A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT:)

I have been dying to post about this... and finally got the go ahead to do it... so here it is:)

We are so happy to be able to share with you about the sweet little (really not so little:) 10 month old Christmas gift we have received... Her name is HOPE JUBILEE HINTZ. We picked her up about 2 weeks ago, but due to the circumstances regarding her placement with us we were unable to really share anything about it until now. The agency director came and did our first post placement visit with us last Tuesday and she said she thinks it is now safe to say that she will be staying with us... hopefully FOREVER. She still wanted me to wait a little while to post a picture... (The circumstances of how she came to us are quite unique... so we need to hold off a little longer) As soon as I get a go ahead I will post a picture of her on here.

She is such a sweet baby girl. ( Really she is not a baby, she is over 20 lbs. and at times seems more like a toddler) She is already doing a lot of walking... it is crazy, none of my other kiddos walked this early. She is super good natured and really goes with the flow... she fits right in with us in that regard. She is a very easy baby. When we went to pick her up we were praying that the Lord would set her mind at ease with us and that He would fill her with peace. We spent a lot of time in prayer those first few days. But He certainly answered those prayers. She was very quiet the first few days... but did very little crying. About 5 days later, she really started to come out of her shell. She is quite noisy and boisterous now... it is so cute. I think she feels comfortable and is cutting lose.

The kids are over the top in love with her. And I think she really loves them too. They have been the perfect distraction to her in getting used to our home, and adjusting to a new environment. The kids almost fight over who gets to sit by her, hold her, and walk by her when I have her in my arms. It is pretty precious... They have been waiting so long to be able to shower a little one with love... they are truly enjoying it.

When we first got her, we knew we maybe wouldn't be able to keep her. But immediately Greg said, "It is going to be hard not to fall in love with her." It just melts my heart to see this little girl in his arms. He is such a good daddy. When she sees him up in church she just reaches out and grunts for him.

So much of this is not how we had envisioned it to go... her to not be a newborn... and even how she came to us. When we woke up in the morning of the day that we got her, we never could have imagined the day to turn out the way that it did. Yet, we have been praying for this precious little girl for months, actually about a year. We didn't know how God was going to grow our family... but we have been praying that He would answer that prayer... and who are we to question how He answers it? We are so thankful!

We are absolutely thrilled that HOPE is with us. She has brought much joy to our hearts already. We are so thankful to God for this precious gift. We can't wait to share our Savior with her as she grows and we can't wait to share about her big brother Samuel who touched us all so deeply and who still is such a big part of who we are as a family. I would be lying if I said that having her here didn't bring up a whole slew of different emotions... but right now we are reveling in JOY in the faithfulness of our God to bring her to us. THANKYOU GOD FOR THIS LITTLE MIRACLE BLESSING OF HOPE JUBILEE:)