The Copeland Ramblings/

Wow!

Wow! You can tell we have been BUSY by the lack of posts! So terribly sad that we just simply didn’t have time to post. It almost felt like we hardly had time to even get a shower in each day! We helped put on the mission Christmas party on the 19th and then had company from December 20th all the way through the 1st of January. Then on the 1st both of the boys came down with a very violent stomach flu. And then two days later I had the same thing. Today is the 6th and its the first day of the year that we are feeling some what better. 2011 really started out with a BANG! Not only have we had those things on our hands but we have also been preparing for our upcoming move to our new apartment. We haven’t even begun packing and we hope to be moved over on Monday… yep thats in 4 days! =) We have had some very time consuming problems over at the new house. Here in Dakar its standard that the landlord repaints the apartment before moving in. So they were going to and we asked if we could choose the colors and they said of course. I chose the colors I wanted and I had examples so they could compare colors. They started the paint. And a day later we stopped by to check in on them. The color I had picked for the bedrooms was definitely no where near what I had asked for but it its a color I could live with. Its pretty much a baby blue color. Then on Christmas Eve we stopped by to check again. They had painted the living room, entryway and hall. I had picked a nice brown tan color. We walked in and I nearly cried. My house was PINK! Can you guess what my least favorite color is in the whole world? You guessed it PINK! And to add to it… the rooms were baby blue with pink walls everywhere else. I was pretty sure we now had a nursery for a house. I “kindly” told Norm that I just couldn’t live in a pink house and knowing I can get a little outspoken I left! Norm then called me on the phone and said they were kindly remixing paint and were going to give it another go. So we left and came back a few hours later. NOT the color I had picked… but not so pink anymore. We can live with it. Then a few days after Christmas we stopped by to see how the rest went. I had picked a deep green color for the kitchen and apparently all the trim and doors in the whole house… haha! We walk in… OH MY! MINT GREEN! IN EVERY ROOM! Oh well… we can redo the trim and door ourselves. No worries. Next thing we notice the paint is NOT sticking to the walls. All you have to do is touch it and it falls off. We pull a little off to see how bad it was. Its not sticking at all. NOT GOOD! So after some thought… this is dangerous! We talked it over and decided that it would have to be redone. We thought we would give it a check and pull a piece off until it stuck. I pulled a little spot and I pulled and pulled and pulled. And off came a table cloth size of paint in one piece. So we started having some fun just pulling huge sheets of paint off the walls. The kids got into it as well… they had a blast! As I write this we have a new painter in the house working on pulling it all down… sanding it and then putting up fresh paint. Luckily the hallway, the entryway, kitchen and bathroom are the only places it needs to be redone. The living room and bedrooms were fine. But unfortunately the landlord was not really wanting to help with the cost of getting the new paint up. We are still in talks with him about that… since it was there mistake in the first place.  Please pray for us in that matter. There are many things in the apartment that need to be repaired and the landlord is less than willing to help out. But overall we are really excited to get moved in and settle into a new place that is hopefully more permenent. We have just about every six months since were were married nearly 7 years ago!  We really are hoping and praying that this can be our permanent home in Dakar.

We are super busy and hope to keep you updated. Hopefully we can get a post up with pics from Christmas and our sight seeing with our Finnish friends who stayed with us. Thank you for your prayers and all you do for us. The next few weeks will be pretty crazy busy getting moved, settled in and all the normal things our our life here in Senegal. But praise the Lord there is light at the end of the tunnel. The end of January Norm’s parents are coming to stay with us for two weeks. We are sooooo excited and we can’t wait to see them. It will be an awesome gift after a very difficult 9 months here in Senegal.

And here is a picture of us just waking up on Christmas morning… more to come!

On this day..

• 6 weeks - 2009
• Disguised - 2008
• Canaan's First Love - 2008
• - 2006