Happy Anniversary!

 Today is my dear parents 52nd Wedding anniversary! These people are sooooo special to me in hundreds of ways, so to adequately try to express my love for them would be impossible!  I am very grateful to God for choosing THEM to be my dearest Daddy and dearest Moma!  No doubt about it, I'm VERY BLESSED!  Moma and Daddy may not be "perfect" but then again... I'm not so sure!  God has helped you all to be A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. parents!
As many already know, our dear Moma had a light stroke earlier this month.  This has changed life for them quite a bit.  We are counting our blessings that it wasn't worse... however, that doesn't take the need away for all of our prayers for them.  Today is their last service at their current pastorate and they are waiting on God for HIS will in their next step for the future! 

Special People to MANY!!!!

Something a tad personal... but here's a few lines from a letter I wrote to them this week!

"Dearest Daddy and Moma, We love you more than life itself and this is SOOOOO hard to see you having to face this mountain... but I keep hanging onto the promise(s) that the Lord who has led you through all the dark valley's of your lives together up til now, has NOT stopped workin! 

Daddy, you and Moma have sought and put God 1st in all things in your lives. Period. not for any gain, not to "get a handle" on God...NO! you just have served Him faithfully all of your lives. and when we DO this, HIS WORD PROMISES... that "all these things WILL be added unto US"  It doesn't say WHAT ALL THESE THINGS are... but in my limited theology (humor me, Daddy) I have recently taken that to be b/c our needs will NOT always be the same and God is bigger than ANY need that we face!  and so with that being said, I'm hangin my hat on that promise for you all and have reminded the Lord since your praying through that God wanted you to "retire" several months back that He not forsake you and that he'll CLEARLY lead you... and when your hearts walk in His paths and continually SEEK after Him... YOU CAN'T MISS HIS WILL... HE just won't let that happen!  Do you find it funny that your kid is "preachin to you"....? I guess I would just say it's "reapin once again, what you have sown!"  Like you said, "Ya'll taught us how to pray so long ago... so now it's time to enjoy a tad of the harvest!"  I love you both so much!!! and am typing with tears blinding my eyes...."

Today the girls and I are singing a song that I'm claiming for you, Moma and Daddy...
"His Strength is Perfect... when our strength is Gone"  and adding just the chorus of the song, "If He carried the weight of the world on His shoulders... I know my brother/sister that He will carry you"
~Much Love from This Haus!~

School Days ~ Catch up Photo album!

"Go to school with Dad day" at WSU!

Our kids from this School Haus!

Dinner with Daryl's WSU students!

Games,

Games,

And more games! =)

Group photo shot w/o a much needed wide angle lens!=)

Game night with a few of Natasha's college (GBS) Friends!

Blurry... cause everyone was running to find a seat!

Natasha caught having to share an embarrassing story!  We loved it!

Ms Jess was SO much fun.... we'll have to invite her when we do this again!

Natasha and Kimberly

Refreshments

Cousins

All the men talkin about our mission field days and artifacts etc.

Two of the cutest helpers anyone could ask for!!!

My brother Lincoln, came for a visit! 

 Wouldn't have made it with out Heather and CO's help with this fun-friends party!  Thanks much, Sis! (my nephew Keith also came along with Lincoln, but I didn't get a good shot of him!)

Babysitting Friends!

Helpers!

Perfect Day for a park and this one seemed to be MADE for Twins! =)

I think I got a few more grey hairs before we left there!!!  Yikes, they ain't scared of nothin!!!

Yea, we did some of this too.... but hey since I'm just "auntie" it's all good! =)

Definitely needed this... and then had a good long nap!!!

I'll end with this Fruit Pizza! officially welcoming Summer!=)

Birthday Girl ~ a tad late!

 Every good and perfect Gift is From the Lord and we believe it!  Now over 20yrs ago, Jesus gave us this special gift in our oldest daughter, Natasha!  No, we wouldn't say she is PERFECT... but She is a delight and we are sooooooo blessed!

Natasha ~ Music Hall 2013

• Thank you Natasha for your sweet, careful walk with Jesus!  You have always had a desire to serve the Lord and that blesses our hearts tremendously!  You have always been a high goal achiever... always went after those "carrots" in life. Often surprising us as to what you could achieve when you put your mind to do it!   (Maybe that was due to the 50lbs of carrots given to us to feed you when you were a wee one! Lol!=)
• Thank you for choosing JESUS!  Your careful, consistent life of walking with God is such an encouragement to me!  You have always striven to be compliant in whatever it was we asked of you.  Even when much of that wasn't easy.  You always were careful to come with an "I want to learn why so I can improve" attitude to whatever we felt we had to ask of you! And the times that you didn't have a peaceable attitude, I knew it wouldn't be long before you would come with a humbled heart and ask for our forgiveness. I have so many blessings to count and am unworthy of such a beautiful, godly daughter!  I NEVER want to take you for granted!
• Thank you for your prayer life!  I've been continually encouraged to how careful you are to find times to pour out your heart to God.  Even IF those times have been caused by your crazy Momma sending you BACK TO HAVE YOUR DEVOTIONS ALL OVER AGAIN!  yea... and thanks for forgivin me when I BLOW IT.... sadly more often that I get it right!
• In the last 2 years especially your close walk with God has continually amazed me! I've watched you search your heart, surrender your ALL, again and again.... all your desires, your plans, your hopes, your dreams, your wishes over WHOLE-HEARTEDLY to God!  That is the ONLY Way to true happiness, dear!  Thanks for loving Jesus with all there is within you!
• Thank you for being ever so careful to be chaste! That being defined as: Pure in thought, word and act and to be modest and honorable in all things.  When and if we've ever had to talk to you about "not wearing that" or being careful, you've always had a willing, obedient heart!  even when in the human you couldn't totally understand where we were coming from... you obeyed anyway! And the times that finances were limited and a more modest wardrobe was HARD TO FIND... Jesus has always supplied! And we BLESS THE LORD!
• Thank you for giving all your talents to God to use in whatever way He sees fit!  I know that this hasn't always been "grand" and when and if you've had to take a 2nd seat... I've watched you once again surrender even a lower seat over to Jesus!  You chose to SMILE and SHINE for HIM... no matter what and that's HUGE to us!  
• Thank you for your patience with us... as we've had to "learn on you" what this whole parenting thing is all about.  We've blown in many a time....(uh....didn't I already mention that somewhere....=) thanks for putting up with us!  You're the best!
• Our prayer is that you will always stay fully surrendered to God's WILL for your life!  God cares about EVERY.SINGLE.DETAIL.OF.YOUR.LIFE and don't you EVER let this ole world and it's lies tell you anything other wise! Yea, even whoever "Mr. Wonderful" is for you some year!  Jesus cares and is fine tuning and pruning you both to fit His perfect Will for your lives!  "In His Time"!
• When the storms of life hit in full force...and they will.... just dig deeper in Jesus.... settle for NOTHIN LESS than HIS BEST for you!  You'll never be sorry... though the heartaches hurt, God will be there through each step of the way.  We love you sooooo much! And though we wish in the human we could spare you of all hurts... God is teachin us that it is those stretching times... the digging in deeper in His Holy word... that makes us reflect HIS IMAGE more and more!

Jesus gave us this special birthday treat for Natasha this year! (and her sisters tagged along)  Sarah Chang, one of our girls favorite violinists, was right downtown here at Cincinnati Music Hall! And to beat all RIGHT ON HER BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!  Pretty special!!!! and no girls deserve more....  yea!  we're prejudiced... but hey, that goes with the whole being Mom and Dad thing!!! =)

We love you, more than life itself! As Brittany sang with the High School Choir this year.... "Whatever the question, the answer is JESUS"!!!
 Happy Birthday, Natasha!

Mother's Day 2013

 Daryl was asked to preach at a Chinese Church this year in Dayton.  God blessed his message to my heart as once again I sat there listening to my wonderful husband preach and Blessed the Lord for being Mrs Daryl Hausman! 

This year's Mother's Day cards and flowers! 

                     When Daryl brought home these hanging plants I was thrilled.  I LOVE the freshness of flowers... but since I pretty much have only BLACK THUMBS.... here's hopin I can keep them lookin as nice as they look now.  I loved their choice of gifts... for each time I look out my window doing dishes etc I see this plant and THANK JESUS for the four children that these represent!

Out back off our newly built being built deck! =)

 Each of the girls expressed this wishes in their own love languages... I just love the variety of their personalities... Darla's was a very colorful note of thanks, so typical of her sweet colorful self.  She's "Miss Bubbly"! Brittany's was kind expression of her appreciation and love... but of course she had to mention her all time F.A.V.E. ..... Food! =) Natasha chose to express her thoughts on FB this year. And since I L.O.V.E. variety... I was so pleased with each kid's "taste of something different"!! =) 

Front Porch!

My Cummins Truck Mother's Day card! =)

  I had to smile... laughed out loud .... when I opened Bryan's card to me this year.  He is such a dear boy and I thought maybe you'd enjoy seeing his expression of love to me.  It was just another lesson to my heart of how Jesus loves and accepts us for who we are and is totally O.K. with how we express our love to Him!

 

I'm SO Blessed to be privileged to be a Mother 4 times over!  God has been SOOOO good to us!  I've never known the heartache of "empty arms", never known what it was like to not be able to be a Mother.  God has blessed us with very healthy children and I bless His name!  They are all four very different which is sometimes a challenge to know how to connect!  But I thank God for the wisdom He gives.  Even just this a.m. I found a challenge from God's Words and it met the need of my heart's cry... to be like Jesus!  I'm so glad that our heavenly Father gave us the gift of Motherhood! I fall sooooo short of what I desire to be...
Thank you Natasha, Brittany, Darla and Bryan for your Mother's Day Expressions to me, each in your own way, which makes them all the more special to me.... I got to end my special day yesterday with a long heart-to-heart mother-daughter chat!!!  I sure do LOVE this Haus Full! =)

Happy Mother's Day, Momma!

 Our Example!

Celebrating Mother's Day with you, 1 week early!

 

Dearest Moma,

Those two words pretty much sum up our heart-felt thoughts, but to make it more interesting, I decided to make those words up into an acrostic... well sort of!=)  Some of these I had to use "text" spelling to make it fit, since I didn't inherit my Daddy's or Heather's abilities of making rhymes! =)

Our Example!

O-ther's first.  In our minds there is NO other Momma with more of a servant's heart, than you!

"Ur" (pronounced You're) our Prov 31 Momma... hands down! the best EVER! (And thank you for not judging me for not measuring up to you.  Especially since my version of being a "Biblical Woman" is still in the Bible; but somewhere stuck back in the maps section!=)

R-ejoicing Heart! Thank you for refusing to allow the trials of life to take away that silly, flirting with Daddy way you have, and just your fun-loving self that we all love soooo dearly! That, in and of itself, has been an example to me more than you'll ever know!

E-tiquette Queen!  Right up there just after Emily Post of course! =)

X-traordinary  Never any such thing as "just getting by for you"... always has to be as near perfect as is humanly possible! From ironing pillow cases to table settings to rolling out Sunday Dinner rolls, everything has to be perfect!!! =)

A-dvice   You and Daddy are amongst the 1st we call when we're in a pickle, for we know that you'll pray much with us as well as, give us godly council and I'm so blessed to have you for parents!

M-oma!  No other word fits you! But oh the wealth contained w/in that word! There are absolute volumes of knowledge therein, which you have endeavored to lovingly pass down to we four kids, then our mates, and now on to your grand-kids! and if Jesus tarries I know you'll pass on your knowledge to your great-grand-kids in God's time! (Keith and Natalie that's just for you! lol!=)

P-apa's loving wife!  Even if the most romantic thing you always told us you did was to "iron his shirts" =) Thanks for ALWAYS gladly following Daddy wherever God has led him!

L-oving our mates as much as you love us! And Yes, we'll forgive you for loving your grand-kids MORE!  After all, what Gram doesn't?! =)

E-conomical!  You always found a way to make "somethin' out of nothin' ". In fact you had that whole 'Home Economics 101" thing down pat!!! I can't Thank you enough for this trait that you've passed on to both of your missionary daughters.  You prepared us WELL for life on the mission field... even if we did end up landing on two different continents! =)

Happy Mother's Day! I love you Moma!

Love, Laura and Family

 

Just the Grand-kids from this Haus!

Mother Daughter Banquet 2013

 For more pics from the banquet see dickinsonfam.blogspot.com

Heather just posted LOTS of pics from this FUN Mother Daughter banquet and since she's the pic queen, I'll just link you to her post for more details there!


Saturday after the banquet was over and a ...much needed nap... we found this park!

"Go Faster, U. Phillip!"

dizzy anyone?!

Jesus totally healed the weather... we were praying hard for this was the only weekend we could have with everyone!  So thanks first to Jesus... and second to Daddy and Momma for all the work of having us all over.  So nice to get to be together and then for the beyond yummy supper!  Thanks Daddy for the pizza and Momma for the yummy fresh salad and cookies, fresh homemade mint tea! Delish!

Family Song by the Dickinson's!

"God's Got a Plan for my Life!"

 So fun to get to stay over and hear Phillip and Heather give their presentation of the work God has helped them to do with His Help and All Glory to God, GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!  Just love these lil guys!  Elijah and Mary were singin their lil hearts out! So cute!

Gram with about 1/2 of those Grand-ones!

 We ALL love you... hope you have a wonderful Happy Mother's Day! Love ya SOOOO much, Laura


 And one parting SILLY shot for you... T,B,K, "You don't have to thank me, but you probably should!" (Adventures in Odyssey quote =)
 

Fun Times!!!