Hi. I am in the process of reworking our blog. The new name will be easier to give out and have others remember. Click here to view the new location.

two pages

Hi, all. Go back at least another page or more to see and read all the new posts. None of them are long, but there are several!

Abigail

Growing Up

Before/After

Colt's Project

Fun in Houston

Little Girl in Red

July-kids and friends

Abigail in July

ghana

More answers to more of your questions:

We will be living in a western style house with running water and electricity. The house will be much, much nicer than what the huge majority of the folks there live in, as mud huts are the norm. We will have washer, dryer, fridge, but will not use disposable diapers but instead the new generation of cloth! No easy way to dispose of trash, no walmart down the street to get more diapers, etc. we can eat both western style food as well as ghanian.

free time activities will be whatever we can come up with-watching a dvd, having missionaries and others over, hosting our friends and family who are visiting (hint, hint), playing baseball and soccer (or football, as they call it). there is a tennis court there so we will likely play tennis, as well. but we will have to be pretty good or get a lot of extra exercise as there is no fence currently around the court!

we'll find out how proficient we become in the tribal language we will learn! It's supposed to be fairly simple. maybe once we learn a few words we'll post a recording either here or on facebook.

about colt, on one hand he seems very interested and likes to share with others about africa. he does say he will miss his friends and cousins, which is very understandable, of course. He does have Jesus as his savior, so that does help a lot.

(I just noticed myself trying to spell like a Brit. I may do that more as we live over there for awhile.)

Thanks again for the questions, interest, and most importantly, prayers!

Answering More Good Questions About Ghana

Here's a link I found on climate for Ghana: http://www.southtravels.com/africa/ghana/weather.html. Joel and I are both surprised at the temps on two sites I checked. It only felt like it was 100 degrees or more or else the sites are just wrong! The equator may effect the heat index big time!

We will need no winter clothes at all in Ghana, per se. I light jacket for the evenings after our bodies have adjusted and the cool nights feel chilly, maybe. And we may take a little something for any fun traveling we do in Europe while in that part of the world.

The number of missionaries where we will be, not including us: two married couples (The Failes), one with three children still in the home (The Hewitts); one single woman (Jane) and one widowed man(Tommy). Yes, we will live on a compound together except for Tommy. He lives just outside the compound.

Thanks for asking great questions. More to come as more questions come in.

Lake City-pics again

I had to add this slideshow of our Colorado trip again (from early July). I went back and added a title to this show later under editing in blogger. I had forgotten that usually messes up the slideshow. So, went back and added it in a new post. If any of you expert bloggers out there have a suggestion on that, suggest away!

We will change our blog in many ways before leaving for Africa. I've got new photos we took with a photographer-taken in May, I believe. Once those photos are emailed to me, we'll have new header photos for our blog with Abigail!

Lake City

More About Ghana

Some of you have been asking great questions about Ghana. Joel will work at a hospital in a town called Nalerigu. The hospital services an area with a population of roughly 100, 000 people. There are currently two full-time doctors there. Joel will make the third. He will see patients in the clinic for ailments such as malaria. He'll deliver babies and perform surgeries on men, women, and children. There is a nutrition center for moms with malnourished babies. We can go there to share Bible stories. We can help villages have church. We will be used to pray for healing, deliverance, and salvation. We will have many varied opportunities to minister to those around us.

I will still homeschool Colt there as I do here. We will do some school with Benton, the Hewitts' eight year old boy. We look forward to getting better acquainted with the missionaries and Ghanians.

Post more questions and I'll be happy to answer them! Put "ghana" in the search engine at the top of our blog to see a few pics about where we're going.

Big News!

After much prayer and seeking direction, it looks like we may be leaving for Ghana in November. We plan to be there for two years. We ask for your prayers as we start preparations and as God continues spiritual preparations. There's much to do. We are excited about finally being at this point after several years of anticipating this.

Lake City, Colorado

Colt's 7th Birthday

Colt wanted a swim/baseball party. He had lots of fun with lots of friends. He had a baseball pinata. It's hard to believe he's alreay seven years old. He's such a joy and God is moving in his life.

Home From Vacation

We are back from an awesome time in Lake City, Colorado. We have fun with family and friends, and awesome worship time, as well. More about our time and fun photos at a later time.

As you feel led, please pray as we make final preparations to go to Ghana. We anticipate going no later than January. Thanks so much.

This post is related to the article reminding us to encourage our husbands. I got several responses from friends. I"ve posted a few below. Feel free to email your response if you'd like.

• My assignment was to tell my sweet husband what a great lover he is. Besides satisfying a need for sex, I truly believe a man needs to hear verbal approval of what a "stud" he is.

• I often send encouraging e-mails to David. Also, I did write him a list of
"18 Reasons Why I Love You" for our 18th wedding anniversary. Although, he is not one to get emotional, he was overjoyed at the love I could have for, as he put it, such a flawed man.

Although I think we all need to know that we are loved & appreciated, I feel that it is my calling as Dave’s wife to be his "help meet" in this area. Of course, I try to be a good "help meet" in other ways as well, but our men need our encouragement, so why not give it. Can it be difficult at times? Of course! I am not so happy to encourage him when we haven't been getting along, but sometimes, this is the best time to be the positive light in his life. He then knows that no matter what is going on, I am still there, loving him & supporting him.

• These 60 years have happened because WE DO and not just "read" from good books, even the Bible. For all these years, I have used "loving notes" (we HAD NO EMAIL) to encourage Bob and the kids many, many times....Often Bob would find a note from me where his shaving "stuff" would be.
IF he left, I ALWAYS put a loving note in his suitcase to be found on his arrival where he was going....IF I LEFT I left several notes for him....in the most "usual" places so he would find them. Always one on the pillow (covered by the bedspread so he would not see it until he went to bed) telling him I would be missing him and how much I love him.....
I use to put notes in lunch boxes for school or inside a book.....for the kids.....
NOTES REALLY WORK I believe....they can keep them and I found Bob did keep many of his.....a reminder of how much we are TOGETHER even if we are apart.

Husbands

I came across a good little article today on encouraging your husband. It has a list of ways to encourage. I'm wanting to hear/read then do more than ever now.

23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

So, I chose an idea and acted on it this morning. I'd love for you to post (under comments or email to hdickens@suddenlink.net) something you choose to do to encourage your husband, as well. Have a blessed day.

Click here for article.

Aren't true, deep, heart-felt revelations of things you've known in your head just beautiful? I'm spending much more time on this this morning than I'd intended. (Why I don't blog much). I asked God to forgive me for taking away from time with Him in getting interupted. He did forgive me but I knew He was disappointed-not in a condemning way but b/c He longs to spend time with me and misses me when we don't get all the time He's planned, the time He wants. Isn't that beautiful? It means a lot to me, for sure.

Abigail's doing great with sitting up now. Once in awhile she falls over. She's also rolling around.

Mother's Day

Colt, Abigail, and I visited Mom for Mother's Day. Joel was on-call so needed to stay in San Angelo. We had a nice weekend.

Haircut

Colt wants to go short again for the summer so I buzzed his nice hair off. Here are before and after pics.

Luke & Holly's Wedding

The wedding was great. We had a great time. Everything looked so nice, as did the bride and groom! Happy marriage, Luke and Holly!

Colt bought me this necklace. Wasn't that sweet of him? I love it when he does special stuff like that for his mommy!

Finally Updating

I'm finally getting to a quick update. I'll put just a few pics on the blog today. We are doing well. Abigail and Colt are growing and are such joys. The Lord continues to show us more of Himself as each day passes.

Growing Up

Abigail is 7 1/2 months old now. She is too long for the infant carrier now, according to safety standards. My kids are always tall, like Daddy. She, like her brother had to about this time, has started a more intensive "baby physical therapy." When I go into a store like Target now, I have to strap her in the cart seat and put things on either side of her or continually prop her up right again as she leans to one side or the other and doesn't know how to right herself! She is also adjusting to the new carseat in the car. Joel fixed it last night so it reclines even more so her head shouldn't fall forward as much when she naps in it now. She is usually such a happy, smiley baby. Yesterday just wasn't her day, though, with all these adjustments. It was pretty traumatic, rough in her book!

Aaawww!

Colt noticed the buttercups outside in the yard recently while playing. He got a bucket and picked a lot of them and brought them in for me! What a sweet boy! He was so excited to give them to me. He's done that again since then. I love him so much!

Flowers

Annie and Abigail

Here's a great pic of Annie and Abigail. We all love having Annie around! She's such a blessing to us. We love you, Annie! :)

Abigail's Getting Bigger

Abigail loves Colt's old exersaucer to play in. She is very busy with her hands right now, so this is right up her alley! She is such fun and already growing up so fast.

Exersaucer

Here's Colt at another tball game. He's doing great and loving it!

We love our ball player!

Weddings

We recently went to two weddings and visited with family and friends. Rachel Smith got married that weekend, as did Danny Patyrak. We enjoyed our time.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Let's Play Ball

This is Colt at his first T-ball game on March 28th. He enjoys playing and plays well. He really throws himself into the game. More pics of future games to come!

Let's play ball!

Elaine is taking the kids with her for our date night. She takes great care of them. This was taken March 25th. I'm trying to get caught up! She kept Colt a couple of nights while we were gone this last week, too. Colt enjoys her whole family. We love them so.

Elaine and the Kids

Swingin'

Abigail Swinging

This was taken on March 24th. We put up Colt's old baby swing outside. She loves to swing! This was her first time to swing.

Mimi Carlisle King and Abigail together. Aaawwwaa!