Women Who Inspire: Kaycee Hobbs of the Hobbs Crew

July 11, 2020 Kaycee Hobbs

You know those mothers who makes amazing meals without spending a fortune? The ones who home school their kids and solve all types of problems daily and with a smile on their face? Well, Kaycee Hobbs is one of those people

Stephanie Kelley: Please give us a brief introduction.
Kaycee Hobbs: My name is Kaycee Hobbs and I live in a small town near St. Louis, Missouri. I am a stay at home mom and a homeschool blogger. My husband, Rick and I have adopted seven beautiful children and so they keep us very busy.

SK: Please give us a brief “life history.”
KH: As a child my family moved around a lot because of my dad´s job. I was born in Montana, but we were transferred to Washington, Utah, and finally Missouri. When I was sixteen, I met my husband. I was working as a dark room technician for a local hospital and he was a X-ray Technologist. We started dating and I guess you can say the rest is history! We have been married for twenty-two years and I thank God for him every single day.

SK: Would you please share your testimony.
KH: I was raised in a Christian home where doing the right thing was the foundation of everything we did. My testimony is really quite simple because I don´t remember a time in my life when God was not the center of everything. As I have grown older, God´s calling has shaped my life in amazing ways. He has taken our painful moments and turned them into purpose for His will.

SK: Would you please share your adoption stories?
KH: About a year after we were married, we began to want children. We knew there was a big possibility that we would have infertility issues and we did. To be quite honest with you, I was devastated. Infertility can be very difficult on a marriage and so we worked hard to preserve our relationship despite this disappointment. When it became apparent that a biological child was not in our future, I began to pray.

My husband had a business trip to California scheduled and I got to go with him. In my prior life, before becoming a mom of seven kiddos, I read all the time! So, I packed a bunch of books and headed for the hotel pool. I can remember this moment so clearly to this day… I was sitting on the side of the hot tub soaking my feet and reading my book when the word adoption jumped out at me. You see, I was reading a series by Gayle Roper who is an adoptive mom and just felt God tug at my heart about adopting a kiddo.

I was so excited and so I approached Rick on the subject. He flat out told me no… Now this wasn´t a complete surprise to me because men are generally very hesitant about adopting and loving someone else´s child. So, I just simply asked if he would pray about it. He did and within forty-eight hours he came to me and said, “Let´s start the process!”

Our first adoption was a private domestic adoption where our birth mother picked us out of a book from an introductory letter we wrote. They told us it could be years before we would get picked, so we prayed, shared our hearts in that letter, and prepared to wait. The day that our letter went into the book was the day that our birthmother walked into the agency! Talk about God´s timing!! Within four months, we were the proud parents of our first child, Sam.

When Sam was about five years old, we decided we would like to add to the family. Rick wanted one more kid and I wanted two. We did our research and found the cost of adoptions had sky-rocketed and frankly, we couldn’t afford it. This led us to foster care…

We had so many mixed emotions about heading this direction, but we also knew that if this is what God was calling us to do, then we needed to obey. It took over a year, but we finally were licensed with the state of Missouri as foster parents.

Our ten-year-old son, Andy was our very first placement and we took him home from the hospital. About two months later, we got another phone call and took placement of Alex who was three weeks younger than Andy. So essentially, we had “twins.” We affectionately call them the twinkies because they are inseparable to this day! The kiddos just kept coming and within one year we went from one child to five children! Talk about overwhelming, it was crazy! And I felt crazy!

Fast forward about seven years, we had adopted five children and were waiting on an adoption date for our sixth child. I was emotionally exhausted, and I told God I was done. Just a piece of advice, don´t ever tell God what to do! I think He might have chuckled a little bit because within a week we got another phone call.

I should back up a bit because even though I told God no, He began to prepare my heart for our seventh child. I am so thankful he cares enough to do that! Anyway, a biological sibling of our sixth child had been born and needed a home. So, we said yes to our bonus baby! I am so glad God didn’t listen to me. I wouldn´t trade any of our seven children for the world! Each one has a beautiful story and on those hard days, I´m so thankful I can fall back on the fact the He GAVE them to us.

SK: Tell us about your biggest challenge with having a larger family. Also, your biggest blessing.
KH: There are a lot of challenges with having a large family and they can be very overwhelming. I will never forget one day right after we had started fostering, I went to serve lunch and didn’t have enough spoons for everyone. Honestly, there are still not enough spoons for everyone! They keep disappearing! I thought to myself, these are the things they don´t tell you about in class.

Making everything jumbo size, including things like transportation, vacations, food, and clothing takes a lot of thought process. I am naturally a very organized person, so I learned to implement standard operating procedures and processes so that everyone´s needs are met. Having a large family was never on my bucket list but I love it! The hustle and bustle is something I thrive on. Being given the opportunity to change the world for seven very special children is priceless. We are training our small army to serve others so that we can be a blessing.

SK: What brought you to the decision to homeschool your family?
KH: I was homeschooled during my high school years and I loved the experience. From that point on I knew I wanted to provide the same type of education for my own children. I love teaching them and finding creative ways for them to learn and understand a variety of concepts. If you were to ask me what my number one reason for homeschooling is, I would have to say that it is to spend more time with my family. I can´t even begin to tell you about the memories that we have made together learning new things. Yes, even I learn new things! My motto for homeschooling is: Make memories! That´s what homeschooling is all about!

SK: Tell us about your blog.
KH: I am a large family homeschool blogger and I love it! It´s hard but so worth it! I have been told for years by family and friends that I needed to start a blog to share our tips and tricks. I would jokingly point at the seven children running around and tell them I didn´t have time. Again, I need to point out when God asks you to do something then it’s a good idea to listen. I have to say our fostering and adoption journey has taught me so much about life. We have been presented with a lot of different special needs which would make me scratch my head and ask, “How do I help this child learn or understand this concept?” Can I tell you something? God always gives me this idea of how to teach something so that it´s easily understood and it helps the child´s progress. So that´s why I started our blog, to share how God has helped us thrive within our large family. I do have to say my passion is writing lesson plans and unit studies for our children. I love creating curriculum that gives them the opportunity to grow, learn, and make a difference in their lives forever! So, when you visit our blog, you will find resources that will hopefully help you have a successful home and homeschool!

SK: Tell us about your current projects:
KH: Recently, I was blessed to become the new owner of www.homeschoolprintablesforfree.com. I am truly honored to have been given this opportunity and add it to our Hobbs Crew family! My current project is nurturing and growing that site so that it is a homeschool resource that helps families educate their children. I want to share other blogger´s excellent products and create our own so that they can make memories while educating their children.

SK: How has the COVID crisis changed your life, job/ministry?
KH: The recent COVID crisis took our busy family schedule and eliminated it to almost nothing. I´m going to be really honest with you… At first, I was very scared, upset, and at a loss for what to do. Our kids were at a loss too as everything came to a sudden stop. As I prayed, I felt like God wanted us to work really hard on our blog and so that´s what we did. I am a person who loves to take lemons and make lemonade. I prayerfully adjusted my perspective and asked God for direction during this time. He never fails!

SK: What are your plans (personal and professional) for the near future and beyond?
KH: Our goal is to work on our two websites and organize them to be a resource homeschool families can turn to in order to educate their children. We are working to make the sites user friendly so parents can pop on and find what they need easily.

SK: Do you have any words of encouragement you can offer our readers?
KH: Friends, I want to leave you with my favorite bible verse. Psalms 37:4, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This verse is so often misinterpreted when it is read because we often think God is going to give us whatever we want. However, let´s back up for a minute. The first part of this verse says to ¨take delight in the Lord.” What does that look like? I always like to think of it this way… If I delight in my husband, I am thinking of the things he likes and what his thoughts and wishes are. I am aligning my wants with his. It´s the same way with God. When we align our heart with His, He changes our wants to what He wants for our lives. He did that with our adoption story. It wasn´t what I wanted but when I submitted to Him, it became what I wanted and needed. I wouldn´t change it for the world. So, I guess what I am trying to say is trust God and let His desires become yours

SK: Please share your contact information.
KH: You can find us at

www.hobbscrew.com

or on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/hobbsfamilycrew/?view_public_for=2345527445694644.

Visit our FREE Homeschool Printables site at https://www.homeschoolprintablesforfree.com/.
You can also find on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homeschoolprintablesforfree/.

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Cookin´ for the crew
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