Sweet Jojo

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jojo and Greg from our time at the seminary...  Our sweet lil' toe head! 

Our steady Eddy, hard working, good natured, sometimes wild, kayak loving,  harmony singing, hilarious, smart Elijah Thomas! 

We can not believe that this young man is 12!  The days can be long... but the years fly by!  He is an absolute Joy to raise!  He is my helper, my go to... I know that he will willingly help with almost anything... and do it with a joyful heart!  He is the calm before the storm of the 4 littles... 

I always say that between 12 and 14 are the game changing years... and I know we are on the cusp of that with Jojo... 2 years down the road he is going to look totally different... 

But for now we treasure every single moment of life with Jojo as a part of it! THANKFUL, THANKFUL, THANKFUL is what I feel!  We prayed for a child and God answered with Jojo!  I am so thankful that God saw fit to give us this precious child and I pray that he continues to draw him closer to himself every day! May he be a mighty warrior for our Jesus! 

A get away with the bigs!!

We were so blessed a couple of weeks back to get away for a very short and quick weekend with our four big kids.  We know adopting four kids has added an abundant amount of blessings to our family... but also an abundant amount of babysitting, diaper changes, bottles, messes etc. for our bigger kids to help with.  So after some talking we decided to give it a shot and try to find some special help to watch the 4 littles! It worked out great!

Caleb spent the previous night with his cousins and best buddy Logan and went and did a college visit with them. We met them all, including my sweet friend Kimmey Sue when we picked him up in Milwaukee!  What a treat to see Kim after so long.  We spent the 5 weeks in AZ while we were adopting Kaliyah with them in their home... (MOST GRACIOUS HOSTS EVER!!! And oh how I miss her!)

Then it was off to Door County Wisconsin!  Eating out was even a treat with out the littler guys:)

We were blessed to stay at the farm home of some friends from church:)

Lake Michigan is really beautiful... You really feel like you are on the edge of the ocean at times.  We stopped at a lot of shops, a lighthouse, let the kids skip rocks, and really took in the beautiful creation God has made:)

Anna and I ended the weekend hanging out in the hammock!  Talk about a beautiful day enjoying a beautiful property.  I was blessed to not have to cook all weekend!  HUGE TREAT! It was really a gift to hang with the 4 biggest kids!

When we got home these beautiful ladies had cleaned the whole house!  It was incredible!  Seriously, my heart was so blessed to come home and have the kids well taken care of and the bonus was a clean home!  It was awesome!  I didn't want these girls to leave:)

I am so thankful for each and every single one of my kids!  What a treat to have the big kids all to ourselves for a few days!

Busy days...

The days are flying by and there is much going on and many changes in our home...
March 2016 literally blew by us and here we are almost a week into April...
This past Saturday Greg had 2 weddings, plus preaching the regular 4 church services this weekend...
We hosted a couple that is being called to our new church in the evening...
I had a homeschool informational meeting...
I went out in the craziest weather I have seen in a long time... blizzard like conditions one minute, and sunshine in the next... no lie...
Came out of the grocery store to a dented car door from the car next to me... His door blew open the wind was blowing so hard... It was just a crazy day... Louis and I both started new jobs and feel so blessed to have them!

All in all we are loving life and enjoying the busy days... knowing that soon summer will be here and things will slow down a lot for the littles and I in the house:) 

This is how the jobs get done around here... everyone pitches in... hauling groceries for mom!  I couldn't do it with out all of their help!  Even though they make 95% of the mess... I cherish it... I know it won't be long and I will wish for the messes under foot...  They are getting big too fast!

Hopie and Zay Saturday morning staring out the window watching the fresh snow fall...

Rascals in the living room... jojo and Levi, wrestling one minute... hugging the next!

Ann and her sweet friend Ava loving on Kaliyah!  

HOpe to post more soon about the new jobs and life in general... So thankful for God's faithfulness in all of life... the slower moments of calmness and the busy full days... He walks with us through it all!

Her first few days...

The crew welcoming baby Kaliyah home from the hospital in Arizona... They were TOTALLY enamored with her right from the start...

Sisters...  I am so thankful to have this picture...

Jojo is like a little baby whisperer... seriously so good with her... 

Hopie, our very busy little girl, shone when she held her! And she still is such a big helper!

Caleb enjoying some snuggles before we opened gifts on Christmas Day!  (These were all taken before her birth mom changed her mind that day... everybody was falling in love already... it took like 1.5 seconds!:)

Totally Isaiah... in the midst of crazy circumstances this is what you get... A little bit of Zay Crazy!!

Kaliyah Joy... Christmas Day... 2 days old!

 Sweet Baby Girl!  Looking back at these pics makes me realize how light her skin was at birth... She has already changed so much!  What a treasure every moment with her is...

Enjoying baby Kaliyah...

Louis and Emma with Kaliyah 2 days old:)

Mom and Anna enjoying snuggles with this little sweetie...

She loves Jojo so much... and he is so good with her:)

She is just the sweetest, softest, most wonderful Christmas gift ever!!!

I have gotten behind on blogging since we got home 2 1/2 weeks ago...

That was mostly due to the fact that I came home to the crew sharing a stomach bug, literally days after we were clear of that one, almost everyone got a really bad respiratory bug... Dad and mom included.  

I think we are all on the mend and praising God for that! Thankfully Kaliyah is the only one who didn't get either bug!  I still am in shock!  I think the sanitizing and donated breast milk have had a lot to do with her staying healthy!  So grateful!

We are enjoying every second with her... She is a really easy baby and is so sweet!

Sibling love

Best Arizona helpers Ever... Jojo and Anna!  

They have loved having extra time with friends... but in all honestly they have been a huge help!

They are more than willing to feed, diaper, and hold sweet little Kaliyah!

And she seems pretty dog gone comfortable with them too:) 

I know that there are 5 more siblings at home in Illinois, that can't wait to get their hands back on Kaliyah... 

I was 100% planning on staying on here in AZ, just Kaliyah and I, and it was almost as if God just whispered, "Think about keeping Jojo and Anna here too."  It has been such a blessing and gift to my heart to have them here too.  I think it has helped me in not being overly homesick.  

We have been able to completely keep up with our homeschooling, they have been a big help with some household chores, and it has just been fun to have them here with me.  

So thankful for all three of these kids that I get to spend these special days with. 

Day by day...

UPDATE as of 1:30 mountain time today...

I am on my way to the medical records office in Phoenix for full medicals requested by Alabama... The Adoption agency director is REALLY going to bat for us to get Alabama to push it through today and then AZ to push it through possibly today... With the upcoming holiday this would be a HUGE  BLESSING... We are so grateful to her!   This is going to take a miracle since it has taken us this long to not even get through the first state yet... But God's knows and He is in control... :)

Original post:

As the days tick by... Some of us here in AZ awaiting the clearance of our interstate adoption paperwork to clear and some of us waiting 1800 miles away in IL., there are  lots of things happening for the 7 of the Hintzes back at home in Chilly Illinois...

Dad Getting little guys and hopie ready for school each day... 

High school boys taking care of preschool boys after school (They are such great brothers!)...

Snowy walks to church... 

Facetiming with mom, Anna, Jojo, and Kaliyah...

And on our end in sunny Arizona there is a lot happening for the 4 of us:)

Day trips to Sedona to catch a glimpse of God's beautiful creation... (The friends we are staying with had a job 20 minutes from Sedona, so we tagged along)
Long walks with toddlers...
School work with Anna and Jojo (YAY... Science is mostly completed for the year... all of our book science is done... now just observations and projects!!!)

Lots of snuggle time with precious baby Kaliyah:)

Sweet get together with precious friends...

We are so thankful that even though we left our house 3 1/2 weeks ago and have been separated for a lot of that time... God is blessing us all with sweet times and lots of memories being made!  

So here is the ICPC status... 

Basically tomorrow starts day 1... Yep, you read that right DAY 1!!! Even though we are post relinquishment by 17 days, it is still day 1... 

 God willing our packet will be sitting on the ICPC Alabama desk tomorrow sometime.  God willing she will pass it through maybe tomorrow or shortly there after...  We have found Alabama to be not so easy to get through... We had new affidavits that needed to be written up, signed and notarized, that will go from the Alabama lawyer (who knew we would need an Alabama lawyer????) and be in ICPC  possession tomorrow morning! 

With the ways things have gone there are any number of things that could happen.  There was even one mention of a family that had to take the baby back to the state of the birth mother before they could clear that state.  OH GOODNESS, Please pray she is gracious, (that she won't make us do that and) that she will find all the paperwork needed right in front of her, and that she will pass us through that state asap.  

Then we need to clear Arizona... We are HOPING  by Friday... 

Then we need to clear Illinois...  God willing that happens by next Wednesday... This is all BEST case scenario... :)

As always we know that it could happen that we are cleared mid next week... 

AND then again, it very well might not happen...

 Please continue to pray that God moves any mountains in the way... Pray for safety and protection of Greg and the kids back home and then for us here...  And pray for patience that we all can just take it all in stride...

WE KNOW THAT NONE OF THIS TAKES  THE LORD BY SURPRISE... He knows the exact time that we will get clearance.   It will all be in HIS perfect timing:) 

Fall fest...

We are so blessed to live right on campus where the church is at...

Never thought I would really like living right where Greg works or so close to where all the action happens...

But we love it!  We have a country like setting for the back yard, but yet are 5 minutes from pretty much anything we could need... that is a gift and something I don't take for granted... 

One of the HUGE blessings for us has been for our kids to be involved at the church school.  Hope attends first grade full time...

But Jojo and Anna can just pop over for a class here and there...

They are both doing PE this year and Anna is doing art... They also get to participate in extracurricular activities, like choir or cross country:) It is such a HUGE blessing!

This past week was our annual Fall Fest... 

It was a really fun day... We had lots of mom help in preschool and the older kids loved it too:)  

Jojo with his hot chocolate!

With my 2 favorite tigers!  

This llama was hilarious... And Isaiah was TOTALLY enamored with it!

They had pumpkin decorating, a bouncy house, hay ride, relay races, bowling with pumpkins, a petting zoo, and more...

 It was so much fun!  It was a beautiful day! 

God has given us such an incredible fall... It has been super warm... like beyond nice... 

As much as I love winter and the snow... This gorgeous weather has got me wondering if we are going to get hammered by the cold and snow this year... We will see:)

We are taking one day at a time and cherishing all the blessings God has for us each day!

Overweis splash pad

Someone asked me today if we liked living in the country more than here in the suburbs...

It got me thinking...
The part of the property where we live with acres of soccer fields behind us... It is the best of both worlds... A piece of country right here in the big city!

And we are a 5 minute walk from the Oberweis Ice Cream shop and splash pad...

 Does it get any better??

Every day I am once again amazed by God's blessings in moving us here to Schaumburg...
We love it here:)

And clearly, so does Isaiah...

and Levi...

and the bathing beauties Anna and smiley Hope...

and our sweet Jojo...

These were taken a couple of weeks back... and goodness we have now had a cold spell!

We are hoping for some pool or splash pad days soon:)