AND HIS NAME SHALL BE...

And his name shall be...

isaiah james hintz

Isaiah because his birth mom named him that and we just happen to love it!!!:) 

James because it is my uncles name, biblically they believe him to be the half brother of Jesus who stood boldly in the faith and has given us many great principles on how to brazenly live a Christian life of great faith in action!  I love it!   (I did the Beth Moore James study this past summer...AMAZING!)


So we are praying in earnest for the Lord's will to be done in Isaiah's life and that if it is God's will, that we could be the parents and family to walk alongside him and train him in the way he should go in this life!:)

God is so good!:)

SMITTEN

UPDATE:

I forgot last night to pray for his jaundice as well... (That is what happens when you are typing at 1:40 am after not too much sleep the night before) I am pretty sure that he will need to be under the photo therapy lights for a bit...Thanks friends!


First off... I apologize for the crazy typos in the last post....
I was posting from my phone and my fingers are entirely too big for those tiny keys:)

I AM SMITTEN WITH THIS SWEET PRECIOUS LITTLE 5 LB. (ACTUALLY NOW, 4 LB 9.7 OZ. BABY BOY)

He is amazing...

Greg and I are at a hotel as sweet little guy is still in the nicu and they don't let you room in at the hospital if your baby is in nicu.

We are worn out... both of us went to bed at 4 am. last night and 7 came early:)  But I am not complaining in any way... TOTALLY OVERJOYED!

I am sure that this post will be pretty scattered but I want to remember all that happened in the last 2 life changing days...

Yesterday while I was running to get birthday snacks for our home school coop I don't know what made me think specifically about our adoption plans, but I literally was thinking at around 11:00 am yesterday... "I wonder how long this may take???  What if no one ever picks us?  What kind of birth mom would be turned on by a family with 6 kids already at home???

It just sort of seemed like it was going to take a small miracle... and praise God He is still in the miracle working business!  Our birth mom had already called our agency saying she wanted to make an adoption plan and was already in labor...

It is so funny because our agency always tries to call the adoptive mom first ( Greg was the one to get the call with Hope because I was at a bible study that morning... Hello????  Can you come get a little girl later today???:):)

Well yesterday the social worker tried my line, but didn't get through for some reason.  I had just left church after dropping the boys off for basketball practice.  I was running to try to get all my contacts transferred from  my old to my new phone... I literally had just turned off the car and I got a call from Greg...

"Sara, the agency called... someone chose us... he was born today..." I jumped out of the car, sat on the curb and had to ask over and over again if he was kidding me...When I finally realized he was for real... the tears started flowing... Here just hours earlier my mind was full of the what ifs that are so common in an adoption journey... Adoption is not for the faint of heart... quite an up and down journey... but now I was so unexpectedly getting some of those answers... Faithful God...

 I think that honestly Greg was still somewhat in shock... He had briefly spoke with a social worker from our agency and got to speak briefly with the birth mom...

I jumped back in the car and drove the 1/2 mile back to church so that we could wait together for the phone call to talk further with the agency representative.

Shortly there after we were able to speak for quite a while to the rep from our agency and get all sorts of info on this sweet 5 lb. baby boy that had been born.  All the info we got was somewhat OVERWHELMING... (I literally was googling as we were talking... ) Shoot the whole situation was overwhelming... an hour before we were just figuring out the logistics of basket ball practice... now an hour later... HELLO????  We were now thinking on how we could get to that little guy as soon as possible.

Thank God we have such amazing friends that offered to watch the kids.  We were sent a sweet picture of that little guy.... (oh my delish!!!:)  And Greg and I couldn't help ourselves from flashing that picture across the basketball court from his computer to the oldest boys, mouthing that they were going to be big brothers again... 

The flurry of craziness began... hunting down newborn boy clothes out of the attic, washing, packing for half the kids to go to one friend, packing for the other half, packing for G and I, attempting to get the house in order... on and on I could go...It was NUTS!!  It took G and I well, and I mean really well into the night (morning) until we were ready.

We all prayed before we put the kids to bed... Hope prayed for the little baby boy that God would protect him because she already loved him so much... Lots of prayers for his health and for his birth mom from the rest of us! 

Today we were on the road by 11 to finally meet this little man and his birth mom...
(I will try to describe our meeting with her in another post... Wow...that is a WHOLE post of its own.   Emotional would be an understatement! 


Little man is still in the nicu... he is doing so well considering that he was only 5 pounds and estimated to have been born at 35-36 weeks.

He is having a bit of a hard time keeping his temp up... so he is still in the warmer.   (although there was a lot of talk about putting him in the isolate possible over night:(  The nurse said though that right now he is using a lot of energy to stay warm that he could put that same energy into growing and eating if he better if his temp was being more regulated for him...

He also needs to work on eating.  The amazing thing is that I was able to nurse him tonight... he latched right on.  So basically he needs to be eating more at  meal time...  There was a little talk of a feeding tube... but right before we left the little man had guzzled down almost 3/4 of an ounce in 3 minutes flat... He did great...

This little guy had a VERY rough start to life in the womb and yet as far as we know the Lord has protected him in great ways!!!  My husband amazes me, nothing rattles him and he is a great source of level headedness for me!  Baby boy is amazing! He is tiny... He is a biracial little guy and beautiful.  Honestly, he is so cute... Unfortunately, we can't post any pictures on the internet at all... so you will have to just take my word for it:):)  I will post pics as soon as I can... but it may be months possibly before I can. 

I spoke with the hospital pediatrician on the phone... he said he may be able to go home in few days... but it could be a week... So at this point Greg will probably head home tomorrow late and do all of his work and prep for Sunday, take care of the kids and I will stay here till we can leave with him...

It was hard to leave him in the nicu tonight... but I am so so very thankful for this crazy amazing opportunity.  I know he is being well cared for...

Here are our prayer requests:

That he can regulate and keep his body temp
That he can increase the amount he eats at his feedings
That the Lord would continue to protect his tiny little life and health
That he would be healthy enough to leave the hospital sooner rather than later:)
For birth mom, that her heart would be comforted as she left the hospital today..
For our agency as they continue to work through difficult circumstances to bring these little ones into    families (I again was over the top thrilled with the how they handled everything!Deaconess ROCKS!!!)
Our kids back home... Anna is a HUGE helper but I know she called with some tears tonight
That the Lord would be preparing our family for welcoming this little one into our family

As with any adoption we HOPE AND PRAY that all goes well and it isn't disrupted for some reason.  At this point it looks really good, but you just don't know.  Hopefully we should have a court date somewhat in the near future:) 

I will try to update more soon... thank you so much for your prayers for this little guy and the rest of us!
We are overcome with gratefulness to our God for this amazing little miracle!  We are praising Him tonight for His faithfulness to us!

On our way to meet little one!!!!!

Super quick update...
On our way...just g and I to meet a precious 5 lb baby born yesterday!!
Chosen for us!!!

He was in nicu yesterday... we will see what today holds
Wr think he was birn at 35-36 weeks...

We covet yourr prayers!!

We are thrilled!!!!  But we know fully this is in Gods hands and adoption journeys are rarely without snags...

God is faithful... we are trusting Him FULLY! !
Ahhhh!  This id crazy exciting!

Will try to update asap..

I am still learning... so proud of them...

 Louis, my free spirit, floater, funny, sensitive, loving, hard working, dedicated, laughing loving son... while in Wisconsin:)

 Caleb...my driven, self motivated, competitive, naturally athletic, crazily hard working, really like able, and somewhat easily annoyed son:):)  

In recent months I have had a few people express to me how they thought I must finally have it all down as far as the parenting goes...

They couldn't be more wrong...

For me parenting little ones comes much more naturally than parenting older kids...

(That is by far Greg's more natural gift... thank God ahead of time for knowing how we need to compliment each other:)  

As my little boys have grown into young men... 

I have realized...

I need to know when to turn off the yapping...:)

While we have tons of great communication, loads of fun, and lots of love for one another... , the time for the training is becoming less and less and it is more like coaching (as my sweet friend Mary called it when she was here visiting this past weekend... I think that is the perfect description...) 

What I mean by less yapping on my part is that the communication process is changing...

I find that when they do need some correction, I need to be direct and straight to the point... they are a little quieter these days... my natural response to that is that they must not understand... so then I go on to further explain so that they will understand better... When in reality most of the time they do understand pretty well the first time I said it.  I have even come right out and told them, just give me more of a response letting me know you get it and then I will stop explaining... 

I am finding that I need to ask for forgiveness more often these days...

I find that the more I talk and talk and talk... the more glassed over their eyes get :) and I get a sense they start to shut down a bit... I just need to be direct and to the point... and know when to be quiet:)

This is something I am still working on:

 See, I am clearly STILL after 15 years of parenting a work in progress:):) And I love that... there is always so much more to learn:)

These 2 boys have been knocking my socks off... We are earnestly trying to raise money for our trip to Uganda in 50 days (Caleb informed of the time frame this morning... can you tell he is excited??:)

They have been doing lawn work, planting shrubs for a gal at church, and desiring money to put towards their trip instead of gifts this Christmas.  

Louis  has done at least 11 photo shoots for different families in an effort to put funds towards his trip.  He has been working so hard and has put hours and hours into editing photos and running around town with different families.  

I really am so proud of them... They are working so hard, and I am so grateful for how God is providing... 

I am so thankful for how the Lord continues to show me daily what tremendous blessings these young men are in my life... even as I inch towards the times of letting them go a little more and more... (ouch, I am totally not ready for that... but am praying the Lord continues to lead me in the best way to do that as the days and years pass us by:) 

And I am even more blessed to see how they are a blessing to others... I have NO GREATER DESIRE than to know that my kids walk in the truth... And that continues to be my prayer that the Lord would draw them closer and closer to His side and heart each day!  I have to keep reminding myself that they are really His... just on loan to Greg and I:)  What precious gifts He has loaned to us:):)   There is still so much growing for all of us to do:)

Waiting...

I found this quote somewhere and just loved it. 
It is the perfect reminder that waiting is well worth  it!!!
 The more I value what I am waiting for the more willing I am to wait for it. 

Doesn't it sort of seem like life is one big episode of waiting after another?

In my head I can think of at least 4 BIG things we are waiting for as a family...

Patience is key...
Surrendering desires and seeking what He desires for my life...
And Praying, Praying, Praying... while you wait!

It seems that the surrending is almost a daily thing...
Your timing God, not mine...
Your will Father and not my own...

So if you are waiting like we are...

I pray that you will see the Lord's faithfulness in the waiting...

I pray that you can cling to the promises in His word... "That His plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, but give you a future and a hope."

And I pray that you can surrender your will to His and boldly walk forward in truth, expecting and looking towards what he has store.  His word says he is able to do immeasureably more than we can ask or imagine... That is so awesome!

And I think for me I need to truly take to heart... That I should be waiting upon the Lord ... not just  waiting on what I want or desire... but rather  knowing He is enough for me, and knows what is best for me...

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their stregnth, they shall mount up with wing like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint... Teach me to Lord to wait:) 

Current journey to our next child...

Hmmmm, I know I said months ago that I would share more about this current adoption process...
Well here we sit 5 months later waiting... and I am finally sharing more...

Last time we adopted we only had to wait 3 1/2 months with this agency before we got the call to come get out Hopie girl later that same day...

Waiting is hard...

Adoption is such a funny thing... Not at all for the faint of heart...
But the wild thing is, that although the agency may be showing your book to a birth mother along with a few others... It is never really a competition at all...

I KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT I KNOW... the Lord knows the exact perfect little person He is creating right now in some birth momma's womb, has already created or will be creating (hopefully sooner rather than later:) that is meant to be a Hintz.  He is forming or has already formed that child knowing full well it will need us to be his/her forever family. 

I always tell people that the waiting is HARD!!  It really is!   When you are expecting yourself, there is that sweet due date at the end of the tunnel to look towards with anticipation... You know when it will all come to fruition, but with adopting, waiting is the name of the game... And quite honestly, I don't remember a time when waiting is  really easy...  You wait with an unknown time frame in mind... It may take only weeks or it may take years... HARD! 

It takes patience!  I know that we want the exact baby/child that the Lord has planned for us and that makes the waiting easier... We don't want to manipulate anything ever... We want to wait until the right baby/child for us has arrived...

To be perfectly honest, last year when Greg arrived home from Uganda there were 2 little boys there that just stole his and Louis' hearts... We inquired about them, but the door seemed pretty closed...  I have thought about them sooooooo much these last 9 months... Are those 2 supposed to be ours?  Greg and I just discussed these 2 again just a couple of weeks ago... This is how the conversation went...

I asked, "G, what if I get to Praise's house and ______ and ______ are still there???"
I think in that moment we both realized... Oh my goodness that means those kids have sat there for a whole year still not in their forever family, where ever that family is, ours or another...  Of course, G's response was... "Inquire again!"

That breaks my heart!!  So while that door seems to not really even be available to be cracked open at this point... We leave that in God's hands... He certainly is capable of opening any door or moving any mountains He wants moved...

So for now... we just keep leaving the doors open and waiting on the Lord's perfect timing...

But in all honesty, I.CAN.NOT.WAIT... for the waiting till my next child is over... I can't wait to scoop them up into my arms and say Welcome home my precious child... You belong here! 

I am just dying to meet them... Dying for them to know the love of a family, the love of a mom and dad and lots of brothers and sisters! 

HE SETS THE LONELY IN FAMILIES!!  I am so grateful for that!

THANKFUL FOR...

A 15 year old son who isn't afraid to ask for forgiveness and still says daily, "I love you MOM!"...

A Savior who doesn't deal with me like I deserve... But loves me with a fierce forgiving love...

Safe travel through the night...

Being able to laugh at myself... and not mind when others laugh with me...:)

The opportunity to get to know such precious women during our Sunday morning and Wednesday night Bible Studies...  What a gift that has been to me...

A friend who ALWAYS  has an encouraging word when I need it...

Friends who are NEVER afraid to mention Samuel...

Another crazy busy successful  Dinner Divas day...

For the opportunity to help with the family budget, but be able to do it almost all from home late at night when the kids are in bed...

God's protection of a certain 3 year old even though she ate the gum from underneath the table at a local restaurant... (insert vomit noises!!!!)

Enough vacation days left to actually ALL  get to go on a vacation together (seeing as how a bunch of vacation time was used for last years Uganda mission trip)

Mirrors in the front seat of the van where I can sneakily watch sweet blond 7 year old jamming out to Michael Jackson:)  PURE JOY!!!

My husbands job and the Lord's miraculous work to provide for our ever growing family's needs, previous adoption costs and the day to day things that come up... We never have a want for anything... I seriously think God just multiplies the dollars that are in our bank account... He is so faithful!

The sweetness of coming home...

A friend who just yesterday was sharing of a sweet memory she had of me when I was pregnant with Samuel... Love!!! Love!!! Love... that she could see how much I loved being pregnant with him and living a part of that miracle of growing new life...

A husband who shares so many of my loves... outdoors, children, missions, Wisconsin landscape:), family, ministry, orphans, (I could go on and on, but it is funny how God grows us to be more and more like minded with time...  I love it!  What a sweet bonus God gives the longer you are married:)

A husband who literally works like a dog and is so so so willing to pick up the slack at home when needed.

A sweet newly 10 year old mini me, who always wants to cuddle and share hot cocoa:)

A small group of friends to do life with... (God knew who and what I needed)

The laughter of cousins and sister-in-loves...

The constant reminder that God still performs miracles when I look in Levi's eyes...

The health and natural athletic ability of a certain 13 year old boy that just makes it downright fun to watch him play.

The Graciousness of our Loving God who has carried us through another year... I am so thankful to feel more and more alive as time passes...

So thankful to know in my heart that the Lord is close to the broken hearted... He does save those who are crushed in spirit... I know His word says it ... But I know it is true from first hand experience...

The fact that I can now see beauty from the ashes...

FAMILY!!!  IMMEDIATE!!!  EXTENDED!!! FRIENDS THAT ARE LIKE FAMILY!!!  FRIENDS THAT MAKE CHURCH BECOME FAMILY!!!

He knew that our hearts were made for community... I am so thankful that God knows how to fill that void when we are alone, away from home or family... Or that He blesses us with the beautiful precious times with those we hold so dear...  He is so good!

Wow, crazy times...

So this little sweetie has my heart melted pretty much 24/7...

I sort of feel like we are living at mach speed... full steam ahead... every moment...

 In the next 4 days...
The craft fair at church
2 soccer games tomorrow for the big boys
A birthday party for Anna
Dinner diva shopping
3 photo shoots on Sunday
Baking and selling bread for the Bread for life table
Last week of my Sunday morning study
Monday... Dinner Divas all day...
Tuesday... Home school  Coop... Honestly, I am not really sure how the kids will get all their school work done for Tuesday...

But even in the crazy busy times..... I feel so so very blessed... I have all these kids to be busy with... the alternative of not having any single one of them here... no good!:)
So I am so grateful...  and I know that we are not the only busy people:)

So here is a crazy tidbit...
A little over a week ago... Caleb and I went to get our vaccinations for Uganda... Listened to the whole deal.... got the shots... left and then thought.... what did I just do???   I am still nursing Levi and I hadn't even thought about it... So I called the gal back... She said I couldn't nurse for 30 days... HELLO!!!???  I almost died... After a whole lot of researching and actually talking with the premier doctor in the US on nursing and medications... they said 2 weeks is more than adequate... So that is the plan at this point... pump for 2 weeks... ( I know this may be TMI... but right now it is a big deal to this momma!)

Reasons I am not ready to just stop... Well, I don't think I am going to get into it here... Anyone who doesn't think I am crazy yet... just might... lets just say it has to do with our plans to adopt again... And NO... we haven't been matched yet...  Man it is hard to wait:)

So actually, this break from nursing may have turned out ok... as long as Levi will have me back again... I plan on pumping when I am in Uganda so we were going to have to do it then anyways and this way I know he will do just fine when I am gone... He honestly has been such a trooper... He is a mama's boy, but he has handled the break like a champ...  He is growing up way way toooooo quickly... I love it and it makes me sad all at once:)

BREAD FOR LIFE

Well, my socks were literally knocked off last Sunday at church.  It was orphan Sunday so we decided to steal an idea (with permission of course) from a new friend who went with International Voice of the Orphan to Uganda last June.  We decided to jump on board and bake bread... sell it... every penny going to help the orphans we will serve in Uganda in January...

Thursday I asked a friend... how many loaves of bread should be plan on baking... I sort of thought around 50 would be good... She said 100... I was floored and thought that was way too many... (Oh me of little faith)  Between 2 friends, some of the youth kids, and our crew we had 57 loaves to sell last Sunday...

We sold out before the Sunday School hour even started... Literally no one from Sunday School or late church even had a chance to smell the bread... $1100 was given to the orphans... Praise God!  He is so good!  And we are so thankful to be able to have a chance to give to those kids who really need it...

So needless to say, this coming Sunday will be BREAD FOR LIFE take 2... Bread will be available during Sunday School and late service... We can't wait to see what the Lord will do this week...

Greg preached on Orphan Sunday... The Lord has done a miracle in His heart... I laughed out loud when he was preaching...  I remember when we were first married and talking about kids I had to TOTALLY TALK him into 4 kids... Here we are with 6 living here with us on earth and waiting on another little one... also knowing full well that we would love more if the Lord saw fit...

God wants to see orphans in families...We just want to open that door and let the Lord work through that open door or close it if that is His will... but it really isn't our decision to make... 

I can not tell you the stirring He is doing in my heart... Between reading the rest of Kisses From Katie, the book Seven, our family beans and rice challenge, and getting ready for our mission trip to Uganda... The thoughts I have are some that I NEVER would have had just a year or 2 ago... Maybe I will get to share more on that at some point...

I am so thankful to be at this point in my heart and life... and for G and I to be on the same page... the funny thing is we really have no idea what it means for our future, the ministry He has planned for our family, or our family in general.  All I know is that it feels good to be TRULY more open to whatever the Lord might have for us... not really what I thought I wanted Him to have for us:)  He is so good...

Right now... I can not wait to take the gifts that God used His people to give on Sunday and in turn knock the socks off of some of these precious little ones come January...

A Heavenly Birthday Celebrated

 This year I decided to try to give the sky lanterns a try... The reviews were quite mixed about 80% good and 20% horrible... I decided to give it a shot anyway...:) 

They were perfect... Really easy to do actually. 
I probably wouldn't do them with just little kids, but with Greg, the older boys, and my friend Katie to help they worked out super.  They were beautiful!

It was a really special way to end the day thinking and remembering our 5th born Samuel.

 Caleb and Louis with their lanterns:)

 I love this picture... Levi was totally enamored with the bright lights of the candles...

 Katie was helping Hopie girl:)

 Watching the 4 lanterns making their way up into the night sky... They stayed lit for quite a while:)

It was funny we had some people that reported to Channel 6 here that there were bright lights in the sky in our town... I think that they might have seen Samuel's lanterns:)

 My infant loss support group MEND always sends flowers on Samuel's birthday.  It is so nice to have him remembered by others... That absolutely makes my heart swell!

We did our typical rainbow cake (only 3 layers this year) and decorate it with skittles.  It was such a treat to have Emily's mommy Katie with us this year.  As you can see that with each skittle representing the Lord's faithfulness and things that we are thankful for... we are very blessed!  It was a very colorful cake... 

It was a beautiful day... and honestly, I think my rough time earlier this month with the crazy blue rag incident, sort of had me get that deep grief and right back in the moment sadness out of the way already this month.  I know that may sound strange... I still missed him like crazy, and had sad sad moments... but actually I felt like I could celebrate his life with more joy this year than in years past... That felt good...

25 loaves of bread baked for our Orphan Sunday Bread for Life table at church... 5 more to come out of the oven soon... It should be a great weekend...

God is gracious...

 God is so gracious to give me sloppy covered faces to focus on when the days are hard...

He was so faithful to carry us through honoring and remembering the precious life of Samuel... I will update soon with some pictures of how we celebrated his precious life...

Things are in full swing...

Sunday is Orphan Sunday...

Tomorrow we will be baking at least 25 loaves of bread  for our first ever BREAD FOR LIFE table on Sunday at church... The youth are helping to bake some on Saturday as well and another sweet friend will be helping to bake too:)

On Sunday we will take donations, people will go home with bread:)  Every bit of the money will come with us to Uganda in January and be hand delivered to orphans who need it most...

It is going to be a crazy weekend with a tournament for the older 2 boys, Hope, Levi and myself.  While Greg does a wedding and works with our sweet friend Katie to get Jo and Anna to their games...

It just seems to be non stop... I know you all can probably relate to that... I am sort of a homebody so this takes some getting used to... 

Hope to update real soon with pics from Samuel's birthday and an update on the whole adoption process... I never did fill you all in on that:)