Answered prayer...

It is a great day for a wedding!

We are praising God for the answered prayers for another Christian mate for our embryo donor mom.  (She was widowed over 3 1/2 years ago... hence the reason we were blessed with her embryos and as a result our Levi!) 

Our hearts are overjoyed for her and her two kiddos! 

I am thanking God for the gift that she is to our family.

I am thanking God for blessing her today with another companion to share this life on earth with...

I am thanking God that He saw fit to bless the both of us this year with such happiness, such amazing  healing gifts in this precious baby and new husband...

He has brought much beauty from the ashes for both of us...

I praise Him for His faithfulness! 

Lord, you have done some pretty amazing things in 2011... what a great way to end the year... the joining of these two lives... It makes my heart sing:)



CHRISTMAS VACATION

 ENJOYING THE LIGHTS AT RHEMA WITH GRANDMA HINTZ AND THE COUSINS

 OUR FAVORITE PART OF THE LIGHTS... THE TUNNEL... THEY EVEN HAD MISTLETOE HANGING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TUNNEL THIS YEAR... I THINK WE EMBARRASSED THE KIDS:)

 HOPIE WITH THE HOOTSPA AT SILVER DOLLAR CITY... She is such a ham...

 IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY ... THE WEATHER IS UNREAL RIGHT NOW...

WHAT IS IT WITH THE GINORMOUS SUNGLASSES??  :)

We were so blessed to get the chance to go to Silver Dollar City yesterday for the first time.  We had some sweet friends treat us to such a fun day.   The weather was perfect.  Anna, by far gets the bravery award... She loved the roller coasters more than any of our boys.  One of the neatest things was the total emphasis on Christian values.  They even had a nativity in the parade... no Santa... just Jesus!  The lights around the whole park at night were so pretty. 

We also just got done celebrating Christmas with my in laws and Greg's sister Lisa and her daughters.  The kids had an absolute ball with their cousins.  It was just for a few day so it went by really fast, but it was sure nice for them to be here with us.  We rarely get that much time with Lisa, so that was a real treat, to actually have lots of time to visit.  I was thankful to have her listening ear:) We really appreciate them taking the time to drive all the way up here from Houston...

We are enjoying our last few days of Christmas vacation... since it is back to the grind next Monday for us:)  We have cherished the extra time with Greg and home:)

What a great day!

CUDDLING WITH MY SNOWFLAKE BABY... BESIDES MY SAVIOR... ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS OF THIS PAST YEAR FOR SURE!!!

What a sweet Christmas Day the Lord blessed us with... I am so grateful...

The kids and I were up late Christmas Eve... after church last night we did IHOP with our small group friends... Lots of laughing and good fellowship:)

Then Greg went back to church for the late services and the kids and I went home for chocolate fondue, new snugglies (either jammies or slippers:) and a movie...

I of course fell asleep on the couch watching the movie and the kids, (Lou, Caleb, Anna  and Jojo) watched all of "It's a Wonderful Life".  In my tired state I thought that 132 minutes meant an hour an a half... so it went much later than I was expecting...  I was just not thinking... Oops...

The movie had just finished when Greg walked in the door at 1:45  CRAZY!!!  Surprisingly they all got out of bed quickly for church this morning.... I was proud of them...

After church we opened our family presents...The kids loved all of theirs and I was amazed at the thought that Greg put into the presents he got me this year... we never do a whole lot for each other, usually something small...

He got me the most beautiful snowflake necklace... (Sometimes babies that are born from frozen embryos are called snowflake babies:)  Then he had bought a soft snowflake throw and snowflake cups from Levi to Anna and me... just precious... so thoughtful...

Then we had a few families over for a mountain dinner... it was sort of an experiment, but I think went pretty well... basically you have rice and everyone brings all sorts of toppings for the rice... anything from meat, to veggies, to nuts, to pineapple... it actually tasted really good and was a different way to celebrate Christmas that is for sure...

I was totally overcome by the Lord's goodness to our family today... I was so thankful to be able to celebrate with friends who are like family to us... what a gift... Especially when you live far away from all family...

And to be surrounded by my husband and kids was all I could ever want...  (except of course another little 3 year old boy messing around with us all day... can't wait for Heaven to enjoy that ) It was a beautiful Christmas...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Happy Birthday Jesus... We are so thankful for the gift of our Savior and for all the ways that He has blessed and taken care of us in 2011!  He is able, so good and so faithful!

THE LITTLES

These are 2 of the sweet pumpkins that I am sharing a slumber party with tonight... I have to admit little Miss Hope is staying in her own room... she is definitely not at the point where she would get any sleep out in the family room with the rest of us... or allow any of us to catch any shut eye:)

The older boys are away with Greg tonight... they left earlier today and will be gone till late tomorrow night.  They are finally getting their chance to go through the family life resource the Passport to Purity.  I am so happy that they have this time to get away together, the 3 of them.  I know Greg had some fun things planned to mix in between the sessions that they will go through together... I can't wait to hear about it...

We had a hard MEND meeting last night... We welcomed 2 new gals who had lost their babies in the last few months.  There are a lot of girls that are fresh in their grief and it literally breaks my heart remembering exactly how I felt that first Christmas after Samuel died.  I am so glad that I found MEND and a safe place to land in my sorrow... God knew I would need it... and I am so thankful to still be able to be a part of it, to hopefully help others know that they are not alone in their sadness...

We have been off of school all week and it has been glorious... we really needed the break... I know we don't have any more than the average family has going on... but it has seemed really busy.  We have enjoyed making hot cocoa, cookies, and friendship tea together.  It has been so nice to be around the house more than normal... We are really looking forward to Christmas and celebrating our Saviors birth...

The little ones are finishing up a movie, and then will hit the hay in the family room...Levi is already out... Then I plan to try to get the Christmas cards done and get some presents wrapped... I will join the kiddos on the couch a little later... we will see how much sleep we all get tonight:)

CRAZY!!!

 Someone has taken to not going #2 a couple of times a day like he used to....

 So when he finally does go every couple of days or so... this is the end result...

Hello????  Aren't diapers supposed to catch some of this???:) It was literally up to his shoulders...

 Not too happy about having to get cleaned up:)

 Now we are talking... that is more like my happy little guy:)

Are those cheeks yummy or what??

This is one of the faces that at the end of the day, (a day like today, when all I can say is OUCH, I could cry!!!:(  )

that totally puts life into perspective...

If the God of the universe can breath life into a thawed embryo that has been frozen for 5 years...

If he cares so much about us to work out this beautiful miracle for us, that just knocks our socks off...

If he can perform the miracle of piecing back together the shattered pieces of my heart...

If he can bless this sub fertile (those were the Dr.'s words... not mine:) mother with 3 children in the last 3 years...  

Then, He most certainly cares about the little details of our life as well...

Trusting in God to work out all the big details as well as the little details that bring hurt, challenges, and questions into our days...

He is so good... He is faithful... He is able!!! 

LIFE...

 Louis finally braces free...:)

 Anna and I getting ready for some exercise... Go Pack Go! :)

My sweet Jo...

Ahhhh.... sweet rest... a full day at home...

It started out by me getting up a whole hour earlier than I expected...

I set my alarm, but for some reason thought I needed to be at church an hour earlier...

Needless to say we were actually early for the first time ever!!

The crazy thing is, Levi had a total blow out so I just barely snuck in, right on time to Bible Study!

Funny, how that happens:)

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside and watching the Packers win again. 

I have to say that I am so excited for Tim Tebow and the Broncos... I think it is awesome to see Him succeed... even  in the midst of much criticism...

We ended the night by getting 7 stuffed sandwich loaves in the freezer for meals... We couldn't help eating one of the Reubens...  We will see how they turn out after they are frozen, it was kind of an experiment. 

CAN NOT WAIT....

THIS IS OUR LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL TILL CHRISTMAS VACATION FOR THIS FAMILY!

WHIRLWIND

We got up early yesterday before the sun... very uncommon for this crew:)

We hit the road by 5:30 to head to St. Louis for the funeral of our sweet friend Mary's mama...

We are so thankful that she is finally not suffering anymore and that she is perfectly healthy and whole with her Savior Jesus... We know in the same breath that she will be so missed and we will continue to pray for all of her family that loves her so much for the Lord to comfort them and give them great peace!

We arrived in St. Louis just in time to eat lunch with them and attend the service...

Afterwards we were so blessed to hit Dunkin Donuts with our sweet friends... a few things stick out to me...

Those friends are such precious gifts from God, who can encourage you even in their own heartache...

It is so sweet to  pick up right where we left off...

As usual we literally laughed till we cried... they are so precious to us! 

And Dunkin Donuts has the BEST vanilla chai tea I think I have ever had... YUMMY!

Literally as we were saying goodbye I got a phone call on my cell from our upstairs neighbor at the sem...

We decided we would stop for Advent dinner at their church and to visit for a short while.  It was such a treat to catch up quickly and then hit the road again...  Their church was so hospitable to us, insisted on feeding us all and sent us on our way with warm full tummies for the next 5 hours home.  I think we pulled in around 1:30 am.

It was a long day, but so totally worth it...

Busy days ahead too as we cook 6 dozen cookies for the boys to sell with the youth group at church, and participate in our small town parade for church tomorrow... It should be fun... coop is done for December and we plan to do one more full week of school and then a couple of weeks off to relax... I can't wait:)

Memorial box Monday...

I am so glad that Linny is bring back her Memorial Box Monday blog hop... It is so good to be reminded of God's faithfulness...  Now I really need to find a little box around our house to start to collect some small things to remind myself of the ways God has remained faithful in our lives...

This story isn't at all new to those of you who frequent my blog... but it will be a little recap for anyone new:)

I think the most obvious sign of God's faithfulness these days is our Levi... I think I need to look for a snowflake ornament to add to my box... he is our snowflake baby...

After 2 1/2 years of trying to get pregnant.... In February of 2008 the Lord blessed us with the pregnancy of our sweet Samuel... We were beyond overjoyed as we wondered if we would ever have anymore biological children .  (The Lord was already stirring in our hearts a desire to adopt:)  When he was born still at the end of October, we were devastated.  As much as we never lost faith in our God, (Greg of course was rock steady the WHOLE time) I had some wrestling in store with God.  It was sort of like I had to wrestle out the questions and how it all worked into my faith... I knew I still believed 100% in the saving power of my God... but I was hurting so badly and complete despair pretty much summed up where my heart was at... I was heartbroken over losing a life I had planned with Samuel here on earth.  I am thankful for the healing power of our God that He brings in His time...

In November 2009, in an absolutely amazing miraculous way, the Lord saw fit to allow me to come across a sweet gal who had been widowed just 5 months before Samuel died.  She had 2 young children that she and her husband had conceived through IVF...  We found each other on the blog of a mutual friend.  Here she was valuing the lives of the 7 frozen babies that she still had from their IVF treatments.  She was wanting to find a loving Christian family for them.  She wanted to give them a chance at life...

Never in a million years would I have ever thought that this was how the Lord would work... He allowed us to adopt those 7 sweet babies in June of 2010... I conceived our precious Levi in July of 2010 through the process of a Frozen Embryo Transfer, we finalized our adoption of Hope in August of 2010 and praise God, Levi was born safely in March of 2011...

The Lord has tied our families, ours and  the donor mom's together in such a unique and precious way.  We all value life that God creates from the moment it is conceived... He took Levi who was frozen for five years and breathed the breath of life right back into him. It amazes me to this day!!!  That is a miracle!!!  He has taken such hurt and pain in all of our lives and worked Levi's precious life into the whole equation to show us how much He loves us. 

I just never imagined that the Lord would build our family in the way he has.  When I see Levi... every single time... I am reminded of our good and gracious God who can even work through blogs to make miracles happen.  Levi is a display of our great God's power, creativity, and splendor.  The joy and happiness he adds to this family is like a healing salve to our hearts.  He is pretty dog gone adorable too:)

life...

 This sweet little guy has so many precious expressions...

Is he yummy or what???

 There are two of Levi's 5 teeth peeking out... he is busy working on number 6 as well... 

This sweet precious boy and what we have experienced in the past 3+ years gives us a different perspective on life... and I am so thankful for it...

The challenges that I feel we are facing right now appear to be big and difficult to face at times...

And then I remember what the Lord has brought us through... Have my son die, having the baby we hoped to adopt die just 8 mos. later, fertility struggles, an a miscarriage all in a matter of 18 mos. has changed our perspective on things... I am so thankful for that part of the equation...Praise God for His strong arms to carry us through the tragedies and sorrow of this life...

And Praise God for giving us a new perspective... new eyes to see this life and our circumstances through...

We truly feel, we have one life to live, it may be over 5 years from now, 50 years from now, or tomorrow, only the Lord knows... but we do not want to waste the moments of these days holding onto the hurt that seems to come our way... we just want to love God and all of His people... and those who aren't yet His people.  That is the most important thing to us in this life... and that includes ministering to our children.  I know Greg sometimes can't believe that for his job, he gets to be in ministry...

I need to keep surrendering my plans, my will, my heart to His ways... I know His ways are always best... but that doesn't mean they come easy always... But there is sooooo much to be thankful for right now...

A few updates from our week...
Louis got his braces off this week... and man does his smile look good... I will try to post a picture sometime soon. 

Louis and Caleb had their first basket ball games this week... The school at our church was short on players and they asked the boys to play on the school team.  They are really enjoying it and catching on quickly since this is their first season to play... They won tonight in overtime, and it was a fun nail biter.  I have never seen Louis be that aggressive before...G and I kind of looked at each other and laughed... he is just not that way at home ever... it was kind of good to see...:)

The Christmas tree if up and done... I had a sweet moment tonight with Levi in my arms just gazing at the lights... He was totally enamored by it... His expression priceless... He is such a gift to all of us... I don't think I can fully explain the immense joy he brings to our family!

Hopie has started with the tantrums... our first child to do that... She can be so amazingly sweet, and spicy at the same time... It makes for some pretty exciting days:) I am still tying to figure out if there is anything that adds to the likelihood of her having one... besides the fact that she gets mad when she doesn't get her way:)  She is two... Three is just around the corner in a couple of months... yay!:)

We are so excited that Greg's parent's and hopefully his sister and daughters will be able to come our way over Christmas break for a few days...


We are so excited that Levi's donor mom is getting married at the end of this month.  We are praising God that He has brought a great Godly man into her life... and love again...

God is so good!