New additions

Well, most of you have heard by now that we have a few more boys in our home! Juan and Enrique moved into our home in september and we are working towards making an adoption finalized. We are quickly adjusting to having 3 energetic boys around! Juan turned 3 in November and is attending preschool while I am at class. Rique turned 5 in August and is going to afternoon kindergarten at the same school that Matt is at. They are both very smart, fun boys. They both have some health issues that we are uncovering and dealing with slowly. For the most part they are just really active boys! I haven't actually sat thru a church meeting since they have moved in-It is a whole different life with a 3 yr old around! Matt is learning to live with other people taking up Mom and Dad's time. He has been pretty lucky to have us all to himself for so long. It is a big change for him to have to share his toys and house and his friends! I need to go put Juan down for his nap. I will try to get back on when he is asleep. I hope you are all staying warm-it has been freezing here all week! (No school today!)

Greetings!

Hello! I know I haven't been great about keeping up to date on our blog-I am sorry! Here is a little update on life over here at the Smith household.

Matt is doing great in first grade. He is reading so well and loves math. Coach-Pitch softball starts soon. This will be his third year on the same team. Matt loves having his daddy as coach. Matt is really into Pokemon-He was so excited to attend his friend's Pokemon birthday party this past weekend.

Rob is busy, busy, as usual. He is teaching Seminary every morning and then commuting to either Bellevue or Seattle for work. His latest project is our master bedroom. He is trimming out the windows and putting in new baseboard. He just got finished painting the walls and I got my new curtains put up (along with a new bed/bedding). I love the spring! Everyone gets so excited to finish projects!

I am attending school to become a Lisenced Massage Practitioner (LMP). I love it. The hours fit perfectly into my schedule. I also run my church's scrapbook group and lead the activity day meetings (8 - 11 year old girls-kinda like girl scouts!). And, I am starting an adoption/infertility support group in our area. We meet once a month for lunch and try to help each other out where possible. I am so excited for spring to finally come!!!!! I have been working in my garden and watching all the bulbs bloom. I love this time of the year.

I am going to try really hard to keep up with my posts here (especially, so my sister Sarah and her friend Jaime will stop bugging me!)

Talk to ya soon!
Colleen

Check out our adoption profile:

http://www.providentliving.org/ses/birthmother/viewsingleprofile/0,12272,2133-1-8229-1-1,00.html

Wow! What a year! Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I have been pretty consumed with other aspects of my life. School should be starting soon for Matt (except that the teachers are on strike!) And then life will hopefully get back to some sort of normalcy.

Uncle Donn is getting stronger every day (you can check out the blog for him at www.caringbridge.org/visit/donnpotteiger)

My sister Becky had her baby girl yesterday!!! You can check out cute pictures of my niece Adelaide at their blog (http://thecornwallfamily.blogspot.com/). Becky's hubby Nathan just graduated!!! Congrats to him!!!

Rob's birthday is tomorrow. He will be 32 years old! He is trying like crazy to figure out what I got him for a present. Maybe this will be the first year that he doesn't actually figure it out! I'll let you know. He really wants Seahawks tickets but it won't be happening this year. The cheapest cheap seats were a little too pricey for me! Maybe, next year honey!

Matt will be 7 on Sunday. We are having dinner with the family at my place to celebrate all the august/September bdays on my side. We have a lot of them. I ordered a cold stone cake (per Rob's request!) so everyone better show up. Matt is having a Lego party with his friends next week. He is really excited.

No new adoption news yet. We are preparing a postcard with info to send out to everyone we know. This way if you hear of someone who is in need of finding an adoptive family or counseling they can get ahold of our social worker for more information, and not feel pressured by us in any way.

I hope everyone had a great summer! I will start posting here more regularly.

Colleen

04/18/2007

Rob's father, Ray passed away this past saturday, april 14th-at 1:55pm. Six family members were able to be with him on saturday. The funeral will be on friday the 27th at noon. Call us if you would like any details.

April 3 2007

I just got home from the hospital. Dad "Ray" went to the E.R. yesterday at 4pm. He was admitted with pnemonia after ruling out meningitis and lots of other infections. He is doing much better today than last night and hopefully won't be in the hospital very long. Sorry about the short note-I am off to take a quick nap!

My First Blog!

I am so excited to be blogging! This is new for me. I thought It would be a great way to keep the family informed without all the phone calls (not that I don't like all of your phone calls but, I always seem to leave someone out of some important information!). Anyway, it takes quite a while to call the entire family to inform you about anything.

Update on Ray:
Dad moved from the hospital to the rehab center on tuesday of this week. The staff is very attentive and responsive to his needs. He is getting a great deal of therapy and hopefully will rebound quickly. He gave the nurses a hard time at dinner tonight and refused to eat his food. They took him back to his room and gave him a quick once over only to discover that he has thrush in his mouth. Most likely a side effect of all the antibiotics he has been taking. No wonder he did not want to eat! Thrush can be very uncomfortable. They got him some medication right away and if he needs it they can always give him I.V. fluids through his pic line (a kind of semi-permanant I.V. line they installed at the hospital) until he decides to start eating again. They were also going to try some thickened liquid nutrition shakes. Anyway, his roommate is really nice and tries to keep Dad alert and going most of the day. I guess he knows Michelle's family (small world!). I will keep you all posted on Dad's condition as often as possible.

F.Y.I.
I am putting together a Smith Family scrapbook (mostly for myself because I like that sort of stuff!) I thought I would let you know in case anyone had any extra pictures or fun stories they would like to share with me. I have only been a part of the family for ten years and don't know every story, yet! -I would love to be able to include things about Rob growing up and Grandma/Grandpa Smith especially for Matt to see. Anyway, Thanks for the input!