God Is Enough

Taking Wing

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

On a Monday evening when many things are going well but several seem to be coming apart at the seams, it is fitting to stop and count the gifts.  We don’t know what tomorrow holds but we know who holds us together.  And tonight I lean into Him, trusting that He’s led us here and will lead us on and meet our every need.  For He is a God in the details and all He does is good, even when it feels hard and makes our heads spin.

There is a fable about the way birds first got their wings.  The story goes that initially they were made without them.  Then God made the wings, set them down before the wingless birds, and said to them, “Take up these burdens and carry them.”

The birds had sweet voices for singing, and lovely feathers that glistened in the sunshine, but they could not soar in the air.  When asked to pick up the burdens that lay at their feet, they hesitated at first.  Yet soon they obeyed, picked up the wings with their beaks, and set them on their shoulders to carry them.

For a short time the load seemed heavy and difficult to bear, but soon, as they continued to carry the burden and to fold the wings over their hearts, the wings grew attached to their little bodies.  They quickly discovered how to use them and were lifted by the wings high into the air.  The weights had become wings.  {from Streams in the Desert}

So we pick it up, whatever it is, and carry it with us.  And we trust that our burdens will become blessings and our weights will become wings.





2636.  the rock solid promises of God’s word

2637.  my sweet Chandler who is ten; the gift she is

2638.  the weekend and fellowship with friends

2639.  America’s freedom

2640.  weeks that seem long

2641.  a Social Security number on its way!

2642.  a long Friday afternoon

2643.  rest for everyone

2644.  beds for little girls

2645.  God in the details

2646.  four day weekends

2647.  wings

May you find wings this week, friends.

For His Glory ~

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Pushing Out Fear…

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

Fear, it creeps in and threatens to cover like a heavy fog.  Fear of the unknown, the uncomfortable, the uncertain.  And the only way to combat the consuming fear is to intentionally whisper the thanks.  All day long.  Every day.  To combat the clouds outside that start to overwhelm the inside, a constant listing of the tangible gifts to push away the fear of the intangible, the unseen.




2483.  an afternoon with Chef Ruth, eight meals stacked in my freezer

2484.  a Thursday to be home all day

2485. naming the enemy out loud, in prayer

2486.  peace in our home

2487.  sunny and 70*

2488.  a day to go slow and be productive

2489.  windows open, fresh air blowing in

2490.   86* in March – yes!

2491.  bare legs and sunshine

2492.  choir and art and awards ceremonies

2493.  catching up on so much with my beloved

2494.  allergies – knowing spring is coming even though snow is forecasted

2495.  long talks with my big girls, learning more about their hearts

2496.  that they still want us in their world; that window still open

2497.  choir spring concert – incredible talent and leadership; a beautiful evening of music

2498.  nearly a month’s supply of groceries bought

2499.  girls who encourage and help me put them all away

2500.  Haiti girl turning six

2501.  a Visa for our Haiti girl – what a birthday!

2502.  Maacs over for another year

2503.  art ribbons and beautiful music

2504.  third-born’s brave speech – eager to try again

2505.  time to catch up a little with a dear friend

2506.  friends taking girls to the Passion Play, us on one last date for a while

2507.  craft room cleaned out, organized; a place I’d actually want to craft something now!

2508.  a bathroom sink

2509.  husband who spends his Saturday serving his family

2510.  two more sleeps….

2511.  being covered in prayer and encouraged by so many

2512.  three hours of sleep

2513.  a venti caramel mocha

2514.  traveling with my favorite

2515.  delayed flight

2516.  arriving in the dark, her smile lighting up the compound

2517.  meeting her birth parents

2518.  her joy as she realized she was really coming home with us

2519.  Pastor Daniel’s prayer over us

2520.  an unbelievable Good Friday

2521.  watching her mix in seamlessly with her sisters

2522.  a party to welcome her home; her staying close to my side

2523.  introducing her to so many that have prayed her home

2524.  Resurrection Sunday – an empty tomb, death defeated

2525.  three quiet hours in my bedroom – much-needed rest

2526.  back to the school routine

2527.  her just fitting in so well

2528.  calling “mama” to get my attention

2529.  nodding “yes” to a hug from Matt

2530.  a week of inside hard

2531.  a loneliness that turns to God

2532.  an encouraging note that makes one strong

2533.  laughter and sunshine and being together

2534.  the gift of meals in the freezer

2535.  an overwhelming homesickness – signs of healthy emotions

2536.  prayers – countless prayers; love and support from so many

2537.  her eating food; a whole new child by Friday

2538.  all the girls laughing

2539.  kitchen dates

2540.  just talking with my mama

2541.  long talks with my girls

2542.  swimming

2543.  early morning walks

2544.  winter that just won’t end – this too a gift

2545.  sunshine

2546.  garage sales

2547.  date night – glorious date night!

2548.  happy girls

2549.  chips and salsa on a Sunday night

2550.  Jason Gray playing on repeat

2551.  time with my Jesus

For His Glory ~

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When Your Eyes Are Opened Once Again…..

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

Ann writes this post yesterday from Haiti and as snow falls outside this morning in Kansas, mixed with thunder and lightning, I read and God speaks somewhere deep.  This, this is what the Lord has been trying to show me.  Through discomfort, discontent, seeking, searching, 7, finances, and the hungering emptiness inside, He’s been calling me.  Telling me I’ve forgotten.  I’ve gotten comfortable in the world again and embraced it.  He tells me it’s time to seek His face more than I check Facebook.  It’s time to be about His interests more than I’m about Pinterest.  It’s time to turn my heart back out to the world, not to become more like it, but to love like Him.

And my heart breaks at the realization.  How do I so easily forget God’s goodness?  How do I become blind to His good graces?  How do I become so complacent and forget the poor and needy and hungry and hurting when my own daughter is one of them?  It’s a gradual thing to go from walking so close to wandering in the dark. Oh that this wandering heart would hold fast to what is really real.

And Ann writes these two things…

And the fast the Lord wants is to break free – free from indifference…

And the bare bottom line is that if you are going to keep company with Jesus, you are going to have to give up keeping up with the Joneses.

And in a Facebook-Pinterest world it’s a hard thing to give up the keeping up.  And I don’t know how to do it really, clearly.  Other than to throw myself at my Jesus’ feet and ask Him to keep my eyes open and my heart raw and teach me to love like He does – to love people more than things, souls more than status, His kingdom more than this world.

Lord, have mercy on us…

For His Glory ~

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A Reflection on Lies We Believe

/ Sara Vincent / 2 Comments

Last week was wild busy and I didn’t have time to think about the downward spiral my mind was caught in, the rapid free fall my thoughts had given way to.  How does a depression that I can count on coming always manage to catch me off guard and suck me in before I realize how bad it’s gotten?  It came early this year with the realization that the holidays would be spent without Amania and I just couldn’t ever get off that emotional roller coaster.  And last Saturday night it all came crashing down.  Matt and I sat at dinner and I cried over my chimichanga.  We talked long about kids and marriage and life and ministry and so much more.  We went to bed, depleted and numb, and I opted to stay home on Sunday morning, unable to come up with the energy to put on my “church face” and pretend like all was well when absolutely nothing seemed “well” at all.

So, God and I, we sat and talked over coffee and the Bible and a legal pad.  I listened and I took notes.  And I recognized the lie that the devil had been whispering to my soul for months.  I don’t know when it happened, I know it sneaks in from time to time, but I picked up that old lie again – that lie that I have to be someone else, we have to be someone else.  That their marriage is better; that their kids are better behaved, better adjusted.  That her home is  cleaner, better decorated, more peaceful.  That she’s in better shape, seems to have it all together, never gets discouraged.  That her husband does this and their kids do that and she never seems to struggle, so what’s wrong with us?  That in everything, in every way, I have failed.

And God, He so gently reminded me that He made me just the way I am.  Yes, I am expected to grow, mature, and become more like His Son, but that doesn’t mean becoming some other created being.  When He made me so long ago, He knew what my bent would be – how I would love, how I would mother, how I would teach, serve, live.  He knew I would struggle with patience and I am confident that He laughed just a little as He placed each girl in my womb and in my heart at my general intolerance for drama (other than my own, of course).  When He gave me a husband whose primary love languages are physical touch and encouraging words, He knew that those would be the two love languages hardest for me to give.  He knew.  And I can rest in the fact that He knew.  I don’t have to compare our home, our family, our school to the family down the street or across the country or on the other side of the computer screen.  I can rest confidently in what He is doing right here, right now, in our home, in our family.  He knew exactly what our strengths and our struggles would be when He brought us all together.  I can also trust that He’s not finished.  He will keep working in us and through us and for us – for His glory and our good.  So I choose to rest confidently in Him and in His promises.  He is faithful.

For His Glory ~

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Week in Review {2013, Week 2}

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

We come to the end of another week and I find that we’ve made it through that tremulous first week back to balancing school and life.

I practiced peace while wrestling testy appliances and a messy house.

We found our way through some new curriculum and found that the second grader absolutely LOVES it.  After a few days of doing school from breakfast until bedtime (not exaggerating!), we found a little bit of rhythm and were done by dinnertime.  Now if I can get a certain child to stop disappearing between classes, we could have something close to a normal school day.

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All week we walk a dark road with a daughter who wants to choose her own path and we continue to learn what it is to pray and beg mercy and be humbled because we really have no clue what we’re doing in this parenting thing and by the time we think we’ve figured something out everything changes.

We pass another week with no word of movement in Haiti while on Facebook I see an acquaintance post pictures of their Haitian children at home.  An acquaintance we met standing in line nearly a year ago at the embassy in Port-au-Prince both waiting for our I-600 appointment.  I marvel at how their kids are home and will myself to say the Lord’s ways are higher and His timing is perfect.  Because I am done with this being “pregnant” and there are no old wives tales to test to start labor.  I must simply wait.  And I’m reminded as I do of some of the wisest adoption words I’ve heard so far, and we heard them early on in this….”Respect the process.”  No amount of grumbling or being impatient or thinking how this or that could be done better will change the adoption process in Haiti, at least not right now.  My safest and most peaceful place is to trust God and respect the process.

Last night we celebrated the new year with our Sunday school class and as I crawled into bed at nearly 1 am, I prayed thanks to Jesus for the community He has been quietly building around us this past year in our own church, a place where we had felt painfully disconnected for many months.  We are blessed.

I realize today it’s been three years since the earthquake, since Haiti appeared to almost fall in on itself.  Three years since we watched unimaginable images on television screens and prayed for our own loved ones and friends to come home safe.  It’s been three years since we felt compelled to move, to act, to be involved. Three years since a massive community-wide sale that really was the beginning of our involvement in ministry in Haiti.  And I sit and reflect on all the mighty ways God has moved in just three years and I am amazed and how can I not worship and praise His name, for He has done good things.

For His Glory ~

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More on peace…

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

It shouldn’t be surprising, but sometimes it is, how God goes ahead of us to show us we’re on the right path.

Yesterday I wrote of my word for the year – peace – and how I long for more of it in our home, in our lives, in my heart.  And today I woke up to my quiet time and Jesus Calling and read this…

Refresh yourself in the Peace of My Presence.  This Peace can be your portion at all times and in all circumstances.  Learn to hide in the secret of My Presence, even as you carry out your duties in the world.  I am both with you and within you.  I go before you to open up the way, and I also walk alongside you.  There could never be another companion as devoted as I am.

Because I am your constant Companion, there should be a lightness to your step that is observable to others.  Do not be weighed down with problems and unresolved issues, for I am your burden-bearer.  In the world you will have trials and distress, but don’t let them get you down.  I have conquered the world and deprived it of power to harm you.  In Me you may have confident Peace.

And it ended with this verse from the Amplified Bible (John 16:33)…

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence.  In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]!  For I have overcome the world.  [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

Take courage!  Be confident!  Certain, undaunted!  Have perfect peace and confidence.

Oh, I love it!  He is so good to His children.

For His Glory ~

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2012 – Year in Review

/ Sara Vincent / 1 Comment

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This year – it’s been a wildly fast one and yet the last five weeks have somehow seemed longer than the 47 before them.  As this year comes to a close, it only seems fitting to reflect on all that God has done in our lives in 2012.

We celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.  We traveled to Haiti, twice for each of us, and the oldest child made her first trip as well.  We wrapped up a really, really hard school year, soaked up the summer, and kicked off a new year which has been so much better thus far.  I painted more furniture than I can count and discovered this relatively cheap form of therapy and realized that I need a creative outlet far more than I knew.  We made more trips to the doctor’s office this year than all our other years of parenting combined, or at least it seemed that way.  We had two broken arms, a split open ear, pertussis, and a myriad of other minor illnesses.

We learned that the adoption process is wildly unpredictable and that a pregnancy with no due date is unfathomably hard to endure.  I started the year with a focus on attentiveness and found the word hope written all over it.  We took some little trips and focused on time as a family, preparing our hearts and our home for our Haiti girl to join us.  I experienced the hardest holiday season I have ever known and God gave me a glimpse of the desperate love He has for us and how He longs for us all to come home.

Oh, this year, it’s been a good one.  We have grown and changed and hopefully become more like our Jesus.  I am eager to open the door on 2013.  I’m cautiously hopeful we will be a family of seven by year’s end.  I’m trusting Him to continue to complete what He has started in each of us.  And I’m looking forward to where He leads us in the coming year.

Wishing you a blessed beginning of the coming year.  May 2013 be the best one yet.

For His Glory ~

When Christmas Seems Dark….

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

My heart hangs heavy this Christmas season. The first I can remember that the joy is elusive and so many of the songs seem hollow. I think of children in orphanages who should be in homes. I think of families who continue to wait. I think of old friends who buried their son too soon and of all those children who won’t be there for Christmas this year in Connecticut. I think of officers slain and helicopters circling overhead.

And I wonder, did God’s heart hurt that first Christmas? Separated from His Son, did He ache just a bit, the way so many of us do? Did my Jesus, even as an infant, know He was not home and long to return there as He took His first breaths? Did the Spirit cry out, longing for the triune God to be one again?

I listen to hymns because I need to constantly be fed the rich truth they hold. I write Scripture on paper and chalkboards and screens to write it on my heart. And I ask for Jesus to be near. Not because I’m scared and want to escape, but because we need His presence until He returns and because the only way our hearts will ever truly be happy is when we are finally home.

And the conversation this week will be about gun control and mental health access but the conversation needs to be about the state of our souls. We were made by God and for God and denying His presence has left us with a nation of empty people, angry people, hurting people. We fill ourselves up with the world and find ourselves still wanting and we turn to hobbies or addictions or anything we can find to be filled but the emptiness is God-sized and nothing and no one else will do. But we don’t want to talk about God.

So, what are we to do? We are to shine like lights in the universe. We are to have peace in tribulation. We are to love those who hate. We are to give thanks when it seems there is nothing to say thank you for. Because living in God’s economy on the world’s time causes people to notice. And we have a God who identifies with us in our sufferings and sorrows and we have a God who is patient and wants everyone to know of His love for them.

Lord, you were born in the dark and you came to fill our dark places. And the world seems especially dark this Christmas. Won’t you come and fill us again? Make yourself known to those who desperately need you. Be near those who need your comfort and guidance. Give peace to those who are afraid and draw us all close.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara

When It’s Hard to Say Thanks….

/ Sara Vincent / 2 Comments

The end of November, it drags like an eternity, and it’s hard to give thanks and laugh delighted when your heart pounds raw with every beat, and so I just stay quiet.  A season that is normally my favorite comes and I wish with all my heart we could just skip it this year.

Christmas just doesn’t feel the same when part of our family is so keenly missed.  And the glitter and lights and music just make her absence more obvious.

We Skype on Friday night and my heart, it just can’t take it, this saying good bye again.  We promised the girls we would decorate the tree and nothing goes right – not enough lights and a broken tree stand and a DVD player for watching Elf that only works when it wants to.  And late I sit in front of the tree, lit without ornaments, and I sob heavy over this pregnancy with no due date and I surrender my hopes – small and foolish as they may be – of her being home by Christmas.

Saturday dawns, head pounding and heart still aching, and I curl up on the couch with God’s word…

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

~ Lamentations 3:21-26

And as I work and run and pray my way through the day, my soul it finds rest.  And I am reminded He is still God and He is still good.  I write it on the kitchen chalkboard.  And joy, it creeps back in, and peace, it floods my heart.  And every ounce of me still aches to just have her home, but I still have so much to be thankful for because He is still so good to me.



2244.  slow, quiet Monday

2245.  not sleeping; talking to God in the dark

2246.  time on the couch with my people

2247.  going to bed early

2248.  children who see their own sin and seek change

2249.  quiet nights with easy bedtimes

2250.  days that are long  and I want to run and hide

2251.  a sweet girls night out, even for just ninety minutes

2252.  feeling raw and stripped bare

2253.  Friday…blessed Friday

2254.  long dates

2255.  laughing hysterically at the Tim Hawkins show

2256.  lingering over dessert

2257.  breakfast and more time to connect

2258.  a cleaner garage

2259.  tank tops on November 17

2260.  fifth date in two days and feeling so loved

2261.  child who helps me through grocery stores

2262.  another child who puts dinner in the crock pot

2263.  grace when things are broken

2264.  twelve hours of sleep for this sick mama

2265.  a new day and feeling much better

2266.  a season of thanks

2267.  long weekend ahead

2268.  family together

2269.  a day at home

2270.  a less-than-quiet Quiet Time

2271.  girls’ Christmas shopping nearly done

2272.  a movie, late on Friday night

2273.  another child turns seven

2274.  a Christmas project kicked off to benefit the orphanage

2275.  a God who can move mountains

2276.  a God who never stops being good

2277.  hard Mondays, fought with tears

2278.  cold, cold mornings with candle burning and quiet before the Lord

2279.  running

2280.  running on empty

2281.  news of more friends adopting – oh the wonder!

2282.  an evening to be creative

2283.  Christmas decorations partly up

2284.  doggy snoring

2285.  a God who leads gently; asking Him to change my heart

2286.  Skype and a broken heart

2287.  the tree that would not be decorated

2288.  tears that won’t stop falling; holding on to hope

2289.  peace

2290.  new friends; a community God is building around us

2291.  house finally decorated; tree a-glow

2292.  that Christmas feeling finally coming on

2293.  date night – every time a gift

I am blessed beyond measure….

For God’s Glory ~

~ Sara

Waiting on the Good

/ Sara Vincent / Leave a comment

Yesterday I stared into the mirror and applied eyeshadow knowing I was one moving song away from this time being wasted.  The whole weekend had felt heavy, and not just because of too much food.  My heart has hurt for families – friends now – ahead of us in this adoption process, who have waited so long to exit this stage we recently entered.  I long for a word, for news, for hope, because when they move, it’s good for everyone.

Honestly, and everyone asks this , the wait hasn’t been that hard.  Perhaps we are strange in that regard, but the past almost two years since we first met our girl have simply flown by.  There have been moments when my heart has hurt because of her absence, but for the most part, life is just too busy to stop and think much about it.  We know she is well-cared for and loved and truly quite happy where she is, and so we do not worry.  And we know that God holds her closer and loves her more than even we ever will, and we rest in His timing for her home coming.

But yesterday, oh my heart hurt and I asked God “why” and “when” and I cried out “oh, please, let someone hear something soon!”  And I left for church, kids in tow, eager to worship with the body of believers and excited to kick off a campaign to benefit the orphanage, but still somewhat raw.

As I stood there in that pew we occupy every week and we sang, my heart was comforted by the music and the words, but when we began with Mighty to Save and the words “Savior, He can move the mountains” flashed onto that giant screen it simply made me stop as I was reminded….He is able to move the mountains.  And He is good.  No matter what happens, no matter how long this process takes, no matter if we are stuck in passports for another year – He is still good.  He can move the mountains, and if He chooses not to, I must trust in His good purposes anyway.

I don’t want to wait any longer.  I don’t want our friends to wait.  I really don’t want those kids to wait.  But there is purpose in the waiting.  This time of preparation and waiting have opened my eyes to things we need to be working on here, now.  We have drawn closer to the Lord and learned to lean harder on Him.  And we continue to wait on His timing.  We wait on Him to move those mountains of paperwork and bureaucracy that keep these children too far away.  And we will continue to trust in Him because He is good.

For His Glory ~

~ Sara