Another blessed 50th:)

Greg's Parents before the big party to celebrate 50 years of marriage:)

The whole Hintz side of the family minus Meaghan who is serving up at camp... We missed her:)

Jojo feeding his sweet little cousin Emerson... Oh she is a little dolly... we all wanted to eat her up!:)

Hopie and Emerson's big sister Payton nursing their injuries... 2 peas in a pod those 2:)

All the extended family cousins... It was a real treat to get to visit with some of Greg's cousins that we hadn't seen in years... Being quite a distance from each other and even though the visit is shorter than we had hoped... special memories were made...

Love this girl... my precious friend Ryane... I am so thankful for the gift that God has given me in her and the friendship we share...

The boys with great granny... doesn't she look great for 90??:)

What a blessing to be able to celebrate another marriage of 50 years... Seriously, I don't think all that many people have both parents celebrating 50 years of marriage at all... let alone in the same year.  

We feel so blessed that they both stuck it out in the touch/difficult times and honored the gift of marriage by sticking with it. What an example for Greg and I, our kids and so many others. 

We were so thankful that Greg safely arrived from Haiti yesterday and that the kids and I safely arrived from the long drive down to be able to be a part of such a special day for Greg's parents. 

Baby Emerson's baptism tomorrow and we hit the road for home.... too short of a visit... too long of a drive:(

Great food, great company, great reason for a celebration... So thankful to our great God!

Mission to Haiti!

So last week amidst the company visiting my G hopped on a plane for Haiti...

Internet access has been sketchy, phone conversation brief and easily lost, but I am so thankful for the few minutes of phone conversation with G, and for Jeff, a friend also along on the trip who has updated Facebook:). Yay for just being able to see G's face.... and it doesn't hurt to see a precious little pumpkin like this one pictured below, in his arms... Isn't she a doll??

The whole Haiti team... Three members from St. Peter along with some others from Palatine and Normal Illinois:).  The kids and I, on the road to Houston, were just praying a little bit ago for God to do a mighty work in and through them all as they serve the people of Haiti!!

Here is G hanging out in a rural village with some of the locals... No foreigners/white folk had ever been to their village... How amazing is that? 

I know that besides the main missions of the team, that our St. Peter crew was hoping to make some connections and start to build relationships for further service in the future...

I have been praying for The Lord to clearly direct their steps to the place He may have for Our church to connect... 

And where there is a great need... Personally I can't help but hope there is some sort of orphanage connection:) 

THE CREW HITS THE WINDY CITY...

Levi and His buddy Jackson eating pretzels on the way into town on the train... 

Levi was so excited about the train... so cute!

Most of my kids in front of the bean in Millennium Park... What a cool structure... 

Hitting Giordanos for Chicago Style pizza:)  

(As you can see, Levi is less than thrilled with the photo op:)

Jojo in front of the John Hancock Tower

2 of the little guys passed out cold in Crate and Barrel as we waited out some of the store... exhausted from a busy day around town...

This is most of us in our make shift parkas hitting the windy city in the rain.  Our goal was to hopefully make it to the fireworks on Navy Pier... and that we did:)

Anna in front of the city skyline while the fireworks were just getting started.  

Seriously, we love Chicago... there is so much to see and let the kids do...

 We saw all of Millennium park, the magnificent mile, navy pier, lots of stores, and loads of really neat architecture...

We had a really nice time ... we are worn out tonight, but it was well worth it!  

Let the crazy...ness continue...

We are so very thankful for the crazy arrival of more friends to our home...

The Faust and Davis crew, some of our fellow Oklahoma small groupers, arrived this evening to help fill up our home:):) 

Joy filled my heart as...

Levi was hugging his little buddy Jackson right off the get go...

As the laughter AND SCREAMS of the teens are heard bellowing through the vents of the house as they "hang out"  and watch JAWS in the basement...

As sweet conversations are already being had in confidence...

As girlfriend conversation ensues on the back porch while  the older kids play frisbee in the dark in the field behind the house...

I am SO happy to have them all here especially as the daddy of the house gets ready to head to Haiti on a mission trip shortly... 

What a gift Shell-dog and Mama T are to me... Yep... We like the nick names around here...

That just means you are dearly loved:):)

BLESSED WITH 50 YEARS....

This beautiful couple, my parents, celebrated 

50 years of marriage

this past weekend.  

What an amazing testimony of the faithfulness of God in their lives

and their faithfulness to each other. 

Every single one in our immediate family was able to travel to Wisconsin to celebrate my parents commitment to each other. Even my niece Hannah, who rarely gets off from her horse training job in Texas,  flew in as a surprise.... both as a surprise to grandma and grandpa as well as for her dad's (my brother Mark's) birthday (who happened to be born on my parents first anniversary)... 

What a first anniversary gift hey?

  

We were TOTALLY BLESSED with a beautiful day to spend together with family and lots of friends.  

I loved hearing the stories that people shared about their time with my parents over the years... (Lots of laughing was going down!!)

One thing that stuck out to me was how gracious and welcoming my parents are... so many said that they had felt welcomed into our family over the years at different points in their lives. 

And that is so true, our friends are family to us... and so many of my parents friends are like family to me... I love those friends and I love the example of gracious hospitality I have been given by my parents... 

Another high light of the day for me was a time of worship that we had together... We happened to sing a song we had at Samuel's memorial service... (I couldn't help but think of what it would have been like with him there with us.) The room was FULL of singers:)    It did my heart good to hear the praises being lifted to our Father in boldness and joy... 

It was a great day of remembering the 50 years of love and commitment.  I was so thankful for all my siblings who worked together to make it happen.  It was a fun day:)

What a gift to clearly see His Faithfulness to my parents being proclaimed and remembered all day yesterday:)

MEND Chicagoland opens its doors...

About a week ago I mentioned a God appointment that my Dallas MEND friends and I experienced while exploring Chicago... 

Today I just want to mention a bit about MEND Chicagoland's first meeting... 

Today I spoke with a grandma that had attended last weeks meeting...

Her daughter is just weeks out from losing a baby at full term...

At MEND we always end our meetings by mentioning anything positive that may have come from the life of the baby/babies that we lost...

Sometimes it may take months before someone might be able to sincerely feel something positive... we always let mom's know that is totally normal... 

While I love giving support, care and compassion to grieving mamas... I too love this part of the meeting... 

I have ALWAYS said, "Lord, do not waste this pain that I am feeling!"  And it is a gift to me to hear anything positive that might come out of someone else's loss as well... God is so very faithful to bring those good things to light in time...

This morning I was given one of those little gifts of how last weeks meeting already made a difference in someone's life... Even through the loss of her little baby boy God is giving focus and new direction to this young mom's life who attended last week... I am grateful that God will use MEND here in Chicago...

Last week we were blessed to have 14 people present for our first meeting... Not a big crowd, but nice for sharing... I am so thankful that MEND is in the Lord's hands and that He can use and speak words of comfort and care to these hurting mamas through us:)  

The view from the sky deck at Willis tower... We had the weirdest rain and fog just over parts of the city that day...

The bean at Millenium park... really cool!

Up in the Willis tower on the ledge... 103 floors is HIGH when there is only a 1 1/2 inch piece of glass between you and the concrete 103 stories below... It is quite a beautiful view though:)

The Dallas MEND ladies and I at Millenium Park... 

This is why...

This is why there isn't a whole lot of sleep happening when we have company in our bed...

But I wouldn't have it any other way...  I really wouldn't... 

 Such gifts from God...

Friends like family...

Last week we were so blessed by our sweet friends the Thompsons stopping by our house for a few days...  These are our sweet friends who spent a few days with Greg and the littles over New Years trying to get Emma an updated passport so she could make the trip she booked to Uganda with the rest of us... God was so good to get that job done last January even amidst the years worst snow storm:)

The middle aged kids and the the littles, who had never met each other, hit it off great:)  

Anna and their little man Trey...

Uganda reunion:)

Oh the coniving of these 4... almost had them here a half day early arriving in the middle of the night...

Did have them stay an extra day...

And almost, through one amazing speech written by Emma and delivered by Louis, had them staying an extra 4 days and flying home:)  

It was hilarious... they are quite convincing these 4:)

My sweet friend Kim... I am so thankful for our teens who allowed us to become friends... We absolutely had a great time with them... They were so easy to have around... everyone got along... and we are kind of the same speed type of people... relaxed:)

Our crews in front of the historic chapel right outside our house... LOVED having them here...

The 3 littlest turkeys... 

Since they left we all have been saying how quiet the house is... I know, sounds strange with our 7 kdis here with us... but it really does seem quiet... we have been missing them... It was such a blessing to have them here:)

Good thing we have another 11 guests coming and staying next week...

We love summer guests!:)

A God appointment...

Yesterday I was blessed to spend the day exploring Chicago with the ladies from the Dallas chapter of MEND.

(Seeing as how we have only lived here 1 year and only have made it downtown on 1 occasion, I was a terrible hostess... I have no idea how to use the train system, where anything is located or even what are the best ways to get around... We figured it out, but I felt bad that I could offer no direction whatsoever... :) I think the deep dish pizza we all had at midnight made it all better:)

Truly, we had a great time...

Unfortunately, the founder of MEND Rebekah ended up not feeling well which had delayed our start to getting into the city... We were so glad that later in the day she was up to giving exploring Chicago a try...

We hit Portillos for some famous Chicago Style hot dogs...
We hit Navy Pier for a ride on the Ferris wheel...
We hit the sky deck at the Willis tower (yes that is the ledge that cracked just a few weeks back... and yes... it is TOTALLY freaky standing on a clear ledge 103 stories up in the air:)

We were on our way to Millennium park to see the bean when we decided to stop in at Fannie May for the Dallas girls to buy some Chicago chocolate...

As we were checking out, the checker, a sweet young gal, I would guess no older than 20, waited on us...  She commented on the purple sweatshirts some of the girls were wearing, and asked if they were breast cancer sweatshirts.

One of the girls explained that no, we were actually a part of a support group called MEND that was for women who had lost babies to miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death... We told her about the group that we just started here in the Chicagoland area this week...

She sort of had a blank look on her face and asked, "Why would you do that??"  It was sort of an odd question that seemed to have more meaning behind it... And of course one of us shared that we had all indeed lost babies either to stillbirth or hours after birth.

Our director asked... "Do you know anyone who might have lost a baby?"

"I might..." was her reply and then she sort of quickly disappeared...

Immediately our director thought it was her that had lost a child...
We scrambled to find a business card with some MEND info on it... but ended up not having any, and found a Fannie May card to write our website, my email and number on it.

When she came back she had to wipe away tears... I just reached out and asked if she was ok... and another of our gals quickly gave her a hug...

She indeed had lost her twins just last year...
What a God appointment... to meet this precious young girl... We visited for a few minutes assuring her that the feelings that she was having were indeed normal and ok to have.  We invited her to group and to sign up for the newsletter. My heart just ached for her... it just felt as if this was one of the first times she had felt free to talk about them.

She has been heavy on my heart.

My prayer is that she somehow will reach out to MEND... even if she can not ever make it out to group... that she would feel the Love that God really has for her, that she would know the support that comes from sharing the burden she feels, and that she would know that she doesn't have to walk this journey alone...

I am so thankful that the Lord placed this precious young lady right in our path yesterday... What a sweet God appointment...

Bits and pieces... gearing up for summer:)

Hopie and Anna on after Hope's preschool program night:)
She is growing up so fast... next year off to St. Peter for kindergarten:)  She is super excited:)

Jojo has become a bird tamer...  He fell in love with this crazy bird he found outside and was holding and taking care of all night... It even slept in our mudroom He was so sad to let it go the next day. All the following day he was watching it , trying to teach it to fly:) (and another bird) holding them, letting them perch on his finger... It was strange how tame these birds were...  So it is looking like there will be some pushing for a pet to join the family in the near future:)

Anna and I discovered Cute girl hairstyles on you tube... Wow, they can explain some really cool braids in a very easy manner.  So that has been fun to spend some evenings trying out some new hairstyles... This was a zipper braid... so pretty, and not really all that difficult.

The hanging bed is out for summer:)    I still am amazed and thankful for Caleb's quick and wonderful handiwork to make that last summer:) I absolutely love being out in the perfect weather we have been having lately...

The garden is planted (almost completely, thanks to our kind, neighbor and head pastor :) Wahoo!!!

Let the summer lounging begin:)

Love seeing HIS handiwork...

Talk about beautiful young ladies right???

This past week we had the pleasure of participating in all sorts of fun activities at the school that is a part of our church...

Louis was the photographer for the 8th grade banquet and dance... What a fun night for him, Greg and myself... Lou has had the pleasure of getting to know most of these young ladies on the Moore mission trip, Sweet Jillian and her mom came to Uganda with us, and through youth group... It was a fun and beautiful night:)

Then the following night I had the opportunity to be one of the 3 speakers at the 8th grade graduation... To be TOTALLY honest, I had completely forgotten that I had agreed to do it until Greg reminded me the day before... hello????  Get this girl some ginseng pronto!!!:):)

When the principal had asked me, I immediately asked if I could speak about Samuel... I didn't want it to be a downer so to speak... but that is the story that God has written for us... The principal was totally fine with that and actually wanted me to speak on how the Lord gets us through the hard and good times in life.

It honestly was such a precious opportunity for me... I was totally nervous, it is not my gift to speak in front of groups at all... but I felt so blessed to share Samuel with a whole new group of people who haven't heard of him and how important he is to us... and felt even more blessed to be able to share with those kids and their parents that THE LORD IS FAITHFUL THROUGH IT ALL!

I have always felt a little ill prepared to handle the trial of child loss in this life... I have wished that someone had really prepared me for the deep deep sorry and grief I would feel... That is why MEND has always been so important to me, because it affirmed in me that my feelings were indeed normal when everyone else and everything else seemed to be  screaming the opposite...

So I was grateful to be able to share with them the full reality of the hurt that can come in life, how clinging to the truths of God's word and not our emotions through those trials is so important, and to how to look for His amazing faithfulness and sometimes miracles through it all... Of course all of my kids were a part of THAT miraculous story...

TOMORROW on the agenda... church, soccer, graduation party up north... and then let the real craziness of June begins...

MEND Chicagoland starts Tuesday:)  Two 50th anniversary parties (both sets of parents), 3 families coming to visit, VBS, Greg's trip to Haiti, me traveling all the way to Houston with the kids on my own, and much much more... and that is just June... We are so thrilled to have friends coming to visit...

We are so excited for the things God has planned for our summer...