Brittany, Darla, and I had the chance to play with a group orchestra, all of whom were Mrs. Collins' students. We are playing the Orange Blossom Special. Mommy said that it made her feel right at home, for she has Tennessee roots. It was a lot of fun!

This is Darla and a girl from our church playing in the group.Sorry I just realized that I must have uploaded it twice. I guess you'll get the chance to see it twice whether you wanted to or not! :) Also sorry for the blurriness.

Yea! Summer's here! Here is a photo of Darla's last day of school. Oh, the fun we are having! :) I'm thankful for all the Help the Lord gave us this school year! All praise be to Him for the grace and strength that He promises for each new day!

Thanks be to God for these His "unspeakable" Gifts to me! I love you all Hausman Munchkins and the Dearest Man on God's Green Earth! Thanks for makin' my Mother's Day So special with all the flowers for my flower garden out front and all the special cards full of your special art work and loving words for this Momma!

God Is!

Just some verses that God gave to me afresh this a.m. in my quiet time with Him. Thought it may encourage your hearts too with whatever you are facing. In our day it's not usually fig tree's Olives and Flocks that we are facing... but I felt that the Lord helped me to fill-in-the-blanks with OUR everyday needs and found refreshment for my soul!


Habakkuk 3:17-18
"Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls---
YET, I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation."

God is GOOD all the time!
Much love to your hearts and Homes from our Haus! The Hausmans

Some spring flowers! These cupcakes were fun to create! I LOVE fresh flowers and was SO delighted and surprised when Daryl and the kids presented me with fresh flowers to plant in our mini-flower garden out front, as an early Mother's Day Gift! These "fresh flowers" above, are not quite what we planted outside, but they are "fresh" and these just happen to be edible!!! :)


F.R.O.G.!!!!!!!!!! Facing My Fears, with these critters?
My dislike of Frogs began a long time ago. My dearest Daddy loves to walk outdoors while he's talking to God in prayer. One early spring day when I was small, and my Mother was expecting my baby sister, Heather Dickinson, Daddy took us out to let us "hear" that Spring was soon to be here. I had no idea what was coming, so wasn't prepared for the LOUD Croaking of that bull frog that night. I screamed and jumped over the seat into the front, landing on my poor mother's swollen abdomen and my growing sister! Needless to say, I've NEVER really appreciated frogs ever since.
Our wonderful Jr Church leaders at our church are using with a wonderful theme... only sad for me it had to include frogs. It's an acronym that teaches the kids to Fully Rely On God! What a wonderful lesson that I'm trying in my every day life to learn more. After visiting the Jr/Ch area, I cringed and could hardly walk in there, for there are frogs EVERYWHERE. My dislike of frogs is SO intense that I don't even look at pictures of them!!!
Well, one week they were talkin about things that make you afraid! So after seeing these Darling, (well, I can't call them that) Froggy Cupcakes, I decided to "face my fears" and make a treat for the kids that they would enjoy and that would go along with their theme.
I DIDN'T make these alone, our kids helped me, LOTS! As I'm blogging this, I'm asking myself, "Am I FULLY relying upon God?" Do I really believe that He can and WILL supply our every need? I'm asking the Lord to help me with my everyday fears, my heart needs, and for the wisdom I need to be a godly Momma.
I may always not care for frogs, sorry Daddy, but I'm determined to remember what it stands for and that is FULLY RELYING ON GOD!
This shirt was given to Bryan sometime ago and he could HARDLY wait till he was big enough to wear it... just so happened that the day we were making these cupcakes he was wearing this shirt and thought he was pretty cool stuff! :)
Western Dress-up Day! And the last day of Kindergarten for Bryan! He is officially a 1st grader now! Darla is very close to completing her school work too! And this Mommy is about to shout... Praise the Lord! I will have a few more days of getting things squared away. Natasha and Brittany need to finish their work, but they are all pulling full-steam ahead and that always helps! Spring Fever, has definitely hit our Haus! Praying we'll have enough WILL-POWER to fight the urge to be OUTSIDE! :) Thanks to the Lord for His wonderful help this another year and the privilege that He gives us to Home-school our kids!

So glad that we got to see Vonnie, my dear sister-in-law and my dear nieces from Alaska. They were out doing what every parent dreads... "looking for colleges"! We are praying with you girls in your major decisions to be made here soon. God cares and WILL lead you, just keep your hearts open to his clear direction! Love you so much! Hausman Cuzin's

Just enjoying our kids! Thanks, Pop-Pop and Grandma for the Easter gifts to our kids. We were able to use the cash and purchase some needed clothing that was on the after Easter sale racks!

Many people make it more complex, but it's really a simple message. We were all born sinners, but God sent His only son to be the ultimate sacrifice and pay the penalty for our sin. It's a free gift! You can't earn it, can't go to church enough, can't give enough money or do enough good deeds. You must confess your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He will forgive you, and you will have a deep peace that the world can't take away.

God's Gifts to us! We were so thankful for the Lord's help with Natasha's Jr/Sr Banquet that she was invited to attend. A friend loaned us the dress and we were able to find the jacket at Penny's and material to match to make the sleeves modest and Jesus helped our local Grocery store to run a special on Roses just last week. Then Jesus helped one Mommy to make the wrist corsage, all from her Daddy! One special young lady, God has blessed us with... and we PRAISE HIM!

A Boy's BEST Friend!!! Bryan's favorite past time... only down side is one HAS to have a bath after playing with THIS Friend named, Diesel! But it's worth it!

God's Gift Of Music! How we thank the Lord for His help to our girls in all of the music recitals that they have had the privilege of being a part of this month. Here is a picture of all of the musicians that participated in the Piano Concert that was sponsored by Martha Miller, the girls piano teacher. This was a lovely evening of piano quartets and duets. Over 30 young people and teachers participating! We thank the Lord for this blessing!
This is a "canned picture" which the girls neither one like... but that was the best way to get a good shot of them, since I'm not an "up-front" person to want to run up there and get a picture while they were performing! :) Natasha and Brittany played on one piano, while Mrs. Miller and another 8th grader played on the other piano. It was really nice. Natasha also played in another piano quartet with 3 other pianist from our Church, Christian Nation Church!

My lack of photographer abilities proved out once again, as I was the only one to take pictures of their recent violin recital too! Daryl had class both of these nights so had to "hear" over the cell-phone so couldn't be there. So Sad! The girls each played pieces that were a reach for them. Their teacher challenged each of her students by raising the bar a little higher for this recital. This was NO SMALL FEAT for our Haushold as we had 2 other recitals vying for their practice time too, plus the routine of school work etc. Much prayer was made and many hours of practice, but once again the Lord came and touched and how we praise Him!

Darla piece was entitled: "Minute II" by Bach... After this recital her violin will be framed. You see it is the little 1st violin that all three girls started out playing! (My niece Kimberly Anna Dickinson also used this as her 1st violin!) So it is my dream to have this one framed! Bryan isn't thinking about playing violin, for it's too "girly" for him, he says! :) Boys!!!

Brittany's piece was entitled: the "Concerto #23 by Viotti"
And Natasha's piece was entitled: "Concerto No.9 in A Minor, Op. 104 (1st movement) by De Beriot".
All of them really needed God's help and wanted to make sure that we took the time after the concert was over to THANK THE LORD for His touch and help! God is SOOOO good! Enough of the music notes!!! Another PLAY on words! :) ~Laura~

Craziness! This picture is especially for A. Heather and Kimberly. When we went to Colombia Brittany happened to mention that if we found some cute sun-glasses to get her a pair..and Darla declared that she too wanted a pair. So on our last day their we went to market and got these funny sun-glasses. They make your eyes work double-time! :)
Hope they make you laugh.
Natasha ~

Who's counting those Candles?! Where have the years gone?! We love you, Natasha! Natasha was "over cake" so she asked for a Peanut Butter Pie this year... with all of those candles it looked a bit "shell shocked!" :)

Happy Birthday, Natasha! How glad we are that Jesus sent you to us. My how the time has flown though! We pray that you'll always seek God's best! We love you so much!

Our Easter/Birthday meal together!

A Few of Her Favorite Things! We usually make quite a to-do with Birthdays around our Haus! This year was no exception... I asked Natasha early enough to plan what she wanted for her birthday meal and got an unusual request! She asked that I make something that we were served over in Romania by some dear friends. Her request? Homemade Schnitzel with Noodles! Yikes,... that was a new one for me to make... so I wrote and asked our dear friend, Sally Sebo, for help. She was so kind as to translate this recipe for me and also gave me a website to "see" it all... Thanks so much, Sally. Here's the finished product! I was thankful for the Lord's help! For those of you "Sound of Music" lovers, you may recall that Schnitzel with noodles is one of her favorite things listed in that song, "My Favorite Things"!


Resurrection Eggs! You can only see a couple of them... but these have become a very real part of our Easter Celebration each year. Years ago while on Deputation we were invited to have dinner with some dear friends who introduced us to the Resurrection Eggs and then gave the set to us after dinner was over. We will never forget your kindness, Beckers, We love you! How could we have known that years later God would lead us here and that we get to have you as our mission directors?! Thanks again so much for your love and support!
That's the news from our Haus! Laura ~ (with MUCH of Natasha's help!!)

Happy birthday to the most wonderful Pop-Pop! Thank you for being such a great grandfather! We love you all LOTS!!!
Hope you have a great day!
Love,
Natasha ,Brittany ,Darla ,and Bryan~

On our way up the mountain we had to go through a really LONG tunnel.

Just barely hanging on! This is Elijah hanging on to the rails at the top of the train. Don't worry Daddy was holding him by the waist.
This is another picture on our way. Here we are passing a train going down.


This is right after we got off the train at the top of the mountain.


And we are finally up at the top! This is overlooking Bogota.
It was a gorgeous view!
More to come...
Natasha~

He is Risen! And every good Russian would respond, "He is risen, indeed!" In Russian, the word for Sunday ,"Vas Cresaynyuh", means Resurrection.

Laura and the kids made these homemade Reese's peanut butter eggs and distributed them to our wonderful neighbors.

Here is a REAL LIVE Llama! It was really neat to get to see one!
This is the mountain that we rode up. You could hike it, but it is not recommended for American's for their safety.
Our last day in Colombia we had the privilege to go to Simon Bolivar's house. For those of you who have no clue who he is....he helped to liberate several of the South American countries. Being a history lover, I really enjoyed it.

This is Simon Bolivar's dining room.
This is the back of his house. Right behind were the picture was taken there is beautiful gardens and the huge mountain that we were on. It was beautiful!
Hope you enjoy,
Natasha~

I apologize for the few pictures of Kimberly for she was always running around working with me. Here is one of the good pictures that we got the day before we left.
And here is the famous "EWWWW Gross Desert" or "Dirt." It looks disgusting, but it was actually VERY good!
This is Pastor Alberto and Pastor Rigoberto laughing at being served "Dirt and Worms"!
As always, more pictures to come! :)
Natasha~

It is a family tradition, at least for the younger Dickinson's, that as soon as Family devotions are finished they run and get a piggy back ride from U. Phillip. Here they are getting a wild horsey ride instead!
Elijah's impression of Wayne. Here he is drinking hot sauce!

A Few Random pictures while helping around the house! Elijah making a silly face!

An everyday occurrence!

Here I am with a favorite pastime....doing dishes!


Here is me eating a Colombian fruit. It would be similar to a pomegranate. The juice was good, but the texture of the seeds was hard to get used to (if you can't tell by my face)! Elijah loves these and so he helped me finish mine!
Hope you enjoy! More pictures to come.
Natasha~

And Here is Elijah enjoying 1 of the 300 Dum-Dum suckers that we brought! Don't worry he didn't eat all of them..we gave about 100 to two of the pastors in Colombia, passed some out at church for a treat, and the Dickinson's enjoyed the rest! :)

Here is Noah enjoying some gifts. If you look close you can see some of the airplanes from Bryan and Gram.

For offertory Kimberly and I played a violin duet. We played the hymn "Amazing Grace."


Daddy preached the Sunday morning message after we had sung about 10 songs! Some of the songs were hymns that we knew and others were Latin American songs.

This is Colombian culture. The man is required to push the lady around, all day, everyday, up and down the hills, across the streets, up the stairs, and if you believe that; I have some beach front property for sale in Florida.