This is me. Well, at least it was me when I was 25... before I had my baby girl and life changed forever. But you get the idea.

I am a jeans & t-shirt, meat & potatoes kind of girl. I love the outdoors (hiking, camping, fishing, etc) but also love my computer and have my "hermit" moments. I am in no way, shape, or form artistic. To this day I have no idea how I managed to get an A in a high school painting class (the only art class I took... I didn't dare tempt fate twice!). I deal in facts & figures and prefer things to be black & white, figuratively speaking. My only creative venues are singing & crocheting, but I don't take much time to dabble in either. My husband makes fun of me constantly about my love of list-making & budgeting and I secretly wish I could marry a spreadsheet. I wear my heart on my sleeve most of the time, so if you frequent this blog you are quite likely going to get a pretty good picture of who I am.

I was born in Missouri into a family with two very loving parents and two (pretty cool) older brothers. I consider myself blessed to have had the wonderful Christian home that I had growing up. My parents worked hard to teach me and my brothers solid morals and values, and I'm grateful to have come to know Jesus Christ at a very young age.

My family moved from Missouri to Ohio in 1995, and I graduated from high school there in 2001. I continued my education at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where I originally set out for a Math Education degree but later decided teaching wasn't the right fit for me. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in Computer Science and immediately began a career in that field. However, I was never meant to be a career woman. My heart and passion has always been for one thing: to be a wife and mother. Long before I had achieved any significant level of education I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom someday. I am so thankful that I am now living my dream, staying at home with my beautiful daughter!

But we'll come back to her in a minute. As the saying goes (before the baby carriage) - first comes love and marriage! Brent and I met in college. February 21, 2002 to be exact. One week prior, after a rather horrid Valentine's Day experience, I had gotten serious about giving God control of my love life. It was important to me that the next relationship I got into be one in which I was playing for keeps. I was tired of playing games and wanted to focus on preparing my heart for my future spouse.

It was almost frightening how quickly thereafter God brought Brent into my life. We met after church group on a Thursday night and spent all evening (well into Friday morning) talking and getting to know one another. We were pleasantly surprised to find how similar our values were... including more "extreme" things like keeping the door open when hanging out in a room alone with the opposite sex - to avoid temptation or even the appearance of sin. We really "clicked" right away, but because of my strong desire to be sure that this was the real thing, and because I felt I had already committed this time to focus on God alone, we remained just friends for the next six months. I told Brent we could talk about dating in September... so of course, September 1, 2002 we had our first official date and have been together ever since! By Christmas time that year we were comfortable with the thought of getting married someday. It was official in May 2003 when we were engaged, then on May 14, 2004 I became Mrs. Sarah Pirolli.

Brent is currently employed by our church, CedarCreek.tv, where he has been involved in one way or another since the church's beginning in 1995. He works as the full time IT Director while I have been able to do part time work from home on the church's website since May 2009. He is a big-time tech guy who has been building computers since the age of 12, so this job really suits him and he loves that he gets to use his gifts to serve the church.

After getting married in 2004, we were on the 3-5 year plan regarding starting a family. It was important to us from the start to make sure we took some time to just be husband and wife before kids came into the picture. Additionally, because I wanted to be able to stay home with our children we felt it wise to plan financially for this goal. God blessed our plans and life progressed just as we had hoped.

Meet Lydia. She stole our hearts forever on February 22, 2009 (I find it fun to note that that is just 1 day past the 7 year anniversary of Brent and I first meeting). Right now she is only 8 months old, so there's not a lot to say about her history, but this blog ends up being 95% about her... so you can read about it as it happens.

Lydia is an absolute joy in my life. "Joy" is really the only word I can come up with to describe it. She is always filled with smiles and laughter. I can't wait to see her joy continue to grow and flourish as she gets older! There are no words in the English language that can capture the love I have for my child. My heart practically explodes on a daily basis just watching her smile and learn and grow.

I serve a great God and am eternally grateful and humbled by how richly He has blessed my life. My prayer is that my family and I will continue to serve Him with everything He has given us and that we will be good stewards of these gifts.


"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Ps. 118:29
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2 Responses
  1. Jennifer Says:

    Love this recap, especially since I didn't know a good chunk of it right in the middle! :) Thank you for sharing a reminder of how faithful and sovereign our God is!


  2. Kim Neyer Says:

    I always love reading how couples meet and fall in love. Thanks for sharing your story!


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