Home again!

We're home in Niger! Thanks for all of you who prayed for us. The trip went well, and we are happy to be settling back in. It's been great seeing our missionary friends, as well as renewing retlationships with our Nigerien friends. And I have to mention the joy of seeing Ian and Beka and kids! Having family here to welcome us is an extra blessing.The kids have enjoyed times with their cousins and friends, and we have started to acclimate to the heat. Our bedroom starts out at 98 degrees most evenings, and our air conditioner brings it down to about 84 by morning. It feels great! The power outages have been minimal since our arrival, for which we are greatly thankful!

Our first week was spent digging out things we needed to survive life here. Other missionaries typically host you for meals for four days, plus our SIMAir family had given us food in the house for breakfast and lunches. So we had a while before needing to cook at all. By then I had located most of my kitchen stuff from the sea of boxes in the storage room and laundry room.

We're in a different house than we were before, so there are a few extra things to do in the settling in process than we would have had in the old house. But I in particular am LOVING the new house! The layout of the living space is just so much easier, and the kitchen is huge compared to the other house. Plus the kitchen has a ceiling fan, and a window near the stove that I can place a fan in to draw out the heat. You have no idea what a wonderful thing that is unless you cooked in my tiny old 105 degree kitchen with no fan!! I'm greatly rejoicing. It's a mission owned house instead of a rental like last time, so it's much better off to begin with than our old house. But, being Africa, things just don't work the way they are supposed to, and often the work was not done right the first time. Case in point- we had been here 20 minutes, and it was about 3 AM. The new air conditioners that were installed (wired by an electrician) were turned on in the kids rooms. Within 5 minutes they overloaded the system, and plunged the entire house into darkness. (save one bathroom light in the new part of the house that's on a new breaker) One kid was on the potty in one bathroom, while I was with the others in another room. Kevin was outside, and all four kids started screaming. Not knowing how to find a flashlight, or a candle, or even a match I had to drag the three kids into the bathroom. Once I felt in the dark and located them, that is. Somehow almost the entire house was on ONE breaker, which was not able to handle the load. All the kids were shuffled into one bedroom for the night so only one air conditioner was on at a time. So the electrician who was hired (and paid!) to do it the first time was called back to fix it. In the meantime he had some other repairs to do. They added a bedroom and bathroom to the house while we were gone. One of the brand new outlets that was installed was wired backwards. And the attic space was a mess of twisted wires, not in proper boxes, or connected properly. Unless you consider 220V wires twisted together and taped with electrical tape proper... I don't! And I don't even know about electrical stuff like that. Thankfully Kevin does, and is able to go around checking that things are all as they should be.

Have I mentioned the blessing of a husband who knows how to fix things? I'm always thankful for his "Mr. Fix-it" ability, but never more so than when we are settling into a new house. Especially one in Africa! (OK, or the bush of Alaska!) He has opportunity to show his skills throughout the days as he goes around making the house nicer and more livable for our family.

The days are full, as just cooking and keeping up with the family is full time. Add to that trying to find places for everything, sorting four years worth of clothes for four kids into storage boxes, finding somewhat matching clothes in their current sizes for them to wear, trying to keep the kids somewhat clean when all they want to do is play in the dirt, and waiting patiently for Kevin to have time from his constant fixing of things to make closets for the two rooms that don't yet have them. And of course we have to fit in occasional trips to the pool. =) It's full, but fun.

I have many praises!
-We have been here over a week, and I have not yet seen a cockroach. Let me tell you, I am thrilled about that!!! I don't mind the geckos and other critters we do have in the house. But the cockroaches just make my skin crawl. Every day I can go without seeing one is a reason to rejoice.
-The power has been regular, other than short outages, usually less than an hour.
-Our new internet is SOO much faster than what we had before.
-Our house is perfect for us, and it's nice being just the next street over from Ian and Beka.
-My kitchen makes life so much easier! I can actually be there without feeling like it's a form of torture. =)
-The kids are all healthy! Elayna is over her pneumonia, and everyone has managed to pass by any new bugs...so far.

Well, that's my epistle for the day. I'll try to add pictures soon, but for now it's time to go make some supper.

Back to Niger!

Life is running along at a frantic pace this week! We are in the midst of final packing and preparing to return to Niger in three days. In spite of the busyness of the week, we are thoroughly looking forward to getting home to Niger. We have loved our time here, especially seeing and connecting with so many of you! But it's time to get back. What a blessing it is to feel that way about the place God has called us to! Life may not always be easy there, but knowing it's where we are supposed to be gives us contentment despite the heat, dust and even the cockroaches.

If you don't hear from us for awhile, assume we are just too hot to write. =) That or perhaps we don't have internet hooked up yet.

Please pray for us as we make our final preparations, the journey back, and through the whole settling in process. We'll be living in a new house, and we're thrilled about that. But it will mean a lot more work getting settled in, especially for Kevin. One big thing we are looking forward to is continuing relationships we built in our last term. We are headed back armed with materials of several types in a few local languages that we hope to use to share the Gospel with some of our dear friends. Looking at their pictures this week had me in tears, thinking of the fact that they don't yet know the Lord. Pray with us and for us as we jump back into our African life.

Hopefully next time you hear from us, it will be from the other side of the ocean!

See anything different?

Notice any changes in this sweet smile since yesterday?
No lost teeth here, just a precious smile!

One month countdown!

As we begin our final month here in the US, we have been enjoying many special "last times" for now. Visits to places we love, and seeing friends we will miss is a big part of this month. That and shopping, packing, and sorting out all the stuff to get rid of that we will leave behind. It's not quite as intense as moving- but almost!

We had a delightful Easter here in MA. I, in particular, loved the opportunity to be involved with the amazing music that was presented during Easter week here at the Church. Being a part of the praise team, backed by the choir and string section, and celebrating the resurrection in song was a joyful Easter for me! It was also fun seeing how much more the kids understand this year about the meaning of Easter. Each of the three girls have accepted Christ as their Savior, so Easter has real meaning for them!

The kids enjoyed an egg hunt in Grandpa's back yard on Saturday. Silas was delighted with finding eggs, and even more delighted to discover that some of them had CANDY inside! Easter night Kevin's sister Amy and her six kids arrived for the week. The kids love seeing their cousins, and we have been fitting in all the fun possible! Yesterday we went to historic Sturbridge Village. There are buildings and houses to tour, animals in the barnyard to see, and interesting costumed staff to teach things like what a tinsmith does, and how to make soap. They are demonstrating their skills as they tell the kids, so it is very interesting! We saw a Punch and Judy show, and petted a new lamb.
Lots of hugs for Grandpa!
Some of the cousins!

The absolute favorite part for our Little House on the Prairie fans was the play area. They had costumes, and a fully stocked house for the kids to play in.

They did laundry...

Started a "fire..." Cooked supper...



Churned butter...


Swept the floor...
and hauled imaginary water for washing dishes.
All in all it was a great day, enjoyed by each of us.

A Day at the Zoo

Between all of the getting-ready-to-go stuff, we took time for a day at the zoo with some friends. Our kids had a blast with their kids, who line up pretty closely in age to ours.

We were rather entertained by the fact that one of the gorillas is named Kira! A zoo volunteer pointed out which one was Kira. She was a funny one, playing with a blanket and running all over the place. Her mom was sitting right up at the glass, just wishing she could play with all of the kids. The youngest gorilla, Kira's sister, was a ham! She stood by the glass turning flips, standing on her head, and generally showing off for all of the kids.


Here is Kira (the person!)with the friendly mom behind her, and the youngest sister just showing behind her head. In the very back you can see Kira (the gorilla!) playing. Silas was just fascinated with these guys, and couldn't get enough of watching them.

Here is Kira with her buddy.
And Elayna with her sweet friend.

The Smith Clan

Here's the whole Smith clan with one more in the oven --- Aunt Sarah's oven, not Krista's.

Pirates & Princesses

While we were at Fairmont we had a "Pirates and Princesses" party for all the kids on the Smith side of our family. The girls were the fair princesses and the boys were the rough and tough pirates. They started off with a treasure hunt. As they followed their treasure map, they searched for clues and treasure in places like this phone booth. They also had to watch out for the sharks (Uncle Ben, Kevin, and Papa) who were trying to get them.


Their treasure hunt eventually led them to the racquetball court, which turned out to be Pirate Joe's (aka Uncle Jonathan) pirate ship! He had even brought a special treasure chest just for them. Of course, Pirate Joe had stories about his adventures on the seas and a hook in place of one hand.


The kids love Pirate Joe, who has shown up at each of our last two Smith family gatherings. Poor Uncle Jonathan always seems to miss seeing Pirate Joe, though.


At last the treasure was released from the treasure chest....


Young Pirate Silas decided to show off his sword fighting moves.


While on Pirate Joe's ship, the kids got to play some games. First off was a game of Pirate Pirate Princess (you might have played a similar game before called Duck Duck Goose).


They also played Musical Islands (maybe you've played Musical Chairs before).


Of course no party is complete without some cake. Aunt Amanda pleased the masses with her new cake decorating skills. Here's the Pirate ship cake sailing the seas with the faces of each of the Smith family on it. Nice work Aunt Amanda!


There was also an island cake with a treasure chest on it full of treasure.