Back safe and sound

What a whirlwind of a weekend... I of course took tons of pictures with the mother of the baby's camera and not one with mine... ugh! But Louis did capture this goofy one of Hope. What an expression huh? She is still full of the hootspa. Honestly, I think she may be the smartest of our kids yet... and the most strong willed... WOOH! I just keep telling her, "I will win this one!:)" I don't think she has fully understood that yet... she is still pushing... So she brings us much laughter and smiles and some challenges, just like any kid:)

We had a great time with Ryane and Blake and sweet little Payton. I wondered how it would be with a newborn around. And truly, praise God, it was better than I anticipated. I couldn't help but hold her. She was tiny... I just kept thinking, Samuel was this big at birth. Payton is around 2 months already. She was just precious. Man to have that little nugget in my arms felt strange, but good. The best part was when she just fell asleep as I held her... Oh... I have missed that snuggly feeling so much! What a precious little gift from God. The baptism went well. We got to see Greg's parents, aunt and uncle, and cousins. But it was incredibly fast... and I am incredibly tired:) But it was so worth it!

I am extremely nauseaus today and I think I have a sinus headache... I think I am actually having some of the terrible Oklahoma allergies everyone talks about. I am praying that it will all lift a bit as this is the week for our big fundraiser for my infant loss support group M.E.N.D. There is tons of work to do... Last year the fundraiser, a bunco bash, was really fun. Louis and Caleb will take Thursday off of school to help with everything for this years potato supper and bunco bash. We have some awesome prizes... I am hoping that it is a big success, that will enable us to continue to reach out to hurting families who have lost babies.

Well, I wanted to do a quick update on all that has been going on... physically, soon I will update on all that is going on in my mind...

On the way home from going out for yogurt tonight, ( I was too nauseaus to cook dinner:) Jojo said that he wanted to tell Samuel about this lady we saw that had a beard. Ok, that part made me laugh, about the beard. It just seems so funny to me all the every day things we still want to share with our boy. That we wish he was still a part of. I think with his 2nd birthday just around the corner... the mind goes back to the details of it all so easily. That of course, combined with the hormones of pregnancy... can make for some busyness in the mind that is for sure. I will post about that soon.

So thankful for the encouragement you all give me and for your prayers for this little one on the way....

UPDATE ON HOPE'S FINALIZATION

IT WAS A GREAT DAY... WE STAYED THE NIGHT IN A HOTEL NEAR WHERE WE NEEDED TO FINALIZE. WE JUST KNEW THAT TO GET ALL OF US THERE ON TIME, WE WOULD HAVE HAD TO LEAVE BY ABOUT 5:30 THIS MORNING... THAT JUST WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. OF COURSE FOR US WITH THE KIDS THINGS NEVER GO OFF WITH OUT A HITCH...

ANNA WAS FREAKED OUT BY THE PITCH BLACK ELEVATOR AT THE HOTEL. (IT WAS A LITTLE SPOOKY:)

WE GOT SOME GREAT LAUGHS OVER THE "SQUEAKIEST BED IN THE WORLD" THAT ANNA AND I WERE SHARING... OH... MY... GOODNESS... YOU COULD BARELY BREATHE WITH OUT IT MAKING TONS OF NOISE:)

AND THIS MORNING WHEN GREG WENT TO GET DRESSED... HE WAS MISSING HIS PANTS... YOU KNOW YOU DON'T WANT TO SHOW UP BEFORE THE JUDGE LOOKING SLOPPY... SO WE WERE A BIT PANICKED.... WE WERE IN A TOTALLY UNFAMILIAR AREA AND HAD NO IDEA WHERE TO FIND A 24 HOURS STORE TO FIND SOMETHING BEFORE OUR HEARING AT 9 AM. WE WERE RUSHING TO GET EVERYONE READY.

WELL, PRAISE GOD I TOLD GREG TO CHECK THE COUCH IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. WE HAD PUT THE PILE OF CLOTHES THERE LATE LAST NIGHT WHEN WE ARRIVED... AND THANK GOD, THERE THEY WERE.

BUT BESIDES THAT, IT ALL WENT OFF WITH OUT A HITCH. WE BASICALLY JUST HAD TO AGREE TO TAKE CARE OF THIS SWEET LITTLE GIRL THROUGH ALL THE GOOD AND BAD OF LIFE. WE WERE THRILLED TO AGREE TO IT ALL:)

HERE IS CALEB HITTING THE GAVEL TO MAKE HOPE OFFICIALLY A PART OF THE FAMILY... THE JUDGE WAS REALLY NICE AND EVEN LET THE LITTLER ONES STAND RIGHT BY HIM SO THEY COULD GET A GOOD VIEW:)

THIS IS DIERDRE THE DIRECTOR OF THE AGENCY THAT WE GOT HOPE THROUGH... SHE IS AMAZING... SUCH A SWEET, SWEET LADY, WHO HAS BEEN SUPER PROFESSIONAL, YET INCREDIBLY SUPPORTIVE OVER THE LAST 8 MONTHS. I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW OFTEN SHE WOULD EMAIL ME AND REMIND THAT THEY WERE PRAYING FOR OUR FAMILY AND HOPE THROUGH THIS ALL.


WE JUST LOVE HER AND ARE SO THANKFUL FOR HER.




THE WHOLE CREW INCLUDING DIERDRE AND OUR LAWYER AFTER THE FINALIZATION.

HERE IS ANNA... JUST OVER THE MOON THAT SHE ACTUALLY FINALLY HAS A SISTER!!

REALLY WE ARE ALL THRILLED TO FINALLY HAVE THIS DAY BE HERE.

WE ARE SO BLESSED TO HAVE HER IN OUR LIFE:)

YAY GOD... FOR YOUR GOOD WORK IN GROWING HOPE IN HER BIRTH MOM'S WOMB, AND ALLOWING HER TO GIVE OUR SWEET, PRECIOUS DAUGHTER THE GIFT OF LIFE.

YAY GOD... FOR MAKING HOPE A HINTZ FOREVER!

FOR YOU FORMED MY INWARD PARTS, YOU KNITTED ME TOGETHER IN MY MOTHER'S WOMB. I PRAISE YOU FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE. WONDERFUL ARE YOUR WORKS, MY SOUL KNOWS IT VERY WELL.

PSALM 139:13-14

IT'S OFFICIAL, SHE IS FINALLY A HINTZ

IT IS FINALLY OFFICIAL... THIS SWEET LITTLE PUMPKIN IS FINALLY AT HOME FOREVER WITH US!

SWEET BABY GIRL IS NOW OFFICIALLY HOPE JUBILEE MARIE HINTZ...

AND WE ARE SO VERY GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR ALLOWING IT TO HAPPEN...

FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS OVER THE LAST 8 MONTHS OF UNKNOWNS...

FOR AN AMAZING AGENCY WHO WAS SO INCREDIBLY SUPPORTIVE THROUGH IT ALL:)

I WILL TRY TO UPDATE LATER WITH SOME MORE DETAILS AND PICTURES:)

SOON TO BE SISTERS:)

I woke up this morning to the older of these 2 little beauties in bed with me... I could hear her over and over again saying, "Yes...yes... yes... Yes...YES!" I said, "What are you talking about?" She replied by saying... , "Yes, really soon I really will have a REAL SISTER!"

As long as all goes as planned... we have a court date to finalize our adoption with sweet baby girl this coming Monday. We are praying that there won't be any glitches...and the agency, and our lawyer do not expect any at all:)

We were hoping to get together with sweet baby girl's birth mother at the agency after we finalize, but now that isn't going to work out. She did want to see us all again and I can't wait to really tell her how much we appreciate her and her gift to us. When we first met her, we didn't really know if we would get to keep sweet baby girl, but she knew that she was in our care and wanted to meet us. Now we will be able to tell her how much we admire her for her love of sweet baby girl and her sacrifice. Hopefully that will get arranged soon:)

We will be so thankful to finally make this little pumpkin an "official" Hintz... Yay God for working this all out in the way that He did... we are so thankful to HIM.

GOOD NEWS:)

SWEET BABY GIRL

MY SWEET FRIENDS EBE AND TONYA:)

Hey friends... I have many reasons to rejoice today and I want you to be able to rejoice with us:)

First of all do you remember my precious friend blog friend... turned real life friend Tonya, (photo of her and Ebe above:) who we stayed with on our way home from Florida back in January?? Well, praise God, she and her hubby were blessed with their healthy little baby boy last Friday.... My heart is overflowing with gladness for them to be able to welcome him into their lives after losing their last son Grady just a couple of weeks after Samuel went to heaven... please feel free to visit Tonya's blog at http://www.tonyatalk.blogspot.com/ to congratulate her and her family on their precious arrival of Matthew Grady. Please pray for baby Matthew as he was born early, and will need to stay in the NICU for a little while, and for his family as they wait excitedly for him to join them at home:) I am so thrilled for them:)

In the picture above both Tonya and Ebe were expecting and thank God both of their babies are here with them now safe and sound:)

Well, the next good news, I can hardly believe I get to share today... you remember sweet baby girl pictured above????

Well, today was a big hearing, we didn't have to actually be there... this was a hearing that was supposed to happen last March, but because of appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court was postponed to today. My prayer with the kids this morning was that ultimately God's will would be done, but that our desire would be for it to be in our favor and for the other interested party to not appeal AGAIN! The agency director as well as us thought an appeal was more than likely which would have postponed things another 3-4 mos... I truly was gearing my heart up for the fact that we may not really know something until November or December at the earliest.

The agency director called a little after noon and told me she had really good news for us. I was already choked up at just those words... She told me that the other interested party that had been dragging this whole thing out withdrew their petition for sweet baby girl... They just finally bowed out so to speak... It was signed by all the lawyers, the court appointed atty for sweet baby girl, and the judge. Of course as the agency director was telling me all of this, I was a total mess, could not even respond through my tears... so she just kept talking:) (We just love this director, she is amazing)I ...COULD... NOT ... BELIEVE... IT... This was far more... (above and beyond all we could have asked or imagined... for God to do what He did today...I love that verse:) He moved a serious mountain and in our opinion performed a miracle in what got done today. So pretty much we should not have any problems from here on out, and we should be able to finalize our adoption with her early in August.

We obviously will not count our chickens before they hatch so to speak... it will not be done till we sign on the dotted line and make her ours forever... but now that seems to be exactly what should and hopefully will happen in just a few short weeks.

We are over the top thrilled at God's goodness... I keep telling people that God is good and faithful regardless of if this would have gone the other way for us... he would have been faithful to sustain and carry us through the loss of sweet baby girl just like he has through the loss of Samuel, my miscarriage, or the other baby we hoped to adopt last summer... but we are completely PRAISING GOD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS IN BRINGING US THE DESIRE OF OUR HEART ON THIS ONE! It is refreshing to our hearts...

It was so funny, we were out for dinner celebrating, (that was a big treat for us) and Greg and I kept laughing because it was almost as if sweet baby girl knew what we were all so happy about...she was in rare... goofy... hamming it up form... full of the hootspa (by the way, the word hootspa is making a comeback:) It was so funny. She is just a delight to us all! Anna ran the whole side of our neighborhood telling the neighbors that she was going to really have a sister:)

Obviously, I will post a picture of her sweet face when it is all said and done... :) I can't wait! Thank you so much friends for your continued and faithful prayers for this situation over the last 7+ mos... we are so very grateful to you for that! Please pray we are glitch free from here on out:)

I know I have posted this verse numerous times... but truly today... it played out before our eyes....THANK YOU GOD!

NOW TO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO DO IMMEASURABLY MORE THAN ALL WE ASK OR IMAGINE, ACCORDING TO HIS POWER THAT IS AT WORK WITHIN US, TO HIM BE GLORY IN THE CHURCH AND IN CHRIST JESUS THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS, FOR EVER AND EVER! AMEN!

We will keep you posted!