1, 2, 3, POP! =)

OK...Lord willing in a few more weeks we should hopefully know what we are having. I'm curious if I'm carrying one baby, two babies, seven babies or an ELEPHANT! Hee! Hee! =D
~Here I am at 5 months along...now look at how much bigger I am at 6 months...in the pics below...~
~6 months along and running out of maternity clothes that fit me. At this rate...by IHC time, I will have to go to OHIO TENT AND AWNING COMPANY to rent a TENT to wear to IHC. =D
~I just bought this maternity jean skirt in December...and it now doesn't fit me, and this maternity blouse was a Christmas gift from my parents...and what you cannot see is that there is several inches of my baby bump not being covered by my blouse nor skirt. EEEEKKK! What is a lady supposed to do? =) (My Moma and my sister Laura say that this is what they looked like with their babies too. I haven't gained that much weight...it's just that my "basketball" keeps getting bigger. =)

This afternoon while our girls were doing school, they were needing a break, so I made a taco salad, tea, and sugar cookies with smiley faces on them, and we took a quick picnic to get out in the sun and fresh air and have a break. When we came back, Noah grabbed this decorating bag with icing from the cookies, and Phillip got this picture of him...enjoying the last of the icing. =)

~Even before you know what you have need of...~

First off, Thank each of you for your prayers for Phillip's toothache. God helped him to be able to preach pain-free on both services on Sunday, and by Monday he had no pain at all. Praise the Lord. Also, I've always carried all of my babies the same way....just a basketball in front...so I really have no idea if this baby is a girl or boy...for I looked the same with each. For those of you that have predicted a 10 lb. boy, that is what Noah weighed...10 lbs. 6.7 ounces. I HOPE that this baby weighs LESS than Noah though. =D (I'll post a pic of how HUGE I got with Noah later).
~Does God care about a bike rack? YES! HE DOES!! The bicycles here are sold WITHOUT kickstands! And the way they make houses here...our garage door IS OUR FRONT DOOR. I didn't like it that our kids bikes were always laying down on the floor, looking messy. (We didn't want them leaning against the walls, for the paint is a peach color and gets DIRTY so FAST!!) So, A couple weeks ago I was telling Phillip that I would LOVE to find a bike rack (like they have in front of stores to lock your bikes to) that would just hold 3 bikes, so that our garage and front door would look neater. The next day as we walked to our Fruit and Veggie market, there was a bike rack right beside the guard shack of the guard of our street. So, I asked him if he knew where I could buy one of those. He told me that he would try to find out and let me know. I went on home and then Phillip left to teach his Bible class. About 5 minutes later, our doorbell rang, and it was the street guard WITH THE BIKE RACK IN HIS HANDS. HE SAID THAT PHILLIP HAD ALREADY PAID HIM FOR IT, AND IT WAS OURS NOW!
AND YES...IT HELD JUST 3 BIKES!!

Here recently, Our family has been REALLY PRAYING about 2 HUGE SPECIAL UNSPOKEN REQUEST...and when God gave us the bike rack (for about $7.50) WITHOUT ME EVEN PRAYING ABOUT IT...I told our girls that if He cared about a bike rack...then HE CARES about our unspoken requests! God has already answered one of those request and for that we PRAISE HIM! Isn't God Awesome?!!!

~Noah's comment, Thurs. church trip, Phillip...toothache~

Thanks Ladies for all your nice comments on my blog about what you think that I'm carrying. The other night, Phillip and I were discussing the possibility of my having twins (which the possibility probably isn't high...but My Father-in-law is a twin, and my brother and wife have twins) and I was saying that I CANNOT imagine coming back to Colombia with twins to take care of...with my Moma, sister, and other family too far away to help me. I think twins are special, just know they are EXTRA WORK...and I still feel like I'm carrying ONLY ONE baby.
Little did I know that my Noah was listening to Phillip and I talk. All of the sudden he piped up and said, "If God sends you twins, you can just say, "Thank you, but I don't want them!" HEE! HEE! I hugged Noah and said, "No, if God sends me twins, I'll say, 'Thank you, now, Could You please help me take care of them?'" =D Noah said that he would also help me take care of the twins if God gives them to us. =) Kids...they don't miss a thing, do they?! =)
~Our family opening up cards and gifts that my parents brought us in Jan.~

This next is a paragraph that I wrote after our Thursday night church trip this week.
Whew! We just got home from church...and what a night. We found a taxi that said he would take us to church, then he changed his mind at the bottom of the mountain, so we got out and God sent us another taxi, and we got to church on time. I was EXHAUSTED and didn't really feel like going to church, but did it for Jesus, and For Phillip. We had a good service with 21 of us there. After church we went out to catch a bus and the STREETS were EMPTY!!! I mean no cars, no buses, no nothing! We stood there for about an hour or so waiting...then Finally a bus came and took us a little ways and then we saw the problem! There was construction, so there was only one lane opened normally, and a big truck had lost his wheel in a hole in the one lane that was opened. So, we all had to get out of that bus and walk UP THE STEEP, TALL MOUNTAIN to get to another taxi or bus. I didn't think that I could make it up the mountain, but prayed, and God helped me. There were 100s of people walking up and down that mountain trying to get to their destinations, for nothing but motorcycles could get past that broken down truck. Thankfully we found a taxi at the top of the mountain that brought us all the way home. I'm REALLY tired now! I'm having a hard enough time WALKING right now at 6 months pregnant...let alone CLIMBING mountains. =)
Today, is Sunday, and since I'm having such a hard time walking, I stayed home today from church, and am watching Hobe Sound's services. Phillip and the kids went. Please do pray for Phillip he has a horrible tooth ache. We hope to get him to the dentist on Monday, but we need God to help him preach twice today. Thanks for your prayers...they mean TONS to us!

~Chatting....and What am I carrying?~

First, for those of you who are on diets, I'm sorry that my blog has goodies posted on it quite often. I make those goodies because I LOVE to bake and to help us not miss our family/friends/country so much. But,I'm going to try to not make too many goodies in the next 3 weeks...although my new Taste of Home just arrived TODAY! =D My poor Noah is suffering withdrawals from not having goodies in the house. He just went to the cabinet and brought me a pack of Jello and asked me if I could make it up for him. =D Then a few minutes later he said, "Mommy, could you PLEASE make something!" I told him that he could go and get a piece of yummy fruit out of the fruit basket...so that is what he did. =)

For those interested, I'll try to post a pic of my shoes that Phillip bought me later. =) (Long story short, although Phillip purchased the size I told him, sizes VARY SOOOO MUCH here in Colombia, so the shoes are to big for me. (What fits you great in one store, is way too big for you in another store!) The city where Phillip found these shoes is very far from here, so I cannot go with him to try them on! Phillip plans to exchange the shoes for me...so I will wait to get a picture of the shoes when I have the right sizes! =)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now...What am I carrying? One of my friends was telling me today that another one of our friends is due in 3 weeks, AND YOU CAN HARDLY TELL THAT SHE IS PREGNANT!!! AND...Here I am not even 6 months pregnant yet, and I look like I'm 9 months! =)

With our first 3 precious children, we did not find out what sex they were...we waited and let it be a surprise to us when they were born. However, when God called us to the mission field, I had to sell most of the clothes I had for babies, because I couldn't ask anyone to try to store all of those for us. So, Lord willing in a few weeks we plan to get an ultrasound to find out what God is giving us...a boy, or a girl, so I can shop for more clothes for him or her. We will be THRILLED with whatever God has for us. We'd love to have a brother for our Noah, but our girls would also love to have another girl to dress up too. =) Actually, Phillip and our girls are still hoping for twins so that Kimberly can "have" a baby, and Sarah "have" the other. =D I'm sure I'm just expecting one baby...but they haven't given up hope yet.
So, what do YOU think that we are having?
A Boy?
Or a Girl?
Or twins?
If you want to predict what we are having, we'll find out who is right in a few weeks. =)

~Our Valentines Goodies~

~Phillip was out of town on Valentine's Day, so the girls and I did school work all day, and then in the evening we started making goodies for when Daddy came home the next day. Kimberly really wanted to make heart shaped sugar cookies so that they could decorate them, so I mixed up that dough while they were finishing their schoolwork that evening. They had fun decorating these and they turned out cute.~
~These are Sarah's heart shaped cookies that she decorated.~

~My Phillip LOVES Buckeyes (peanut butter balls dipped in choc.). Since I don't have a candy Thermometer here and haven't seen any for sale, I was happy to find a yummy recipe for Buckeyes in my new Hobe Sound Woman of Worth cookbook that doesn't use a candy thermometer. So, I mixed these up for Phillip and our family. After he got home we ate them, and loved them. Since the recipe makes quite a few, we passed out some to the people in one of our churches on Sunday night, for we didn't need all of that sugar. =) Our girls made us some really nice cards, and a nice potholder. We got Daddy a couple small gifts, and while he was gone he bought me 3 pair of shoes that I was really wanting! After searching for 2 years and in 4 different COUNTRIES for a certain pair of shoes....I finally found them, and for a cheap price. So, my DEAR Phillip bought me 3 different colors in that shoe. YEA!~
~Phillip got home on Friday morning, and we had a nice relaxing day together, celebrating Valentine's day a day late. Our girls' violin teacher, Adriana, came in the evening for a lesson, so we invited her to stay and eat supper with us. We had a great visit with her. She is a lonely lady, and LOVES to be with our family. She has a nice husband, but LONG STORY REALLY SHORT her only daughter has chosen to live with her Grandmother far away. (Her evil Grandmother has convinced her to live with her because she is jealous of Adriana.) Thus, Poor Adriana is soooo LONELY and SAD, so she loves to visit with our family and our kids.
We had a yummy supper and a nice visit together and Adriana was here for 4 hours.~
~This is a new cake recipe that I made for Phillip. It is a "from scratch" 2 layer choc. cake, with a yummy cream cheese (with a tad of almond flavor) frosting, and cherry pie filling. I was supposed to use 2 heart shaped pans, but didn't have those, so arranged the Cherry pie filling in a heart shape on top of the cake. Phillip isn't really a cake eater, unless it is really moist...and this one was. It was delicious and we all loved it. It came from the back page of Feb./March 2005 Taste of Home magazine. If your are interested in me posting the recipe, let me know.~

We had a good Sunday. Last Sunday (a week ago) we asked our taxi driver to please come and pick us up this Sunday in front of our home, to save me from walking. (I'm getting soooo big with this baby, that I'm having a hard time walking.) We didn't really expect to see the taxi driver, for most people here promise that they will do something, and then don't follow through. But...THANK THE LORD, at 8:30 AM that taxi driver was out in front of our house and took us to church, what a blessing. (We've asked him to be here next Sunday too!) God gave us a good service Sunday morning. Please continue to pray for that young man that I requested prayer for last week. His hands and feet are swelling up now, and no one knows what is wrong with him. He hopes to get all of his paperwork together so he can go to the hospital soon. (THAT'S SOCIALIZED MEDICINE FOR YOU!!!) Thanks for praying! And then we took a couple buses home after church, which saved me having to walk the mile home from our normal bus stop.
We had a yummy Sunday dinner, and Phillip and the kids left for our evening service and baby and I took our normal Sunday afternoon LONG nap! ...I was sooo tired that I didn't even hear Phillip and the kids leave...and I always hear everything when I'm asleep. When I got up, I watched the last service of Hobe Sound's camp meeting and it was good.
On Monday, it was back to the school books all over again for the week. God is helping our girls and they are working like busy beavers on their PACES!
Thanks for "tuning in"...I love staying in contact with all of y'all! =D

~Brownies, Boo boos, and a Blue skateboard~

~Kimberly made brownies the other day, and Noah surely enjoyed licking the bowl.~~Kimberly and her brownies...YUM! YUM!~
~Poor Noah...I think we are going to have buy him some "ear pads" to protect his ears! ...He fell the other day and caught his ear on the sharp corner of our desk! OUCH! It's healing up well, Praise the Lord!~

~Months ago, Noah wanted a BLUE SKATEBOARD! I mean, he talked about a blue skateboard ALL OF THE TIME! When he mentioned it to me (which was several times a day) I would just casually tell him that he could talk to Jesus about it, and if it was God's will, God will give him a blue skateboard. (But I really was thinking that he DIDN'T "NEED" a blue skate board, so didn't really expect God to send him one. =) When Noah would pray and Thank God for our meals, he would always add, "And please give me a blue skateboard!" Well, this week we were at a store, and they had a bin of toys marked down to 70% off!! We were looking through that bin to get some toys for our "nursery" at one of our churches, when all of a sudden Noah said, "Look Mommy, there is a blue skateboard!" Sure enough, there was a new blue skateboard...on sale!! Needless to say, we bought Noah that blue skateboard...and it only cost us $3.50. Noah patted me while we were still in the store, smiled up at me and said, "Thank you, Mommy, for buying me this skateboard!" Noah is also thankful to Jesus the He kept anyone else from buying the ONLY BLUE SKATE BOARD that was on sale! God is awesome...and cares about Blue skateboards!~

~One blue skateboard, and one HAPPY Noah!~

~Happy Valentines Day, Phillip!~

~My sweetheart and I in Medellin on our 12th anniversary in June. (It was windy, so my skirt was blowing in this picture!)~
~My Phillip~
Thank you for asking me to that picnic at G.B.S.
I will be FOREVER GLAD that I said, "YES!"
Those dating days were wonderful you see...
Thank you for being YOU, and loving me as ME.

Thank you for asking me to marry you on April Fool's Day...
I'm glad you weren't fooling, and I'm yours for ALWAY!
Thank you for that portrait that you drew of me...what a beauty
Thank you for being YOU, and loving me as ME.

What fun memories we have of our newlywed days...
We have had a strong Christian home, to God be praised!
These 12 1/2 years of Marriage have been just as fun as they could be.
Thank you for being YOU and loving me as ME.

Thank you for being such a wonderful Daddy to our precious 4;
Thank you for loving Jesus, spending time with us and more.
Thank you for the awesome memories we have as a family
Thank you for being YOU and loving me as ME.

Thank you for letting me treat you like a KING...
And Thank you for treating me like a QUEEN!
Let us grow old together...until we are 103
Thank you for being YOU, and loving me as ME. ~Heather
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Bragging on my man! Years ago, my Daddy was the author of this Bible reading chart. Here recently, God helped Phillip to translate Daddy's Bible reading chart into Spanish.~

~Inside and on the back of these Bible Reading charts, there is a box for each chapter of the Bible, so you can mark off what you have read. If you read 3 chapters a day, and 5 on Sunday, you can read your Bible through in a year. With this chart Phillip is hoping to encourage our people in Colombia to read God's Word...our road map to Heaven!~

~My Phillip surprised me the other day and bought me a nice tea kettle. I didn't even know we could find one of those here. I've been enjoying lots of yummy cups of tea...THANK YOU, Phillip.~

I love you, Phillip, Thanks for being my Valentine!

~Our Sunday~

We moved our Sunday morning service time up to 9:30 AM...which means that we have to leave our house by 8:30 AM...ugh! Getting up early isn't too easy for this pregnant lady, but the Lord helped me, and I got to go to church this past Sunday morning with my family. The Lord gave us a good service and HIS PRESENCE was very close, and that makes all of the difference in the world. Several of us were crying, and 11 people prayed at the end of service. Praise God!! We know that unless God meets with us, and does the work here in our churches, we labor in vain. We praise Him for "coming to church" with us on Sunday morning. Phillip called on our little Noah to take up the offering.....So,

He went up front, held the offering "basket" while Phillip prayed and then took up the offering. However, he must have missed someone, for when he got back up front, a few people started calling his name for him to come back for them to put in their offering. That is when Noah fell into my arms and lost it. He bawled his eyes out, and Kimberly had to finish taking up the offering. (Phillip and I were discussing it later, and Phillip said that Noah would not be shy...except that we moved to Costa Rica to study Spanish when he was only 16 months old, and from that point on in his life he has gotten WAY more attention...than he EVER wanted...in both Costa Rica and Colombia because of his blond hair and blue eyes......and that has made him shy! He can hardly walk down the street without being OOHHED and AAHHED over and patted on the head, hugged, etc. by several women, which call him a "baby", and he thinks he is a big boy now, and DOES NOT want them to pay attention to him! =) After he took up the offering, I told Noah that God was pleased that He had helped take up the offering, but that he didn't have to do it again until he was older. He replied, "Yea, I don't want to do it again until I'm a big man like Daddy! " =)
-Could you PLEASE PRAY for this young man from our church?

He has been VERY ill for months. He aches all over, lives with MAJOR PAIN (on pain pills), is VERY WEAK and can hardly walk...so of course he cannot work either. The doctors haven't figured out what is wrong yet. Phillip had him come forward and we prayed for God to touch him. We have never done this before here in this church, but Sunday morning, Phillip felt like he should take up an offering for him and his family. We received a nice sized offering for our little congregation who hardly have any money, and the couple was very touched and she was crying when Phillip gave them the money. They both came forward to pray after church as well. God is able to heal him.
-Also there was an older man there who prayed at the end of service and was crying. In the past several months, we have been reaching out to his family. We we were told that he is a part of one of the dangerous groups, and we'd love to see him go through with God.
After church I was praying for a taxi, for baby and I were STARVING and needing to get home to eat before I got sick. We were standing there and God sent a taxi along. When the taxi picked us up, the driver told us that he NEVER comes to that area, and that he would not feel comfortable picking up people in that area, but when he saw us, he could NOT believe his eyes that here stood an American family...and he thought that we must be LOST being Americans and being in that dangerous area. We told him that we have a church there and are there several times a week. =) We came home and all worked together to make a delicious soup, and enjoyed our dinner then the kids and Phillip went to our evening service. Baby and I took a 2 hour nap and then watched Hobe Sound's campmeeting service.

~Happy Birthday, Daddy and Daryl~

Today is the birthday of my Dear Daddy and my nice brother-in-law, Daryl!

Daddy, I'm so glad that I got to have you as my Daddy! Of all the Daddies in the world, I'd "choose" you all over again. =D Thanks for being such a sweet, kind, loving, caring and Christian Daddy. Thank you for being a constant student of God's WORD, and for being a prayer warrior too. Thank you (and Moma) for passing on that heritage to we children, we are blessed to call you "Daddy!" Thank you for putting Moma first after God and before we kids...and for loving Moma and being faithful to only her!! =) Thank you for the money you spent to come and see us here, we LOVED having y'all for those 2 1/2 weeks! I hope that you have a very special birthday!

Daryl, we are so glad that God brought you into our family. Since y'all were missionaries first, Phillip and I have learned a lot from y'all, and feel closer to y'all due to the missions experiences that both your family and our family has had these last few years. I hope that your birthday party on Saturday turned out great! We wish we could have been there to help y'all celebrate! Thank you for carefully serving Jesus, and for being such a nice husband to my sister and a nice Daddy to my nieces and nephew. May God give you a wonderful birthday today.

~Catching up~

I'm back! Like I mentioned earlier, Our girls are WORKING HARD on their school work, and so now-a-days I don't have much time to read/write email or blogs much. It seems that all I get done is, "Mommy, how do you spell...?" or "Mommy 5 plus 6 equals 11, right?" =D Our girls have been working on their PACES for around 13 days now, and they have completed 9 PACES each. Sarah will complete 2 more tomorrow (yes, we are doing school work on Saturdays too), and Kimberly, 4 more at the first of the week, Lord willing. We thank God for His help.
~On Sunday we went to church in the AM and had a good service, then hurried home and had Skyline Chili, YUM! YUM! We took Noah's shirt off while he ate his Skyline,...for obvious reasons. =) ~ (The kids and Phillip went to church Sunday night and God gave them a good service then too. Baby and I watched Hobe Sound's evening service.~On Monday, in the midst of PACES, PACES, PACES, we took the kids to a park for an hour or so. This is Noah and a little neighbor boy riding their dump trucks together.~
~Noah and Daddy, having fun!~
~I showed Kimberly, Sarah, and Noah how to put 2 swings together, and they enjoyed swinging like that.~
~Phillip, Heather and baby swinging too!~
~I'm only 5 months along with my pregnancy and I'm feeling HUGE! I'm already getting asked if I'm due to have my baby right now. UGH! Does anyone have any clue HOW DISCOURAGING IT IS TO BE ONLY 5 MONTHS ALONG, AND ALREADY OUT-GROWING SOME OF MY MATERNITY CLOTHES? THE OTHER DAY I PUT ON A MATERNITY OUTFIT AND IT MADE ME LOOK LIKE A GOOD YEAR BLIMP! HA! I don't plan on wearing that outfit again. On Monday I walked into our garage and found Noah with a balloon in his shirt...looking like YOU KNOW WHO! Notice...his purple "belly button" (end of the balloon) hanging out of his shirt. =D~
~One morning this week, my 2 sweet girls got up and made us breakfast...eggs (which they called "egg pie"), and Sarah made a blackberry shake.~
~And Kimberly made us brownies too. (What? You don't serve brownies for breakfast at your house? =)
~In the last week God has helped me scrapbook 46 pages. I ran out of pages for my album, so I cannot scrapbook the last 3 months of pictures that I had wanted to get done. Oh well, at least I know that I only lack 3 months and I will have all of our 2007 pics scrapbooked, Praise the Lord! Here are some of my pages.~
~One of the pages of Sarah's Kindergarten graduation.~
~Our girls first day of school last September~
~The page about when we told our kids that we are going to have our 4th precious baby!~

-We are waiting on little blind Maria's parents and doctors to make the decision on when to do her eye surgery. Right now, she is using some strong eye drops, and they are saying that there is a problem so they cannot do the surgery yet.
-Not to long ago, we saw the little girl that fell on the rebar. We didn't get a chance to find out how she was doing, but we understand that she is still waiting for surgery. I'm sure that she and her family need prayer.
If anyone wants to know what dates we are coming back to the USA, please email me at
dickinsonfam@gmail.com I don't feel comfortable putting that info on my blog.
Thanks for all of y'all's prayers, they mean TONS to us!

~A couple outings that we had before Christmas!~

We had a good Sunday, Thank you for praying!
During Christmas I had too much to blog about, and didn't have time to squeeze this post in, some I'm posting it now. =D
~Before Christmas, our girls violin teacher Adriana and her husband had us over for a yummy dinner. We gave them some chocolates and a Richard Clayderman CD, and they gave our children nice gifts too. We are sooo happy with the violin teacher that God has given our girls.~Kimberly and Sarah helping Adriana, "make" dessert for our meal.
Later that day we did this outing too. There is an ACE school above one of our churches here and so our family decided to take some of our students in that school on a little outing during their Christmas break. They rarely get to come off of the mountain where they live, so this was an exciting time for them. 8 students were able to come with us for this outing. We took them downtown Bogota to see the Christmas lights in a park, bought them supper, and then bought them each one of those fun lighted balls. They really seemed to enjoy the time, and so did we. By the time we took them home and got home ourselves it was after 11:00 PM, and this pregnant lady was ready to go to bed. =D
~The 8 students, and our 3 kids with their lighted balls that we bought them.~
~Our family at the park.~
~The hot-dog stand where some of our group got their supper. Our choices were pizza, hamburgers and hot-dogs, and we each got to chose what sounded best to us.
Would you please help us pray for the students from this ACE school? They live in homes that are pitiful, and run the streets with most of their parents not caring where they are, nor what time they come home! Jimmy and his wife Farly teach at the ACE school here. These students are not easy to teach, because of their undisciplined home life, but Jimmy and Farly are doing a GREAT job. Only God can help Jimmy and Farly and us to touch their lives! Please pray that God will help us as we try to love them to HIM. Thanks for your prayers...we couldn't be here without them!~