So!

Now that I am a married woman (hehe), I have a new email address. My blog is linked to my email address, so. . . I am changing my blog address. Please make a note of the new website:

Our Cozy Robbins Nest

I will start posting there this week. Please be patient until I getting looking a little more homey like this blog. My husband happily takes up some of the time I previously spent blogging. See you all soon!

Yeah! We Did it!

It's official! We are married. . . And what a wonderful day/weekend it was!

As we were flying back to North Carolina, Mike and I were talking. I can honestly say it was the very best day of my life! I wish you could get married every year! I will post pictures as soon as I have them, but I wanted to let everyone know we were alive and married.

Also, I wanted to thank our amazing friends and family. The day was so fun and so smooth only because of the amazing help of all of our friends! You guys are the best!!!!!!

What Really Matters. . .

God has been teaching me this week about what really matters. . . I have had a few trials as I have prepared for my wedding-

• My contacts must have come from a bad batch, and so I have been having double vision in my right eye.
  
• I had my hair colored and was not communicating well, so my hair turned out differently from how I had anticipated. Not bad- just different from what I had pictured.
• My dress ended up getting altered slightly oddly, and didn't look like the way I had imagined.

Through it all, God has really been protecting me and keeping me from worry. Whether my vision is "just right", whether my hair looks "just right", whether my dress is "just right" are insignificant considerations and not what really matters. And I have every assurance that I will not even remember them five years from now, or even a year from now. But I will remember the excitement, the anticipation, the joy. God has graciously given me a good man to share my life with and to minister to and alongside. Please pray that I will remember to keep focused on that.

My First Pig Picking!

When I was in North Carolina, my soon to be father-in-law threw us an engagement party, Southern style. . . A pig-picking! We had a great time with all our friends from church, and I loved meeting the people who had known Mike all his life. Here are some fun pictures from the day.

Who Do You Hate?

About a month ago, my friend shared an awful story with me about a women who was assaulted and abused in just absolutely abominable ways. . . The story has stayed with me that whole time and I often think of this woman and what that would be like and how I might respond in her situation. It causes me to praise the Lord that he has not chosen to grow me through a situation such as this. . . But something else stands out to me even more.

My friend shared that the woman has really struggled with God and faith through these circumstances. An unbeliever, she has always struggled with the idea of God's sovereignty. This has been sort of the deciding factor. How could we love and serve a God who would allow, and even cause, something like this to happen? It has made her, and many others in like circumstances, lash out at God and even hate him. In her anger and grief, she has completely turned her face from God.

What a trick the devil has played on us! Instead of hating Satan, hating sin, hating our own inherited depravity- he has caused us to hate God. I have to stop and really think about this. Sin came into the world through Adam and taints literally everything in this life. We should hate that sin passionately and fiercely while fighting for light and goodness. Our only hope in a world corrupted and poisoned is the hope we have in Christ. Through his sacrifice, we have an eternal promise and an inheritance in the light. . . That light should shine in us in the dark places and difficult times all around us. . .

This instance, and every instance of darkness from the prince of evil, causes me to desperately need my savior and to cling to the promise he left has left us with:

John 17:13
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified."

Dum, dum, de, dum. . .

That was my attempt at the wedding march.  Sadly, that is probably closer to the melody than if I sang it!  As my big day approaches (a week from Saturday-9 days, but who's counting?), I find myself finishing last minute details. . .  Today I went to the dentist.  I made an appointment for an oil; change.  And every time I cross something off my list, I think, "This is the last time I will do this. . . as Sarah Herbert."  It sounds so morbid, almost as if I am dying.  

But then, I remember that in a way I am.  At my shower, my friend Beth said it well.  It's not two people coming together and taking two pieces to make a new whole.  Marriage as a believer is creating something new together.  We used to be two single people, but now we are one family.   A family that will be built one day at a time, by the grace of God.  It's pretty cool. . .

Please pray for me as each day brings me one day closer to our new family.

So Productive. . .

Last night, I started off the summer with a bang! I started (and finished) a little scrapbook of Mike and I's story. I took the story that I wrote for here on the blog, and journaled it onto the pages. Then, I added little quotes about love and pictures of us together. It's super simple, and might need a few more embellishments. BUT! It's done and I am pretty happy with the almost finished product. . .

I will try to take some pictures of it and post them on the website.

Now, I am going to start working on a scrapbook of all the fun wedding plans I have done- my showers, dress fittings, my bachelorette party, going to the Bridal Fair with my sisters, getting our nails done, and getting ready the day of the wedding. . . Always good to be working on something!