Barbara Dickerson:  

Hard to believe that it will soon be 40 years since graduating from high school. I look back and wonder where all the time has gone. I'm doing what I wanted to do since I was a little girl. I wanted someday to live in a foreign country. After finishing Ohio State with a degree in French and German, I imagined that I would end up in Europe but I married a former Peace Corps volunteer who worked in West Africa. So my life and career since then has unfolded in Africa. I started living here in 1990 just after finishing an MA in international studies at Johns Hopkins University and haven't left. I've lived in Togo, Ghana, Kenya, Benin, and now Madagascar. I became a first-time parent at 42 when we adopted our older son who was born in Ghana and two years later we adopted another boy who was born in Kenya. Being an older parent is an adventure and a challenge. We're at least 10 years older than the parents of most of our children's friends and let's just say its sometimes hard to get the energy to keep up with two active boys. But they are also great fun and it's fascinating watching them change and grow. Too soon they'll be off leading their own lives. I know I'm getting old when my niece listens to oldies that were popular when I was in high school. The other day my 11 year old was singing the James Brown hit "I Feel Good" at the top of his lungs. He has absolutely NO idea how old that song is. Hope that those who are reading this have found life to be an interesting journey and are doing things they absolutely love. 2015 Update. Was fun looking back at where I was when I wrote my profile ...Expand for more