Washington Christmas 2009

We had a very nice Christmas this year. After a slow start on Christmas morning we all opened presents. Then we had snackins for lunch and headed over to a friend's house for a party. Following the party we stopped at the orphanage to give them their gifts. We finished off the day with a Skype session with Oma, Opa and Kent.

Here are some pictures from the season.

Smith say Hi

Hello all. We have not posted in a while so i would post a couple for you. It is snowing tonight hear in omaha and it is so pretty. Not going to be fun for my job but it is what it is. You can see a photo of Shadow with snow on his back, i just had to take a photo of it and share with you.

Now you see the other wonderful photo. I love the company i work for they really care about the families that work for them. One of the ladies husband dresses up as santa every year. They have crafts, cookies, popcorn, movies, and a chance to sit on Santa is lap. I dont think that my girls are going to grow up beleaving in Santa. But it is a nice tradition that I do have some what of good memories. As you can see Sasha kinda of injoyed, Chole did not mind at all. Mackenzie on the other hand had a huge fit. The sec I put her on his lap she started to scream. But the second I pick her up she stopped. It was like turning a light switch on and off. I though it was kinda of funny but yet it made me sad at the same time.

I Changed

By Raimy

Happy Birthday Nick!

Happy birthday to a very busy Dad. I hope you find some time to do what you wish. Eat a piece of cake for me!

A Trip to Haiti

Hello family!

I felt that this was newsworthy and momentous enough to make an official blog post.

Chad and Lynde are going to Haiti to pick up Vivine, their daughter! It is just so exciting!

They have been in this adoptive process for so very long. She tells about their trip this coming week on her blog: It's True.

Hurray!!!

I can hardly wait to meet her. What a wonderful time!

- Angie

Happy Birthday Timothy!

I can hardly believe that Timothy is now 10. Wow. double digits. Amazing!

Enjoy the slide show!

Smith update

Hello Family.
It has been quite a while since we put in an update from the Smith household. So here you are.
Nick- is doing great. Has had several weekends of playing paint ball, its been really good weather for it. He had a chance to play speed ball for the first time. very different from woods ball but he liked it. He plays volly ball ever sunday evening with a group of friends and me and the girls had a chance to go and watch him play. Sasha was a great cheerleader for daddy and she loved playing in all that sand.
Shawn-thats me. I am still working part time but i think that this will be my last week. i have deffinetly hit the uncomfortable phase of the pregnancy. Baby Chloe tends to like to spend a lot of time up under my ribs lately. ouch. but it is almost over, only a few weeks left. i have not even started getting things ready for when Chloe arives. but i am not stressing. i have been in a one day at a time mind set lately.
Sasha- a few weeks ago she started preschool at Oakdale. It is a beautiful classroom and a wonderful program. So far she is doing great. she goes from 9am to 1130am every wednesday and friday. (friday is nicks day off so he gets to take her, and they both love that) Last week she had a field trip to the Fontenelle Forest, they had a display of life sized dinosaurs in amoung the trees. it was really wonderderful to see. I got to go as a parent sponsor and we had a lot of fun. but i think Sasha's favorite part of the whole field trip was getting to ride on a big yellow bus to and from. Next week she has her first real dentist appointment. very fun. She is the most wonderful big sister and takes great care of MacKenzie and is looking forward to when we bring Chloe home.
MacKenzie- this month she will turn one. Wow! She is standing independently for a few moments at a time and crusing along furniture. she says about 5 words. This past weekend she got really sick with a high fever, so we took her to the doctor and they found out that her white blood cell count was very high and that means that she has a sever bacterial infection. they gave her the highest dose of the strongest antibiotic shot and that was not enough to wipe it out so she had to have a seccond one. but today finally she is almost back to normal. they are growing cultures from her blood and urine and will hopefully know the cause of the bacterial infection. but i am just glad that she is almost better.
Chloe Nicole- i go in tomorrow for another check up but so far everything has been smooth sailing with her. Due date is still October 16th. People keep teasing us that she will have to have red hair to complete the set. Blond, brown, red. just like neopolitan ice cream. I am just happy that it is almost over because even my maturnity clothes are getting too tight around the tummy and the shirts are not quite long enough any more.

Well, Its a lot and mostly boring, but that is our life right now. We love you all. And from the looks of our family blog we are not the only ones that are over due for an update. hint hint hint. ha ha ha
Lots of Love Shawn

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We had a fun time celebrating Tyler's 3rd birthday! He is getting to be so grown up. Enjoy the slide show!

Tyler the Lion

At the Grand Theater Washington we recently introduced our kids to a classic: The Wiz. The DVD came with a soundtrack CD for our listening pleasure. Tyler especially likes the song called "Mean Ol' Lion". Enjoy the video of his fun lip sync. What are we in for if this is how he is like a just two years old? What fun!

Love ya!
~ Angie

Munchkin Mugs

These are some mugs of my munchkins. High resolution originals available upon request.

Smoochy Face


Wonder Kid


Gabby Girl


Super Baby

Gabrielle's 8th Birthday Celebration!

Gabrielle will be 8 years old on Wednesday. Her papa is traveling tomorrow so we decided to celebrate as a family early. It was a fun time. Enjoy the slide show.

Happy Birthday Sasha

Today my sweet little girl turned three.
This morning when mommy and daddy wished her a happy birthday she was confused and argued with us saying, "My birthday was already." because we had already done most of the celebrating.
On Saturday we took her to the mall and she got her ears pierced at Claire's. She cryed more then i thought she would but stopped crying as soon as they gave her a sucker. She picked out pink flowers and they look so cute.
On Sunday afternoon we had cake and icecream with the Smith group. She got a lot of nice presents including a red Radio Flyer Trike, with a bell and streamers. She loves it. She had been asking for a bike for quite some time. She has spent every minute that she can on that bike since she got it. She still needs some practice but i would say that she pretty much mastered it.
The cupcakes she decorated herself for her party. And i think that she did a really good job.
Today, on the official day of her birth, we spent some time at the park. we had a lot of fun even though it was really hot. Sasha got more time on her trike in the driveway while daddy mowed the grass. She chose pizza for her birthday dinner. and the day ended with a rainbow. That was special because it was right before sunset and we have never seen a rainbow at our house before. It was just for her today.
All in all it was a wonderful celebration. She is very greatful for her gifts and we are very greatful for the beautiful girl that she has become.

new baby

Five months into this pregnancy and we finally hit the big day that we get to have the ultrasound and find out the gender of our new little one. The whole Smith family (all four and a half of us) filed into this tiny dark room with the ultrasound technitian. It was wonderful to see the baby and even better was that Sasha totally got it. She completely understood that we were watching the baby inside mommys tummy.

It took a while for the baby to asume the right position, but there it was, the big reveal. I knew what it was before the technitian even said the words. ITS A GIRL!!!! Sasha took a little bit of convinsing because she totally thought the baby was going to be a boy, but I think she has accepted it now. In a few short months we will have three beautiful daughters in our care.

The most common comment that I have heard about this pregnancy is that people are predicting red hair. Wouldn't that be something?

So far Nick and I are still in discussion about names. The current top pick is Chloe Nicole. He is convinced and I like it but I just have to wait until I feel sure. I have to practice saying it out loud until it feels natural.

We are very happy and excited about this new baby. But both Nick and I are a little sad that we will never have a boy. (I am all done getting pregnant!) Oh well. We are not going to keep trying just to see if we can get a boy. Three is enough for me. All done.

They are still saying that my due date is aroung October 16 or 18. The baby is excactly 1 pound right now. She measures perfectly in every way, and they saw nothing abnormal. She should be perfectly healthy, God willing.

May Day May Day

Well we have had a busy month. Some activities included day trips and theater.
Jill Sheila and I did bird watching at Kansas wetlands including Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (salt water marshes) and Cheyenne Bottoms Preserve Nature Conservancy. Over 60,000 acres of wetlands and host to millions of migrating birds. Some of birds we saw included sandhill cranes, pelicans, plovers, sandpipers, avocets, ducks, geese, red wing black birds, blue herons, egrets and others.

Traveled to Omaha for Mother's Day. Took the folks and the Smiths out to Outback Steak House for dinner. The next day had dinner with Lucas and Misty at the Metropolitan Community College Bistro.

We went to the Cirque De La Symphonie pops concert with circus performers (juggler, cube artist, aerial hoop artist, ribbon dancer, aerial silks artist and strong men). Saw the new Star Trek and the X-men, Wolverine in digital projection. Saw Allison's OK Elementary School Kindergarten and First Graders program.

Got in some good biking including a 30 mile ride in Omaha to the Missouri River Chutes and Ft Atkinson with my friend Fred Gallata. He by the way the week before won the National Duathon for the 55-59 age bracket in Virginia and qualifies him for Worlds this fall. I have put in a couple of 50 milers and a couple of 40 milers the past week or so even with the nasty wind we have here in Kansas.

Worked with others from Cargill to host a River Cleanup Saturday. I helped cook hot dogs and ham burgers to feed the 450 volunteers that cleaned the banks of the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita.

Spent an afternoon planting 55 perennials in the "castle" area of the island in the parking lot.

Watch the River Festival parade with Allison, Kent and Emily.

Jill, Kent, Sheila I got food at the Mid-way the last night of the River Festival. then we went toward the river to watch the fireworks. A series of canon shots startled Jill and cause a severe panic attach. Even after we left the noise of the fireworks, Jill was experiencing chest pains. We ended up calling 911 and an ambulance took us tot eh hospital. Tests in ER included EKG and constant blood pressure monitoring. Jill had to spent the next couple of nights in CCU. Tests included a heart catheter and the resulting diagnoses was interesting. The doctor thinks she had a heart attack but the her heart is OK in fact it looks like "the heart of the young woman". We are happy she is back home and recovering well. She will be taking it easy for a while.

We are planning to go to Omaha this weekend returning on Memorial Day. On the way up there we will stop in Lawrence Kansas to visit a foundry and drop off sculpture Jill finished and will be having mold made so it can be caste into bronze.

Tomorrow we are getting a new sign for the entry. It will be 24" tall and 13 ft wide with teh following copy: "www.WichitaPottery.com"

School Program

Happy Mothers Day Mom, Emily and Shawn

This greeting was in my inbox this morning. I felt like I wanted to share it. Hope it makes you smile and feel super!

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Girls and Shadow

Hey all i was going through the dig camra and i found a good photo that shawn took with the Sasha, MacKenzie, and Shadow. I don't remember how but i was working in the garden and Shawn got the girls and Shadow to sit in the wagon that Oma and Opa bought. It has been so useful as of late.

Washington Family Pictures

Photographer: Lacy Inscho, Kansas City area. She came to Bolivia to photograph the kids in the orphanage and graciously did a session with our family.

If you would like me to email you the originals then just let me know which ones you want.

Love you all!

ER

I have been a mom for almost three years now and last night we had our first emergency room visit for one of the kids. Fortunately it was for something that was not too sereous. Sasha was playing in the mud and got a shovel full in her face. She got quite a bit in her eyes. Despite my best efforts to wash them out I was not able to get it all. When I called our pedeatritian they recomended we go to the emergency room because mud in the eyes could cause corneal abrations and infection. So off we went. We were in and out of the er in under two hours, impressive. They numbed her eyes with droppes so that they could examin them with out too much discomfort. then they had to flip her eyelid inside out to check for scratches, yuck. She really did not like that part. Then they put some orange die on her eyes. She really hated that part. Then they turned off the lights and turned on a black light. And all i saw was her eyes glowing orange in this dark room. very spooky. After all that it turned out to all be ok. there were no scratches and no signe of infection and we were free to go. She was happy because she got to pick out a toy to take home, so all in all a good visit. but it was really hard for me to see my baby scared and crying to go home and that it hurt. It almost made me cry.
Nick and I were pretty sure that any kid of his would end up in the er in the first year. But Sasha has proven to be very sturdy. With all the climbing and dare devil things she does we are surprised that we havent had any broken bones or concussions.
Thank you Jesus for your angels of protection around my brave little girl that tends to get herself into a lot of precarious situations.
In the end it was a little mud in the eyes that sent us to the er, for the first time at least.

bio pic! :)

Hello all! :)

"Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice"~

Sidney Freedman.
Psychology Ward
M*A*S*H 4077

Who change my picture! :) Were did u get it. :)

New member of the family

On Sunday we brought home a puppy! Nick and I have wanted a dog since we got married and have been talking about it a lot lately, and finally we decided that now would be a good time. (Get him potty trained before the new baby comes.)
Its all a little bit crazy, two small children, one on the way, two cats, and now a puppy. Wow! we are nuts, but we love it.
His name is Shadow, he is an all black Cocker Spaniel. Born on December 14, so he is three and a half months old. We took him to the vet and he is very healthy. Surprizingly we know more about taking care of a puppy then we thought. It turns out its a lot like having another kid. But I am happy to report that he is sleeping through the night. (what a relief)
Sasha is having a blast with him. She is really good at helping to use up his energy before we put him to bed. MacKenzie still doesn't know what to think of him yet. Its like she gets nervous and excited all at the same time when he is by her.
As for pictures.... I dont have a good one to put up yet because he is all black and i am having a hard time getting one to come out clear. I will try some outside in our green grass today and maybe that will work.
Its my first dog ever so this has been a very fun adventure.
Shawn

Allison's Birthday

Dear Allison,

I hope that you had a marvelous birthday celebration. You are so precious! I am glad that you are part of this family. Wow, you are 6 years old now! I remember being 6. It is a fun age. I love you, Allison!

Love,
Tia

Adoption Update

It was the first week of December of 2008 that we announced the commencement of the adoption of our daughter. We have learned sooooooooo much in these 3+ months! My American brain wrongfully assumed that the adoption process is thus: 1. decide to adopt 2. pick your kid out 3. do all the paper work 4. get your kid 5. live happily ever after. Aside from number one my nice little steps schematic plan has been blown to smithereens. I do hope to arrive at number five but it is turning out that there are many more steps than I could have ever dreamed of. If I had to give a guesstimate I would say there are like 5,823 steps. That might be an exaggeration but it feels like an incredible number of tiny little steps to arrive at the completion of this adoption.

We are making progress. Really, we have not hit any immense obstacles. It is going ok.

Right now we are facing an adjustment in our mentality. Boiling it down this is the natural Bolivian adoption process: 1. decide to adopt 2. do all the paper work 3. present your request to the Bolivian government (stipulating gender, age and health condition of the child you would like to adopt) 4. Bolivian government matches (assigns) adoptive parents with eligible child 5. live happily ever after.

As a missionary learning to cope with culture shock one must recite this mantra often, "It's not wrong, it is just different." As we are looking at this adoption we are evaluating the adaptation to this Bolivian process. We are asking ourselves many questions. While we know that there is nothing innately wrong with this different process we are asking ourselves what is right for us.

Our lawyer told me that if we follow the Bolivian process, in the most ideal case, we would be done with everything in under three months. We all know that we do not live in an ideal world so it probably would take longer. Now, if we hold out for this idea of us being the ones to select the child it will mean looking for loop holes and trying to beat the system; in other words even more time than the first scenario. She is willing to work with us either way.

We could pick up the phone and call her this instance to tell her that we want to finish up the paper work and submit our request to the Bolivian government. All the while still hoping for a special circumstance to arise (baby left on our door step, new child coming into the orphanage who is perfect, etc.) while we await our assignment. The two don't cancel each other out.

The bottom line is that we are adopting a Bolivian child. How it will happen is still a mystery. There are so many kids that need homes. In the end we are trusting that God be the one to put us together with our child. Who am I to say that He cannot work through the Bolivian process? Who am I to refuse Him that option?

If you have any insight or observations I would love to hear them. I am so excited and very passionate about this new addition to the family. It will be interesting to see who arrives first: the new Smith or the new Washington. (smile)

Happy Birthday Raimy!

Happy Birthday Raimy!!!!!

Raimy,

You are turning into such a lovely young lady. I hope you have a happy birthday. I would love to see pictures of your celebrations. Enjoy every minute of it!

Love,

Auntie M and Ali

The Many Adventures of...

Recently Sasha and I shared a special moment that caused many happy memories from my child hood to come flooding back. The Dysney channel aired the good old favorite show, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. So I recorded it because when I was young I remember that it was one of my favorite shows to watch, (I think we may have owened it on vhs.)
We watched it together this week, (several times) and it is just as wonderful and as majical as I remmember it. Even better is I still know all the words and can quote the whole show (Sasha thought that this was pretty cool.) But what was so special about the whole thing was that Sasha loved it too. She got caught up in the adventures just like I remmember doing when I was probably her age. She sat with me cuddled up on my lap and we bounced and swayed to the songs together. I think that she loved that I loved it, and I loved that she loved it. I felt like a kid again.
I am not sure if our bonding moment over Winnie the Pooh had anything to do with it but Sasha told me this week that I am her best friend.
Oh be still my heart.
I really love that kid.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Dear Lucas,

I only hope that you are enjoying your life and that you have a very happy day. Celebrate your life!

God bless you, brother.

Much love,
Angie

Happy Birthday Emily!

Wow, Emily, this has been a year of milestones for you. You are becoming quite the accomplished woman. I am so proud of you for going after your dreams and being such a unique individual.

Today you entered the final year of being a twenty-something. I am excited to see where you are headed from here. I wish only goodness and mercy for you. Happy Birthday, friend. I love you!!!

Angie

Sasha's FIRST haircut

Today was a very big day for Sasha (and for Mommy). Sasha got her first haircut. We had it done by a friend of mine, Nicole Schulte. And I was so nervous about but it ended up not being as stressful as I thought it would be. She was a champ, did a great job, and got a sucker and a baloon when she was done. Here are some pictures of before and of after and the durring...



ps. I had about seven other photos that I tried to share but I was unable to (after I tried it three different ways, ugh.) So all I got is the before and after. Sorry. Maybe I will do better next time.

Smith Family Update

On Friday February 6th, we found out that our family of four is about to turn into a family of five. I am expecting baby number three, and he/she should be due in the middle of october. Nick and I are very very excited but Sasha has not jumped on the baby bandwagon yet. And MacKenzie is sweetly oblivious just like any other four month old.
Just in case anyone was wondering, yes we did this on purpose.
Shawn

MacKenzie Update

MacKenzie had her four month check up on Tuesday. She weighs 16 pounds now and is 25 inches long. 90% if anyone was wondering. Sasha was the same way. Everything checked out just fine, and she does not need a helmet to work out her lumpy head. She gets to start eating foods now and we started her on cereal this week. It was a new experience and she wasnt' so sure about it at first but now she is cool with it. It is so cute to see her open her little mouth wide when she sees the spoon coming. Like a little bird. I think we will try bannanas next. So much excitement at the Smith house. ha ha ha.

"Gabrielle with Golden Glasses On" by:Gabrielle

I miss you family. I want you to see I have my golden glasses. I love you. I hope you are having a good time. I'm happy. I am going to a new school that is why I got new glasses; I was kind of twisting my eyes with my old pink ones. My hair is growing longer. I love you, once again. Good bye.

Ali's Announcement

Allison had a surprise today. After not being able to eat a sandwich as she normally could she said,

"I have something in my teeth."

"Do you want to toothpick?"

"No. It's not food."

I checked in her mouth and with a laugh said,

"You have a loose tooth!"

Her mood quickly lightened and she giggled happily, grabbed a mirror and can't stop talking about it.