Carey's Sixth Birthday

On the 23rd of January, Carey became six years old. She was very excited about her birthday. It has been amazing to see how fast she has grown. Our family had a small part on the Friday before her birthday. It was great to eat food and fellowship with our neighbors and co-labourers the Aaron family. Carey loved her cake! Patty baked a Strawberry Short-Cake cake. Though it was covered in red frosting, and shaped like a strawberry, the cake was Chocolate and Mint. (This is Carey's favorite flavour for cake). So this played a little trick on the mind, but the cake was great!

On Tuesday after Carey's birthday, she made a trip with me to the capital. This was her first 'date' with dad to such a far away location. Andrew's family was newly percussed a vehicle, so their whole family made trip and Carey and I where allowed to accompany them, since there is paperwork to be done in the capital.

The car was loaded and ready to go at 3:00am in the morning. Carey was half awake but really enjoyed the trip. After setting out at 4:00, the tripped ended at about 9:00 in the morning. Arriving early, I was able to finish all the government paperwork that needed to be done, and Andrew and his family where on time for their doctor appointment that they had scheduled.

After about 2 hours of great patience, and sitting quietly in about three government offices, Carey got to enjoy herself. The next place that we visited was Max-mart. It is one of the large grocery store slash department stores in the capital. They even have carts that have cars on the front of them. Carey loves these! So off the two of us went, looking for a few raw food items that are not available in Kumasi.

After about 30 minutes of Carey honking the little horn around the store, and buying our things, the next stop was the Accra Mall. The hardest thing about going to the Accra Mall, is that Carey wants to buy everything for Ella and Mommy. But it was a great time together. (They even had British pickles for a low price. The British must like strong tasting pickles, but Patty said they are great. Pickles are a rare delicious here!).

After shopping, Carey received the best surprise last. In the food court of the mall, a Ghanaian lady has start a new business. It is a giant play land. It has trampolines, slides, jumping castles, merry-go-rounds, swings, and even a car that moves around a track. After our friends arrived from their doctor's appointment, all the kids played together.

After two small medium pizza, and an hour of playing, everyone packed their shopping bags in the car, and everyone had back to Kumasi. (Here are a few pictures from the birthday and trip).

The Birthday Girl!
The Cake

The adults playing gmae while the kids play

Daddy get killed in chess!
Carey on the merry-go-round
Carey loves to slide

The electric race car on tracks

Carey at six year old:

What is Carey like at six years old? The first thing that comes to mind is a local saying; "Panin asem", which means someone that likes to do adult things when they are young. This is Carey in many ways, but she is still a kid in many other ways.

Carey loves to tell stories. The longer the better, thanks Aunt Betsy, not sure how your genes got in there. Carey loves to draw different pictures. She loves princess, stories, reading books until she falls asleep. She likes to dance and twirl, pick out her own clothes, and telling her sister what to do. She is a first child through and trough. She is a perfectionist and also very analytical in thinking. She will think about things until she understands them, and wants to understand something very well before she tries most new things.

Carey likes to laugh, sing, play house and mimic mommy. She is very good in math, and is coming to like reading. She likes to write her own books. She is always asking her mom, to write out the little stories that she tells her, and puts them together in stapled books. Carey has her father's strange ability to remember useless facts and other strange bits of information. She also loves Ranch dressing, green pepper (raw) and pickles.

Carey does not like: people follower here around all the time, this happens at times with Ella and new kids at church. She does not like to be left out of any conversation or activity. She does not like all her things to be a mess, unless of course this was her idea, and then she loves chaos!

Overall she is a tall, bubbly, blond, active, girl, with a capital G. Patty and I love here, and are exciting to see what the future holds.

Family Fun Photos

Here are a few family fun pictures.

It is really hot in Ghana, but when God allows us to get marshmallows, chocolate, and milk biscuits (a cookie like a graham cracker), we just suffer through the camp fire on our porch and make S'mores!

Carey is never sure if she wants to burn them or eat them raw.

No wonder missionaries get fat!!!!

Only Patty can eat a S'more with style.

Carey holding a grapefruit from a tree at Isaac's house. Isaac is a young Community College man that has been attending our Bible Studies and has been saved. Pray for him to be baptized.

Ella with her green bowling ball (grapefruit).

My first time chewing sugar cane. It is really good!

Patty's local food processor, and local spices.

A new local dish we tried. It is called Waakye, and it is really good.

Just mix everything together and add cooked spaghetti, and devour! YUMMMM!

Patty and I were on our monthly date, and when we were walking through downtown, we saw this honey seller. The interesting things was the mound of honeycomb and bees she had on her table to prove it was real honey, not melted sugar.

Patty is a great mom. She cooks with the girls on a regular basis. On this day Carey, Ella, and Patty were making strawberry muffins for their tea party.

The sparkles where Carey's idea! If you know Carey this is no surprise!

Hind Sight is 20/20

It is always amazing to me how God can take the things that we think are annoying, frustrating, or bad, and make them work together for good. I have seen this happen before, but it still amazes me.

Well, we had another very personal and wonderful lesson about this again this week. We got back from Bible study last night around 9:30pm. Every one was tired like usual, and when the taxi pulled into our street, I heard the one thing that I hate to hear at night here, the generator was on at the hotel next store. Our lights where off!

Now for us this was one of the first things that God used on us when we came here, and we have really gotten used to it. But, we have been spoiled lately. I think that our power has been on for three weeks straight. Anyway, we started the regular power out at night routine, move the girls mattress and bed into our room where it is cooler, turn on the rechargeable lamps, and pray that the lights come on, or that it rains so that it is cool, and you can sleep. Well, I was laying there trying to be comfortable, frustrated, the girls where not sleeping, and I asked God: 'why do the lights have to be off tonight?' I never knew how important it could be for the lights to go off.

Well, Ella and I finally fell asleep, but Carey and Patty stayed awake, or should I say Carey kept Patty awake. Carey said that she was afraid and wanted mom to lay next to her, and after some time of talking Patty told her that if she was afraid that she could pray to God and ask her not to be afraid. Well, Carey thought about that for a while. Then Patty said that she bowed her head and prayed, "Jesus, please forgive me for all my sins, and wash me with your blood, I believe Jesus died for me, thank you!" Well, needless to say, Patty was stunned. She asked Carey why she had prayed that and Carey said that she was afraid of going to hell, and needed forgiveness. After talking for a while Patty felt that she had a firm understanding of everything. Patty said that the best part was after Carey seemed to be at peace. After blowing out the candles she just laid in her bed singing 'Jesus Loves Me'.

I was oblivious to the whole thing. The next morning I was in my office praying when Carey came out and said, 'Dad I prayed to Jesus last night, and He washed my sins away, so I am going to heaven.' We got to talk, and I could she that she was really happy. I have prayed since my daughter was born that she would trust Christ, and I never thought that the power going out would be so important.

You know if we are not careful we start to wish that we can remove the hard things in life, but the truth is that I am starting to learn that they really are a gift. Like last night, some times they give God the chance to do amazing things, that you praise Him for after, and sometimes I think that they are given to us to grow through. I do know one thing: they make life all the better. It is like the Moracon food we have come to love here, the spicy always makes the sweet more wonderful.

I just want to say: Thank you God for letting the lights go out for 12 hours on October 17th 2008, the day my daughter got SAVED!