Galen and Dixie were married in 1970 and lived in Hesston, KS
until 1972. We have
two sons: Kevin is married to Tasha, whose daughter,
Katie, is 11. Jason is married to Tracy and they
have three children:Caleb, 10; Nathan 8; Kiersten, 4. Kevin
is a systems analyst and computer program writer for Wingfoot and Tasha is special events coordinator at Grand Avenue Baptist
Church in Ft. Smith, AR, where they live. Jason and Tracy moved to our area in 2002. Jason and Galen are still
working together, but Jason now has his own company and his own employees. Tracy is a flight instructor and manages
the Clinton, OK airport.
Galen has been a self-employed concrete contractor for 28
years, and has done jobs all over the state of Oklahoma. He is planning to retire in November 2007 from full time
concrete work.
In 1978, we built an underground home where we still live.
We have 2500 square ft of hail-proof, tornado-proof, summer heat-proof home. In 1993, Galen was driving home from Weatherford when a young man came over a hill on the wrong
side of the county road and hit him head-on, critically injuring him. He
was off work for most of six months, and worked only part time for another six months while they completed surgeries on his
face and implanted several teeth. His return to good health was an obvious answer to prayer!
2006 was a tough year for our family. In June, Dixie had
a root canal--seemingly routine--but during the procedure, inhaled some bacteria, resulting in pneumonia and septic shock. She
spent six days in a medically induced coma, on a ventilator and after months of physical therapy and painful, hard
work to regain strength, she went back to work part time in September. On October 23, Galen was working on a job and
a nail ricocheted off a board and penetrated his left eye. Three days later, he underwent surgery to remove the eye
and was fitted with a prosthetic eye in December. At
Thanksgiving, we were in Ft. Smith visiting Kevin and Tasha and a young woman came flying out of a parking lot in an
attempt to cross two full lanes of traffic to make a left turn, smashing into the side of Dixie's car. By
that time, we just shook our heads, glad that no one was hurt.
We are glad to have 2006 "in the rearview mirror"! We are
so grateful for the many people who prayed, volunteered to help, brought food, etc. during those difficult months. Kevin and Tasha were married Feb. 17, 2007, so our year has started off on
a wonderfully joyful note! We are looking forward to an exciting year, and look forward to seeing all of you in July.
