History In the Making

I know this isn't about our girls, but I guess in a way, it is (you know...in a "future of our country" kind of way). I mostly wanted to share this picture with those of you who don't live in a racially diverse area like Dallas.
When was the last time you remember complete clothing and accessory lines being churned out that featured a political figure? I was slightly amused and surprised when my students in Oak Cliff (urban area in Dallas) started wearing T-shirts, jackets, and stocking caps with President Obama's face on them. When I told a student that he needed to take off his hat, he immediately got defensive, seemingly ready to fight for "his" new president. I laughed and told him, "No. Hats are out of dress code. Take it off."
Regardless of your political or personal opinion about the election of Obama, it is hard to deny that this event has inspired many young African Americans. Sure, most of them don't really know what his political stance actually is, and probably many of you reading this do not agree with it, but they do understand that he overcame the odds to reach his goal. Hopefully they will be inspired to do great things with their lives as well.
"By Obama being a black president and us being young black kids it makes us feel like if he can do it, we can do it," said one teenager.

Are you Jesus?

"I love you SO much...You are SO beautiful...and God made you JUST perfect!" These are the words Sean tells our girls every night of their lives. Last night, it became apparent just how engrained those words are in Brighton's head. As I was tucking her in, I told her, "I love you, Brighton...but I could never love you as much as Jesus does. He loves you SOOOOO much!" Using her two year old deductive reasoning skills, she asked, "Is Daddy Jesus?"

Problem Solving - by Brighton

Brighton has her own style of solving problems, and it blows me away. Here are two short stories to demonstrate:
1. A conversation between Brighton and Mommy (Julie), just before bedtime one night:
Mommy: Brighton, you know you're not supposed to pull toys out of the basket before bedtime. Just pick ONE THING to play with, and put the rest into the basket.
Brighton: OK
Mommy: (a few minutes later, after reentering the room and seeing that toys were still spread all over the living room.) Brighton, there are still toys everywhere! Did you pick out one thing to play with?
Brighton: yes!
Mommy: Well, what did you pick?
Brighton: The BASKET!

....Outsmarted by a two year old! At two years old, it's funny, but my mind jumps to the teenage years when she could really hatch a lot of sneaky plans. Sean can deal with her then.

2. On our way out the door to go to church last night, Berkeley decided to unleash a stinky surprise. The original deposit was bad enough, but once her diaper was off, she managed to deliver the next shipment via airmail. I dodged it just in time, and it landed 3 feet away and splatted on the ground. Sorry, I know that's gross! At least YOU weren't there!
Brighton came to see what all the excitement was about and couldn't be convinced to stay in the hallway. She kept walking into the bedroom, where I knew some splatters had landed. In the stress of the moment, I snapped at her and raised my voice.
After the clean-up, we finally got out the door and into the car. I realized I needed to apologize to Brighton for yelling. I told her I was sorry for being grumpy with her. To my surprise, Brighton came up with the best solution for my impatience. She said, "We need to pray to God for you to have a good attitude."

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
1 Timothy 4:11-13
FOR MORE PICTURES, CHECK OUT THIS LINK:http://picasaweb.google.com/seanjuliesmith/20095May02?authkey=Gv1sRgCO7ckvq3kZnH6wE

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

 
Happy Birthday to our grammies...Ginger Cotton (April 19th) and Donna Johnson (April 20th)!
We love you!

Princess Night

Theme nights have become a semi-regular occurrence at the Smith house. Last night while Sean was at church, the girls celebrated Princess Night! Brighton wanted to be a ladybug princess, Berkeley got to be the bumble bee princess, and I was the butterfly princess (until bumble bee spit up on my tutu!). We played princess memory cards, read princess books, ate princess-y snacks, watched the Little Mermaid (who was actually a princess, in case you never noticed), and took her dressed up bears on a princess parade in the backyard. When Sean came home from church, he brought us a princess dessert - coke floats in princess cups!

She's gone wireless!

Praise the Lord, Berkeley is out of the hospital! No more wires. No more tubes. No more sleepovers in the cardiac unit! The gang is all together again at home.

Party in Room 264!

It's starting to feel like a roller coaster...we've been down, up, up higher, down again, then back up once more! Now, before you read the next paragraph, I want you all to know that Berkeley is doing great right now and resting peacefully. Okay...now you can read the exciting stuff:
Berkeley had made it out of ICU and was doing well on the regular cardiac floor. She decided to have a party, though, and invited 17 medical staff members to it. Unfortunately, her method of invitation was to get a swollen trachea and struggle with her breathing. I never imagined that many people could actually fit into one hospital room at one time - it was the kind of thing you THINK only happens on TV hospital shows. They rushed around making sure she had enough oxygen, bringing in a mobile ultrasound unit, and doing who knows what else (I couldn't see her half the time for the crowd of nurses and doctors surrounding her). Syringes of medicine were flying, and the doctors were talking to each other so urgently that they didn't even have time to "translate" for people like me. It was kind of scary, but Sean and I knew that she was getting good care. And in the midst of the craziness, with all these hands helping her, God reminded me that it was HIS hands that were really taking care of her.
She spent a few hours in the 12th floor ICU, then got moved back down to the cardiac ICU. Today she was promoted back to the regular cardiac floor and has been doing really well! As you can see from the video below (if you're dedicated enough to click on a link, that is!) she is making a great comeback! The doctors are predicting Monday for our departure date. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and encouragement, meals, help, and concern. We love our family and friends!



for the video and for more pictures, check out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/seanjuliesmith/OceanNight?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTbwvGZ9Mbj1gE