The Copeland Ramblings/

Sunday evening ramblings!

Ever since we found out Norm had a second stone in his kidney, just waiting to come out, I had decided to try to prepare for our trip to the States as efficiently as possible. We just never know if we will have a few days in the hospital again. I have been keeping detailed lists of things to do and trying to get them all done as soon as possible. I am so glad I have been doing that. Because of that, when Norm said he was feeling pain again I was not panicked at all… totally ready.

We were eating dinner Saturday evening and Norm said he needed to go lay down. I hurried the kids through dinner, bathed them, got them into bed all before 6:30 so that I could focus all my attention on Norm. Just after I finished getting the kids into bed, Norm said the pain was getting unbearable. I grabbed the prescription the doctor had written for Norm, just in case of need! Went to the neighbors and asked if they would pick up the medicine for Norm. Luckily we have awesome neighbors and even though they had company over, they ran to the pharmacy for us. We got Norm on meds around 7:30. They worked pretty fast and dulled the pain just enough that he could lay down instead of pacing circles around the living room. By 10:30 the pain was nearly gone. Praise God! It was not fun, but over fairly quickly. We have no idea at this point if the stone passed or if part of it broke off and went through. We are going to go see a doctor to get a scan and see what happened. We are praying for a miracle. We are praying that the stone went through and that this whole crazy ordeal is over with. But, I read that if a stone is over 6mm it almost NEVER comes out on its own, it is nearly impossible physically for it to do so. The doctor estimated it to be between 6 and 8mm. Please pray with us that it is all gone and out of his kidney now. We will let you all know as soon as we know anything new.

We were pretty disappointed because Norm was definitely not feeling up to going to church this morning after going through that last night. Normally it would not be a big deal to miss one service, but this is our last Sunday here for the summer. (At least for the boys and me. Norm returns June 20th.) So despite being tired and worn out, I got up with the kids, got them all ready for church and we headed out by taxi to church. I am so glad we did. It was so wonderful to see our friends one last time. We had a wonderful time worshiping God with them. Even though its not my language, not my culture, and not my comfort zone, we have truly come to love our church. We are fed in a whole new way than in our churches at home. We do not sing in English, we do not hear sermons in English. Its more like humming along to songs that you know are glorifying God, yet you don’t know what the words mean. More like listening to the sermon and catching some of the different points, but almost never truly getting the whole story, always being a little bit lost. But yet we feel their excitement, we feel their love for God, we see their eagerness to grow and learn more about God, we see their desire to serve God no matter the cost. We are so proud of them. We are so blessed to be their friends. I will really miss our church and our friends in Dakar. It will only be three months. I know it will fly by. I am though, very excited to go home and sing songs that truly touch my heart because I understand them. I am truly excited to go home and listen to a sermon and actually understand the whole thing.

I am nervous though. I feel like my home culture is no longer my culture. I feel like I have such a mix in me that I no longer truly belong to any specific culture. I am a little nervous to go back home. I definitely don’t have any nice clothes, they are all faded with holes in them. I only own dirty old flip flops. All of my jewelry have been destroyed by the humidity. I am used to living on pennies a day. But I truly can’t wait to step foot into a Starbucks, or any American fast food joint! And MOST OF ALL, I AM DYING TO HUG MY FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All that to say I am HAPPY, I am sad, I am nervous. I am so glad to be God’s child. He is so comforting and caring. Please pray for us as we prepare to head home. We have a few days left. We fly out Friday night. We cant hardly wait to see many of you!

On this day..

• Vieux Québec - One last time - 2008
• Aldom Visit - 2005