Blogging...what's that?

So, it has been a while since you have heard from me, but we are all alive and well and way too busy! Following is the Reader's Digest version of what has been going on with us. I would write more, but my eyes are crossing...this baby is sucking the energy out of me, and 6:00 am comes early. Blessings to each of you.

Jose Luis

For those of you that may be wondering about our friend Jose Luis, who was stabbed, and the even fewer of you that don't read Sara's blog also, we wanted to let you know that he is doing quite well. He is recovering physically without any trouble. He can move around easily, but can't lift anything for a while. This all continues to be a testimony to God's greatness. He testifies to His greatness on every opportunity he gets. It has also been a blessing to see how his extended family has been able to see his church family love and care for him. One of his brothers, Martin, has come to our Sunday celebration as a result of all this. Of course, the struggle right now is financial. He has not been able to work and that weighs on him. He has tried to get his taxi back from the police, and he is getting a run around (what a surprise) and a request for money. God has provided and will continue to provide. We just wait to see what that will look like.
In the meantime, we continue to help with taking and picking up kids from school, which can be quite a feat in rush hour traffic on narrow downtown streets.

Victoria turns 9!

Our sweet baby turned 9 last week! I'm sure that it was just yesterday that we were headed to the hospital in the middle of the night and welcomed her to this world in the early hours of the morning. She came so fast, the doctor wasn't expecting it and almost dropped her! Since that day she has been a joy to our lives. She is quiet and thoughtful. She enjoys her friends, but needs space to herself. She loves her sisters and gives into them often. In fact, it is hard for her to do homework if Olivia is the least bit unhappy (hmmmm...)
For her birthday we had what was supposed be a small gathering for cake and candles. By the end of the event, we had a full house, cake, and a chocolate fountain for dipping fruit. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the fellowship. For a full view of the gathering, you can see Sara's pictures. Victoria will get to celebrate her birthday this weekend with a couple of friends and a trip to a children's city (hard to explain) in Mexico City. Keep tuned for pictures (I'm sure I'll post about that sometime in June!).

Lunch at Applebees with Sara and Jeanine with a surprise from the waiters.



The birthday crowd (the kids anyway)

Christmas in Texas

Before heading out to Texas, the girls had their annual Christmas festival at school. They were both very cute and did a great job; however, you will have to use your imagination on how cute they were since my computer seems to have eaten those pictures up.
We spent a couple of weeks in South Texas for Christmas. It was great fun! The girls were not excited at all about the long drive, but grandparents, cousins, and some favorite foods more than made up for the drive. We spent the first few days at South Padre Island with the Griffin side of my family. It was so much fun to be there and just enjoy each other's company. Many of my cousins and aunts and uncles we had not seen for at least 3 years. Victoria especially enjoyed being with older teenage cousins. It is just a picture of how quickly she is growing up. Sofia enjoyed her Christmas presents and playing with her younger cousins. They weren't too sure about being at the beach with "cold" weather and cold water. The condos had a heated pool and jacuzzi, so we spent most of our swimming time there. For a full picture record, just click here

The Vincent cousins (except for Benjy's kids) all looking sane


Too enthralled with the Christmas presents to get dressed



The whole crowd at South Padre Island



For the later part of our time in Texas, we spent with Sam's family ringing in the New Year. Several of his brothers and sisters were out visiting other family, so it was a smaller group than usual, but we had a great time of fellowship with those that were there. The girls loved being at Tita's house and playing with her dogs. They also found a stray cat that almost became our pet, but we persevered and the cat is still at Tita's house (we might be adopting it on a future trip!).

Everyone around the dinner table (a common site!!)



Olivia pretending to be a cat



Our almost pet...

The true story!

For those of you with a sense of humor and basic working knowledge of Spanish, you may want to check out our local newspaper's rendition of what happened to Jose Luis. There is a picture included (that you can't see on the Internet), but Jose Luis is sure that it isn't him. Fascinating what you think is supposed to be the truth! In all fairness to the newspaper, it seems that there was another incident very similar in the same area that happened that evening, and we think that maybe they confused or combined both events.
Jose Luis is doing much better and will probably be going home tomorrow or Thursday. We continue to praise God for his life.

Update on Jose Luis

I know that many of you have either heard from us directly, or you read Sara's blog and have an idea of how things are going, but I wanted to let you know how things have progressed.
Jose Luis had surgery on Sunday night and all went well. He had a laceration to his liver that was repaired, and no other organ damage. We praise God for that! He had a difficult time coming out of the anesthesia with vomiting and nausea and was in quite a bit of pain for the first 24 hours. He is now doing much better and able to sit up at least. I would suppose that he will be going home in the next day or two.
What has happened is a terrible thing and reminds us that we live in a fallen world. With the many questions and uncertainties, Victoria asked why something so terrible happened to Jose Luis since he loves God...a reminder of the battles we fight. And yet, this has already been such an amazing testimony and praise of God's greatness and love! Now that Jose Luis has been feeling well enough to tell more details of the story, it is only by the grace of God that he is alive. He was stabbed three times in the chest and abdomen and only his liver was nicked. He was able to get away from his assailants and get help very quickly (although it seemed like an eternity to him). The guys that assaulted him were planning to kidnap him for ransom money (this does not usually have a good outcome) and they had guns which they didn't use -- maybe God silenced the mouths of the guns! There is no doubt that Jose Luis' testimony about all this will be to glorify God.
The other beautiful part of this is to see how the community of Christ here has truly become family and truly reflects the love of God. Sunday night we called everyone so that they could be praying for him. Little did we know that most of them would show up at the hospital that very night to encourage and pray for Jose Luis and his family. Everyone is pouring out their love and service to them, and we rejoice to see that!
There is still a long road to recovery for Jose Luis and he and Adriana's big concern are finances, since he will not be able to work for a while, but we serve a mighty God and know that He will provide for them abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. Thank you for praying and keep praying with us for this family. The out pour we have felt from each of you has been equally overwhelming for us.

Prayer request

My plans for tonight were to tuck the kids in for an early bedtime (in preparation for school tomorrow), and catch up on all our holiday activities on the blog. Instead, I come to you to ask that you pray with me and with the church here for our neighbor, Jose Luis. He and his family have been a part of this community of believers from the very beginning and are strong leaders in the church.
Jose Luis is a taxi driver, and this evening as we pulled in the drive way his wife, Adriana, came to find us. She received a call that he had been assaulted in his taxi and was at the hospital. Sam quickly went with her and found that he had been stabbed and that his liver was probably damaged. Jose Luis is in surgery as we speak.
His two children, Gloria and Jose, are here and have finally settled down. I think that Victoria has finally given into sleep also (tomorrow will be tough). Please pray with us that God will protect and heal him; that this will be a testimony of God's greatness; for peace in Adriana, Gloria and Jose's lives as the walk the unexpected, and for financial provision as he won't be able to work for sometime, I am sure.
I will write more later as we know more, and I will catch up on all our Christmas activities some time before next Christmas!