Ellie’s by two weeks. She turned nine in early December. While she didn’t get a party, we did do our best to celebrate here at home. Enjoy these photos from her special day….