The love of a big brother...

I am so very grateful for the love that the big boys in the house show their little siblings...

Do they ever get irritated with them...  YES!  Do they ever treat them not as sweetly as they should ??  100%  ...

But all in all, they are such great big brothers... They are so helpful to me... They love to spend time with the little ones...  My heart just melts when the older 2 boys scoop up the little ones and cuddle them up:)  You would be shocked how often they are kissing the littlest ones up!  (Not in a weird way... but a precious way!:)  They love them so much!

This week Louis put together a make shift tent in the back yard... The little ones loved having the chance to hang out in there looking at books later one evening.  Fun stuff! Those are the moments that bless my heart... The big brother investing and loving on the little ones... There are many days that I could not do half of what I do with out their help.  And Louis in particular still has such a tender heart... Just last night he headed out to the grocery store with me at midnight... He didn't want me to go alone:)

I know that life is fragile... I know that I likely only have a few more years with him at home with me... He is a gift... I am so very thankful that God opened my womb and blessed Greg and I with him.  How long and hard we tried for him... He was worth the wait!  I treasure him and the special times he shares with his siblings and that we share together! 

Only God...

I want to share with you the sweet blessing the Lord brought our way last week when we had to take Levi to the dentist...

Only the Lord could orchestrate the encounter we had while there.  It amazes me how He cares about the intimate tiny details of our lives and then shows off by how creatively and surprisingly He can weave our lives together with others. 

Previously, I had mentioned to the dentist about Levi's history about being an adopted embryo... I thought maybe there was some chance that could come into play with him having these cavities...

That was one of the reasons I mentioned it... and the biggest reason is that...

I wanedt them to see and realize that this little life in front of them is a miracle...frozen for 5 years, thawed and was given life again!  Our precious snowflake baby Levi!

So in we walk and right away the dentist introduces us to her assistant... then the first words out of her mouth...

"You are never going to believe this!!  This is ________ , she is our new assistant... and I mentioned to her Levi's neat start to life..."  "She also happens to be the very first women in all of Illinois to adopt frozen embryos, conceive and carry them to term... 14 years ago:)

This was big news 14 years ago... She now has twin age teenagers:) Their case made the news and was followed for years by researchers...

I almost fell over... We laughed about how strangely some people react when they hear about how your child came to be... I can only imagine how wild embryo adoption sounded 14 years ago...

It was crazy that out of all of Illinois here we would be in the same room at the same time with the mom to the first ever successful embryo adopted babies in this state! Only God could make that happen...

In between the dental work, we shared bits and pieces of our stories with one another... What had brought each of us to the point of considering embryo adoption.  She is only now joining the work force again full time due to some difficult circumstances in her life...

I am praying that even now in the midst of some harder times for her that somehow the Lord will use our lives to minister to her in some small way... I know we will be back in there  a few times in the coming months... and many more in the years to come...

It was so sweet and surprising of the Lord to allow our paths to cross... I know the Lord doesn't waste any of our hurt and will use it, especially when we let him... Praying that He uses our precious snowflake baby in ways that I can't even think of or see right now...

My girls heart...

(Anna with her buddy Isaiah, Zader the tator... as he is affectionately called around here)

 

While the appearance on the outside of my Anna has changed more and more with each passing year...

 

The sweet heart of my Anna hasn't changed much...

 

That tender, affectionate, shamelessly loving side of her bursts out of her today the same way it did nearly 5 years ago when she finally got to see Samuel face to face...

 

She and I were talking about it the other day... how she would have held him all day... it was hard to share him... we all knew our time would be so short... And it was... We only had him with us for nearly 5 hours...

 

And as quickly as he came into the world, after just a few pushes... he was gone...

 

I will NEVER forget handing him to Greg, who handed him to the nurse, who ever so gently laid him in the bassinet, covered him with this paper cloth, and headed out the door... The nurse was so gentle... ( I loved that about her)

 

I will NEVER forget Anna's fearless love for him... and how she just laid that kiss smack dab on Samuel's lips... She wasn't super gentle... pure, heartfelt, deep love for her baby brother! ( I loved that about her!)

 

She is the same now... A mommy's helper, baby lover... she has a way with Levi and Isaiah that warms my heart... they love her so much!  The feeling is quite mutual. 



 

She was a gift to me then... and even more so now!

 

 

(Anna with her little brother, Samuel, 10/30/2008)

Levi's week

 

 

Our sweet little Levi heading into the dentist office... not having a clue as to what was ahead...

(Sorry for the not so great pictures... all taken on my cell... for what it is worth... the I phone takes WAY better pictures than my samsung galaxy:))

 



 

 

We have been so blessed to find a great dentist here in Illinois... before we moved we were told that Levi had some cavities that needed to be filled and this dentist confirmed that a few weeks back...  (The OK doctor, whom we loved as well, told us that he may need to have them worked on in the hospital because he was so young... hello, that would have been crazy and been so much more involved than what we were told we could do here.) 

We were so thankful to be able to take care of it in the office.

 

I am so so very thankful that I had Greg come with today. 

 

They strapped him in this little papoose deal and went to work... only it didn't go exactly as we anticipated... surprisingly one tooth had an infection and either needed a baby root canal or to be pulled... So our little guy is down one tooth... I left the room and both Greg and Levi handled it like champs... He was such a little trooper all day... and enjoyed the extra ice cream that he got to eat...

 

But honestly, this mama's heart hurt... I hurt for my little guy!  I can  not tell you how much I love him... He is as sweet as pie and I was praying like crazy when we had to make a quick game time decision that we hadn't expected to...

 

(It is really odd that he has some of these tooth problems... none of our kids have had anything like it... he didn't go to bed with a bottle or anything that would lead to this... I even asked if it could have anything to do with him being the result of a frozen embryo adoption... even the dentists really don't know... I know God knows and made him perfectly!!! :)

 



 

He seriously has the most beautiful eyes and lashes...

 

Levi has had quite the week.  We also had his speech evaluated earlier this week.  He tries so hard to talk, is talking a lot more than he was 2 months ago, but it just still didn't seem like he was where he should be.  He will carry on and on sometimes, but not that much of what he says really makes any sense. 

 

So needless to say, we are really thankful that he will be able to get some help soon.  (He gets frustrated and angry because he wants to talk and can't:(  We feel bad that we can't understand him.    And I am hoping that they will help me be able to help him better at home.  I think I just need the tools and to know how to help him progress! 

 

So it has been a big week Levi...

 

We are so thankful for this little man and have a really cool story about someone we met at the dentist's office today... totally a neat God thing to put us there at the same time... I can't wait to share!:)



gotcha day for hopie girl

It has been 3 years since this little girl officially became Hope Jubilee Marie (her birthmom's choice) Hintz.  A lot has happened in the last 3 years.  She even became a big sister 2 times over:) 

We are so thankful that God choose her to be a part of our family!  What a treasure she is!  (Every last bit of constant busyness:) She is above and beyond thankful.... affectionate... funny... tough to the core at times... & is beginning to become a really big helper...

She started her new preschool class this week and for the most part she did great. We were so thankful.  She actually has been far more mello this week.  That isn't like her normally... maybe she was extra tired, not feeling 100 percent, or turning over a new leaf...  time will tell!  :)

We celebrated Hope's gotcha day with cones from  McDonald's tonight after going to a semi professional  LaCrosse game in town.  That was how we celebrated the day the courts made her ours... With icecream!!

Treasuring our Hopie tonight and every night:)!!  We love her so much!

NO LONGER OK HOMEOWNERS:)

As much as we loved our home in Oklahoma...

As many amazing family memories we made in that home from bringing home Hope, Levi, and Isaiah, great family walks around our nice neighborhood, the boys and dad building their tree fort or neat HUGE loft in their bedroom, late night runs across the yard to the neighbors tornado shelter in bad weather, hard fought soccer games in the yard, bike rides, playing with wonderful neighbors, morning meetings with the kids and our precious neighbor Barbara on her back porch (she was such a gem and loved our kids so much!), block parties, swimming in neighbors pools, to grand attempts at gardening...

There are hard, difficult memories that are etched in my mind too from losing Samuel, the heartache and lonliness of a loss being in a brand new city, housing our 15 year old birth mom and losing baby joel...

Praise God that He brings beauty from our ashes... joy from our mourning... peace from our despair... He is so so faithful!

As much as we loved that home... It was such a great gift from God... Nicer than we ever dreamed of having... the perfect yard for us... great neighbors...

We are SO SO THANKFUL THAT THE LORD BROUGHT US BUYERS AND THE DEAL IS DONE... We no longer own that home. 

It is such a gift to not have to think about taking care of the house and paying the bills while we live far away.  God brought a buyer in His perfect timing... Once again He provides and we are astounded and grateful~!

HE WAS SHOWING OFF...

We have a teether in the house...

One who isn't sleeping real great these days...

 

I am convinced that while we were up at the lake my little Isaiah woke me up for an early morning feeding just so I could experience the splendor of the Lord at the lake...

 

I ventured from the loft bedroom downstairs... decided I would go out on the deck since I could just see that the sun would be rising soon...

 

I was feeding Isaiah on the deck to the cabin with hummingbirds literally buzzing by my head... CRAZY... never experienced that before:)

 

As the sun started to peek over the horizon... I decided why not??  I would take Isaiah down to the pier and hang out and get an up close view of it all from the end of the dock...

 

We were not disappointed!!!

 

We witnessed the sunrise from start to finish, saw a bald eagle perched in a tree right at the end of the pier,  and watched him soar right on by us!

 

I was wonderstruck!  It was like He was knocking my socks off again and again with each passing minute as I sat soaking in the rising sun shimmering off my little sweetie's dark skin.  The reflection of the sunrise off the lake was amazingly gorgeous!  Truly God was showing off today with the beauty that was growing with each moment that passed. 

 

As the rest of the cabin slept in peace and quiet... I felt like I got to experience this total blessing and was bathed in a beautiful time with the Lord... it felt like it was all for me and Isaiah... such a precious morning feeding it was... one I won't ever forget!