MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HINTZ CREW TO YOURS:)

We have had a fun last couple of days! Yesterday we went to church at 5:00... of course we didn't get dinner before we left. Greg had left earlier in the day and had 2 more services to do later. After church, my sweet pregnant friend from our small group said she was craving breakfast for dinner... I asked where they were going... and she revealed IHOP... OH MY... YUMMO!!

(After I delivered Louis 13 1/2 years ago, our sweet friends in Texas, Chris and Mary, called the hospital and said, "You name it, we will bring it to you to eat..." I chose a double order of IHOP hashbrowns... ) Well, last night that sounded pretty good to this pregnant mama!

So we joined the Davis' for some IHOP after church... we had a ball! I have never done anything like that on Christmas eve... but I think a new tradition may have been born:) I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to take the kids to McDonalds on Christmas Eve... but I wasn't really up for cooking either. I had gotten today's meal all ready yesterday... and was wiped out... and hadn't thought ahead to take anything out of the freezer.

Then the kids and I went home, they each opened up a small snuggly item, like Jammy pants, socks or a fleece blanket and we snuggled up on the couch and watched Miracle on 34th Street... then we took a break for some chocolate fondue and some sparking Cider. I really wanted this year to be a year for me to start some Christmas Eve traditions with them, while Greg was still at work. The last couple of years I really was just trying to get through Christmas after losing Samuel... this year felt different and it was nice. I think the kids really liked it too.

Louis stayed up and helped me clean up he house... and Greg rolled in around 1:30 am and we all went to bed:) I was readyfor bed... and wasn't quite ready for church this morning:) But we all made it there:)

Then after church we did present with the kids... we usually do 3 presents per child... just like the 3 wise men so it isn't too crazy... It was really nice and then we had a nice meal together... the whole family. I feel so blessed today... I will post in a couple days about one of our favorite gifts this year:)... hmmmm a hint... it is growing bigger everyday:)

At the same time as we had such a precious day together today... my heart is hurting. I hurt for all of those that I know are hurting today... who have lost a loved one... who are losing marriages...

Would you please pray for precious friends of ours who are near the end of the rope as far as their marriage goes.... We have been and will continue to pray for a miracle for them. Even though good news hasn't come... we will continue to pray! My heart hurts knowing that Holidays can be soooo hard when your heart is broken in two.

Thanks for praying for them...

Much love to you this Christmas Day!

Done with cooking... not really:)

Jojo was a big helper with the lasagnas:)

Have to take a quick break from all the cooking to do a little dancing:)

Oh no... the neighborhood dogs are starting to smell the food:)

Hope is getting all tuckered out and ready for a nap.

Caleb is the taco soup man:)

I am absolutely thrilled to have 24 meals in the freezer. We cooked for quite a while on Saturday and everyone helped, except for Hope. For some reason I think just having the meals made lowed my blood pressure. No, I am kidding, but really it lightens the burden I feel in my head. Now even my kids can get out a meal with out any help and everyone will fed:)

We also found out we will be getting a little bit of company over Christmas break. Greg's parents will come up for a few days and some dear friends from our time at the sem are coming. Yay, what a perfect distraction and fun time that will be to have them all here.

Besides those couple of things... life is just moving on here. Most schools are off this week, but not us:) I want to make sure we have time to take in Spring when the baby arrives, Lord willing. I rather have an extra week then, rather than take 2 now, when we don't really need it. I am 25 1/2 weeks now... I can hardly believe it... Really it is going by pretty fast... I actually bought a little sleeper for the little guy the other day. I went back and forth on if I should get it... the kids were all for it, and helped me pick it out. Really, sometimes I am STILL completely in awe that the Frozen Embryo Transfer worked... that I am allowed this precious gift and opportunity to have another child.

So the only cooking to get done is a couple kinds of cookies and the kids are begging for Grandma Deena's rolls, pigs in a blanket, and cinnamon rolls. Thankfully it is all the same dough, you just divide it out. I would love to have some of those frozen for when company is here. We will see if it happens. I get sort of lazy, and love to have the majority of the cooking done, so we can just hang out and visit.

Praying you all have a very blessed Christmas!

HE'S GOT THE HOOTSPA:) and an update on my bp

DISCLAIMER: I literally am falling asleep at the keyboard... so I make no promises on if this sounds correct, is spelled correctly or any of it...

I posted these pictures because honestly, I couldn't resist. He just makes me smile, laugh and be filled with joy. Today he told me he loved my little tiny buns....Excuse me???? I just had to crack up, because I think the extra calories I am intaking are heading right there these days:)

Jojo as well as his little sister are downright filled with the hootspa. Did you know that the word hootspa is making a come back? My family has always used this word... I have had many friends laugh at me, and then during the last Olympics, I had a friend call me because one of the sportcasters used the work HOOTSPA to describe someones gymnastic routine... that made me laugh.

My blood work all came back fine this week. I was so thankful and really I have felt much better in general the last couple of days. I do think my immunity in general must not be up to par or it may just be my age, I don't know.... but... I have had sooooo many little aches and pains this go around. Am I complaining at all??? NO WAY!!! I am thrilled. But it is odd how I have had a lot of different little ailments that I haven't ever even had in my life. I saw Doctor W on Wednesday and I almost wanted to call again on Friday about something else.

This is very much not like me. I am usually as laid back as they come and am not a worrier by nature. I am thankful that I didn't call... I felt much better today. I don't' want to pester them... but don't want to possibly ignore something either. It is a fine line for me.

Well, I must hit the hay... we got 24 meals in the freezer today... with the help of everyone, but Hope of course...she just made trouble while we all tried to work with her underfoot:) Anyways, I know it will be well worth it when I can pull a meal out and not even have to lift much more than a finger. ... It was exhausting... but fun at the same time. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

By the way, Thanks for your prayers for my bloodpressure!

A LITTLE UPDATE ON BABY BOY

LOUIS TOOK AND EDITED BOTH OF THESE PICTURES... I THINK I LOVE THEM BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE THE KIDS ARE TRYING TO SKI... I HAVE GREAT MEMORIES OF SKIING UP NORTH WHEN I WAS A KID:)

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A MONTHS FREE TRIAL OF LIGHTROOM ON LINE. LOUIS DID THAT AND HAS BEEN HAVING A BALL WITH IT:)

Well, I am sitting here eating leftover Mexican food. Yesterday I was blessed to have lunch with a newer girl from M.E.N.D. It was so nice to talk about Samuel and Brooke and how their impact on our lives have affected the holidays. My heart just hurts for her knowing that the first Christmas was the hardest for us... but she is making it and I am so proud of her.

I just got back from an unexpected Doctor's appt. Last week I just felt like my blood pressure was up. I have been hitting Walmart to check on it over the last couple of weeks and it has consistently been high. After I sit there for about 10 minutes it will always come down. That is a good thing, but it still bothers me that it is high to start off with.

I wasn't surprised when it was high when I went in today. It is just too early to be high. I love my doctor. He ordered some blood work to be done and will call me with the results tomorrow hopefully. He said at this point, he wasn't too concerned. I asked if I needed to stop doing housework yet? (jokingly of course:) He said no, not at this point, but that might be down the road a little bit.

I have kind of decided I really need to lighten up what I am doing around the house. I just stopped teaching Sunday School, which will be good for now. And when I came home the older 2 boys said, "Mom, we decided that you need to stay in bed and can help us with school from your bed... and we will make breakfast and lunch and do the cleaning." I almost fell over. They can be the sweetest kids, and I don't doubt at all that they could keep things going just fine around here.

I don't think that I will hit the bed:), but maybe will make a concerted effort to hit the couch and put my feet up some more. Greg and I did talk about getting some meals in the freezer this weekend. As silly as that may sound, just to know that they could pull out a meal and throw it in the oven would ease my mind a lot.

Dr. W. did say that he feels confident that we will be able to get this little guy to a safe point to deliver, even if it is earlier than expected. We set an appt. to see the high risk doctor on a regular basis starting in 2 weeks.

Would you all please pray that my blood pressure would be under control, that the doctors would have wisdom in recognizing anything out of the ordinary that needs to be addressed, and that my heart will be calm:) Would you also pray that this baby boy continues to grow strong and healthy each day. And most importantly, that God's will would be done in his little precious life. I so appreciate it!

A YEAR AGO TODAY...

A YEAR AGO TODAY WE GOT A PHONE CALL AROUND 10 AM ....
ASKING IF WE COULD PICK UP THIS PRECIOUS PUMPKIN LATER IN THE DAY...
(this was her first car ride home with us... I think she was worn out from having had quite a day)

WAS THIS THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS???

OUR HEARTS WERE OVERJOYED... AND A BIT ANXIOUS TOO:)

SO THAT'S WHAT WE DID...

PILED THE KIDS IN THE CAR,

RAN TO WALMART FOR A CARSEAT...

AND HIT THE TRAIL TO DRIVE 2 HOURS TO PICK UP OUR NEWEST DAUGHTER...

AS MY HEART REFLECTS OVER THE LAST YEAR WITH OUR HOPE... MY HEART IS SO GRATEFUL TO OUR GRACIOUS GOD!

SHE IS THE ANSWER TO MANY HUNDREDS OF PRAYERS...

SHE IS ONE OF THE GREAT DELIGHTS OF MY HEART...

SHE IS A TRUE GIFT AND BLESSING FROM OUR GOD!

THANK YOU LORD FOR OUR HOPE JUBILEE...

Samuel's garden... a gift

This is a picture of the gift that my parents had made for us to put in Samuel's garden. I love the little boy figurine with the bird resting in his hand. It continues to remind me that if the Lord will watch over even the Sparrow, how much more so will he care and watch over our family.

I love the plaque that they had made. This may all sound a bit strange to you, but here goes... I still feel 100% at peace with having had Samuel cremated... it was totally the right choice for us... given especially that we didn't know if we would even be living here 8 mos. after he died. I just couldn't bury him and leave him here.

I love that we have a garden planted for him right in our yard, with a bench where we can sit, cry, think and talk to God. I often lay on the bench, staring up at the sky and ponder... What is my son doing right now in Heaven... what does he look like, Who does he know up there? Whenever I look at the big vast sky my thoughts go right to him. Right now the garden looks pretty sad... all dead and empty... but I know come Spring it will be beautiful again... Ahhhh new life!

For some reason the plaque makes our little area for Samuel more official in my eyes. I can see his name right there in front of me, in print, permanant... I LOVE THAT.... PERMANANT... He is a permanant part of our family... even though he is rarely mentioned by others... The plaque reminding me that nothing will ever separate me from God's love...for the love He had for Samuel and has for each one of us... This gift meant so much to me, especially coming from my parents.

I came across this post on facebook today... not that I am really a fan of facebook ... but I found this quote and it struck me as so very true...

If you know someone who has lost a child, and you are afraid to mention it to them because you think you might make them sad by reminding them that they died-- You are not reminding them. They didn't forget they died. What you are reminding them of is that you remembered that they lived, and that is a great gift... Elizabeth Edwards....

LOOK WHO IS SAYING HI:)

HERE IS OUR SWEET LITTLE GUY GIVING A WAVE TO YOU ALL:)

I just got off the phone with my sweet (blog in real life:) friend Tonya at www.tonyatalk.blogspot.com What a sweet conversation we had. I absolutely treasure and am so very thankful for the friends I have made through the loss of Samuel. These are friends that truly understand the road I have walked and continue to walk as we expect this precious little miracle next March. It was just nice to receive encouragement and understanding from someone who has lived it too. (She just had Matthew back in July, and had lost Grady not quite 2 weeks after we lost Samuel) I think back to my brief, but oh so special visit with her and Ebe last January on our way home from Florida... She was so brave to take on my crew and I for a night, when we had never met in person... I will always treasure the memories of that special night we had getting to meet in person.

So much is going on here with Christmas and church activities, yet at the same time I am thrilled that we are not making any more travel plans. As much as I LOVE spending some of the Christmas time with family in far away states... I am a bit worn out this go around and I treasure the fact that of not planning another vacation, leaves us with so much more time just to focus on Christmas, Jesus' birth and being together. The older boys did remind me before bed that tomorrow morning is St. Nick's and that Jojo was expecting some surprises in his stocking in the morning.

I am the world's most boring stocking stuffer... Nuts, an orange, apple and pomegranate, and a few chocolates... I must confess I ate Hope's pomegranate tonight, is that bad or what??? ... I am kind of hoping she won't notice... it would have been far too messy and I think she can share off the older kids... I just had such a craving:)

As far as new little baby boy goes... he does have a name... we both love. And I am thrilled with it. I love calling him by name. I am not sure if I will share it on the blog till he arrives but who knows:) We had an ultrasound last Thursday and all looks great. He was measuring just a couple days larger than expected. I don't know why, but in my head I am just thinking... grow baby boy grow!!! I am at about 23 weeks and feeling more consistent movement... He is usually pretty quiet in the morning and that can be a bit unnerving (as that was just what happened with Samuel when I first noticed no movement) but usually within a couple of hours he starts to get busy in there and I love that:)

Please know that I often think of those still trying to conceive and my heart just aches for them. I know how easily this Frozen embryo transfer could have turned out differently for us. I do not take a day for granted while this little one is safe , healthy and alive inside of me. I know that God is sovereign and I trust Him and His plans, but I know too how hard it is for one to sit by and watch person after person, many of which aren't even trying to conceive, announce their pregnancies so carefree like, and be blessed with healthy babies, as your heart is longing for the same.

Life is hard... I get that. A few things I am thinking about with this little one.

My heart is rejoicing that we have made it this far. I think about our embryo donor mom so often. I am so incredibly thankful for her gift to us. I know that I can't fully comprehend all that she must feel in regards to this little guy. But I also wonder if she can fully comprehend what this little boy means to us all ... how much we love him already... how often the kids and G and I thank God for him in our prayers... Sometimes I feel like my heart could explode that God has blessed us with this miracle gift. I am just so grateful.

While there is such excitement in our home, there is still fear. I know that fear is not from the Lord. It has been a while since I have had a moment of heart gripping fear. God has been faithful to calm my heart. At the same time there is the constant struggle of balancing the hope with reality. Louis asked me a couple of weeks ago if we were going to get down all of the baby stuff, and the bassinet. He didn't want to have to put it all away if for some reason this baby didn't come home to live with us. (Since we had hoped to adopt, and didn't know if we would get a drop off newborn, I never put the baby clothes up in the attic. It is all clean and in little containers in Anna and Hope's closet. So all that needs to be done, is to put the baby girl clothes away and wash up the boy stuff)

I struggled with knowing how to answer Louis. Part of me knows we have bags already packed for the hospital, that we had just in case we got a call from the adoption agency. (Is that bad that I never officially unpacked those?) And that after the baby arrives Greg can easily get all the other stuff down at a moments notice. Then, there is the other part of me that wants to do it up big... paint the extra bedroom, get it all set as a nursery. I have such mixed up feelings at times. I am a very practical person and know that Hope is still in the crib so practically speaking she may still be in it when this guy arrives... so that may all have to wait... See can you tell how back and forth I am:)

Well, I will leave you with a verse, I don't think I have posted before... I have clung to this verse for the last couple of years... hoping that some day it would apply to me...

ISAIAH 43:19

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

There have been so many times of feeling surrounded by the wilderness and wasteland in the last 2 years. Praise God he is doing new things in our hearts and lives... He is growing this new baby... totally separate from Samuel... totally separate from Joel... totally separate from our adoption journey with Hope. But yet they are all a part of what He has walked with us through these past 2 years. They are all a part of the story He is weaving throughout our family. Tonight I am so thankful for these streams of water in the wasteland... God is good! He always is... regardless of what is going on around us.

THE HUNT... THE PRIZE

Here is my honey's big buck. We made sure this year to get up north in time for opening day for gun season. It had been 2 years since he last hunted. This year the trailer that the men usually stay in was replaced with a small cabin my dad had built...

Gone are the days of opening the door to enter the trailer, only to be greeted by squirrels making a run for it:)

Gone are the days of no showers and using an outhouse in freezing cold weather. (The crazy thing is Greg still insisted on using the outhouse... fond memories I guess???)

Gone are the days of no girls allowed... I found it kind of humorous that back in my Tomboy days, I begged my dad to let me go hunting with the guys, only to be told I was either not old enough, I wouldn't like all the things the guys did, or I just wasn't able to go... now my brothers daughters are up there for deer camp... I am sure I could go now:) But really I would rather not at this point:) I much prefer to stay home with the little ones:)

I was so happy for Greg. He has never gotten a buck like this and he may never again. Caleb was with him when he shot it. Louis was in a tree stand with my dad.When Greg came back to my parent's house, he got another deer right out of the back yard. It was so funny. Jojo could see Greg in his orange just out in the woods a bit. He sat and watched his daddy for a good 15 minutes until I think he got a little bored. So we are set as far as meat goes for the year. Really I consider that a huge blessing. With the right seasoning or marinade, I can pretty much guarantee you would never know it wasn't beef.

They had a total ball being up there. And I am so glad that they had the time together and the time just to be with the other fellas, and gals:)

I know if you didn't grow up with hunting as a part of your life it may seem gross, or somewhat mean. But I grew up with hunting as a part of my dad's and brothers lives... so to see the deer hanging, help package the meat, see the bucks mounted really seems totally normal to me.

But this is where I draw the line... THAT DEER HEAD WILL NOT BE HANGING ABOVE MY BED... LIKE GREG IS THREATENING TO DO:) I told him his office was a good choice, the boy's bedroom, or up at the new hunting cabin:) We shall see.

I had an ultrasound yesterday.... I will try to update tomorrow with maybe a picture or 2 of the sweet little guy!