Last weekend we embarked on the exciting and tiring journey of celebrating Victoria's birthday. We decided to take her and some friends to Mexico City to Ciudad de los Ninos. This is a miniature city where the kids get money to spend at various shops and have the opportunity to make money also. The thought was that it would be nice for her to invite a couple of friends from school and try to deepen some relationships there. We knew there was no guarantee, and lo and behold, the parents didn't buy into the idea of sending their children off with strangers on an all day outing three hours away. Their worry about their children here seems a little excessive, but such is life. Just as an example, a friend of Victoria's had a sleep over this weekend and invited friends from church. Our friend, who knows them well and has for several years, was worried about the conditions or situation of letting her daughter spend the night at their house!
So, we had three of Victoria's friends with Sofia in tow spend the night on Friday night to get an early start on Saturday. The alarm clock was set for 6:15, but I heard the unmistakable whisper of eager girls by 5:00 a.m.! We were on the road by 7:20 am for the three hour drive to Mexico City (the outskirts of the city). There we were joined by our friends, Sean and Jeni McClue and their kids Sarah and Phillip. We enjoyed a fun day of making money and spending money! Victoria said her favorite was working at the radio station, where Sofia particularly enjoyed wall climbing. They did everything from work at Wal-mart, archeological digs, be firemen, sell and buy magazines, drive cars, be a vet and several others I may have forgotten. Olivia enjoyed the day also at a kiddie section where she got to play in a ball pool, ride a train and mossey around. Sam got some quality conversation time with Sean while he kept a close eye on Olivia. I tried to keep up with 6 girls that all wanted to do something different. To top off the day we had lunch at Rain Forest Cafe, dessert at Starbucks (only for the adults) and headed back home.
The ride home was so much quieter with some very tired girls. All in all, it was a great day and a fun way to celebrate! Sofia is already planning what she wants to do for her birthday...
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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.
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...
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...
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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