The Copeland Ramblings » Family

Home is where the heart is!

Debra — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:14:34 +0000

13 days until we are home owners! Scary? Yes! Exciting? YES!!!! We can’t wait to finally have a home where we can actually put our hearts into it. We have moved 16 times in 8 years. We can’t wait to finally have a place where we can feel like we are really HOME!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Norm — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:07:31 +0000

Debra & Emmaus - November 2008

Today is a very special day! It’s a day to recognize the mothers in our lives, their hard work, their devotion and their love. That is especially true in our family. One of Debra’s characteristics that I have truly loved since Canaan was born over six years ago is her incredible devotion and love towards her children. That is one of the reasons why her sickness and health issues were so difficult while in West Africa, she just didn’t have the physical ability to be the mom she so desparately wanted to be to our two boys. It’s been incredibly exciting to watch her since we returned to Canada. As her health has improved, I’ve been able to witness again a renewed sense of motherhood, it’s been fun to see! Emmaus has clung to her like glue since we got back, and I think that Debra is alright with that :) Our two boys are incredibly blessed to have Debra as their mother!

Thank you Debra for the unstoppable, incredible love you show our boys. You are an example of godly love for them, always pointing them towards our Saviour. I’m sure that our boys will grow up to be devoted loving husbands, thanks in no small part to your role in their lives! I love you Debra Lynn!

Family Self Portrait

Debra — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:45:34 +0000

Every now and then we snap a family pic. We always make Norm take them… since he has the best aim and the longest arms. =) Here is our latest attempt…

Not the best but not too bad and we are all in it and looking at the camera. We have truly come a long way since our boys were babies!

Here is a picture we took of the boys just after this picture was taken:

They are so hilarious!

Luckily we should be out of jacket weather now. The weather has been bouncing around like crazy! Hot one day then rainy and cold the next and so on. But I think its going to start getting nice and warm!

Canaan lost his first tooth!

Debra — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:50:45 +0000

Canaan is sooooo excited. After wiggling his loose tooth for nearly a month it finally came out. He was so incredibly excited. He very excitedly put his tooth under his pillow waiting for the tooth fairy to come and give him money. If you ask him who the tooth fairy is he will very proudly tell you that the tooth fairy is his MOM! =)

How are you feeling?

Debra — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:21:32 +0000

A lot of people have been asking me how I have been feeling. A pretty obvious question since we basically moved across an ocean and changed ministries because I had been so sick. I don’t know that I will ever get tired of that question. I used to hate that question because the answer was always “HORRIBLE.” I always felt terrible. Even if it was a good day it was still pretty terrible. I tried my best not to show how terrible I felt, but after a while I was pretty tired of pretending I wasn’t sick.

When we first arrived in Canada I felt much better, right away! Although from all the traveling I came down with a nasty sinus infection within a couple days. So it was hard to know for sure how I was really feeling and reacting to my new environment. After that was gone I started to really notice a big difference. I can think clearly. I can get up in the morning before 10am. I sleep through the night. I can breath. I can play with my kids. I have enough energy and mental capacity to train and disciple my kids. I can cook well balanced healthy meals. I can go for walks with my family. I can play with my kids. I can be a wife to my husband. I am so happy. I am so happy. I finally feel like I am fulfilling my role as a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend again. It is so fulfilling. I am so thankful to God. He has truly taken us through trial and I have grown so much through it. But I am now healed. I am so happy!

I decided to take a picture of myself a couple days before leaving Dakar so I could see if my appearance changed at all. I then took another photo the day after arriving in Canada. Then I took another photo 7 weeks after arriving in Canada. Take a look and see the difference for yourself. =)

In Dakar.

The day after arriving in Canada… still very jet lagged.

Taken 7 weeks after arriving in Canada, just after going for a 3 hour hike with the love of my life! =)

What do you think? Can you see the difference that I see?

Jeremiah 17:14

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

Moving Day Eve

Norm — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:08:02 +0000

As my siblings and I used to say as children, “one more sleep!”. Tomorrow we move out of our apartment and into the NTM guesthouse. We have our apartment until the end of the month but we wanted time to do some repairs not to mention that there are rumors of demonstrations around town at the end of the week so we really wanted to move before the action starts. It feels good to not have to do all this work at the last minute, but at the moment it’s still a lot to deal with. We look forward to getting this out of the way so that we can spend time with friends saying goodbye before we leave. Pray for us as we say goodbye to our home in Senegal!

32 days!

Debra — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:46:27 +0000

Thirty two! 32! Trente-deux! XXXII! Yep thats right! 32 days until we board a plane to Canada. I am having a little bit of writers block even trying to describe how we feel about that. Pretty much every possible thing! Stressed, too much to do, excited, relieved, sad, happy, scared, thrilled, and “Is this really happening?”

There really is no way to describe such a huge life change. We have never really even considered a life in North America. We never even processed what it would be life to raise our boys in North America. Its such a huge change. Well like it or not! Its happening! And we leave Africa for… maybe forever (hopefully not!).

The next thirty two days will be intensely crazy! We have a lot to do. A lot of people to say goodbye to, a lot of suitcases to pack, weigh, repack, weigh, repack again… A lot of little details to take care of, a lot of things still that need to be sold, a lot of emotional processing, preparing for our “new life” in Canada.

Please pray for us as we go through this time. Its one that is not easy to describe. We are starting to get anxious… just wanting to get it all over with.

We read a pretty neat verse in Proverbs today. It really meant a lot to me.

Proverbs 20:24 The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?

This is something that we have truly been coming to learn and understand. God is so amazing and has everything so perfectly under control. Why do we waste so much time trying to figure every little thing out instead of just trusting and being at peace! When we can just lean back and trust God we can truly come to have a peaceful life!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and love! We are so excited to join the New Tribes Mission of Canada headquarters team. We can truly see God preparing the way for us. We are getting very excited!

Please be patient if we lack in posts over the next little while. We are super busy trying to get things done and process everything. We do however tend to keep our Facebooks, Twitter accounts, and instagram accounts buzzing with new photos and day to day stuff. So keep up with us there. We hope to keep up here too… but I can’t promise anything… We have not posted since Christmas Day! TERRIBLE!

Have a wonderful day trusting in our Savior and having PEACE!

PS We posted all of our Christmas trip photos to flickr. Please check them out! We had a great time! Check them out HERE!

A Strange Christmas

Debra — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:01:34 +0000

This year things are a bit different for us. We are preparing to move out of our apartment and even more than that we are preparing to move back to Canada. Its been a true emotional roller coaster for us and we decided that this year we would celebrate a little differently than a typical traditional Christmas… since we just don’t feel “normal” this year. We sold our Christmas tree and all of our decorations, except for a few special ones we kept.

This year we are taking off to the beach! Yep! Tomorrow we are headed to a nice little rental house on the beach and we are going to take a few needed days of solitude! (Thanks to a sweet Christmas gift donation and wonderfully low Senegalese prices!!) We are so so so excited. We are so ready for a bit of a breather and for things to slow down for a couple of days.

This year we will be:

-Reading about Jesus’ birth
-Decorating shortbread Christmas cookies
-Opening presents that our families sent us in the mail
-Introducing the boys to the classic “Little Drummer Boy” claymation movie.
-Watching movies
-Playing on the beach, swimming in the pool
-Flying kites
-Listening to Christmas music
-Reading books
-Drinking yummy homemade peppermint hot chocolates and peppermint mochas!

We are pretty excited about taking it easy this year. We have had a long few months and have been super busy and really worn out. So this is the best Christmas present we could get! TIME AWAY! =)

Here are a few photos of our Christmas celebrations so far:

Our fake, fake Christmas tree!

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas, whether it be a busy crazy one or a calm relaxed one! Enjoy and PLEASE do not forget Jesus is the reason for the season. Without Him we are lost and nothing!

Decorating contest

Debra — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:00:43 +0000

A few days ago we were invited to be a part of a jury to judge the kids classrooms at school. They had a Christmas decorating contest. They all worked very hard to decorate their classrooms as well as they could. We were very honored to be asked to come be a part of the jury. There were about 15 of us, including the local mayor and some other parents. It was fun touring around the school and checking out the classrooms. I think the judging and jury part of it was really just to get the kids excited about decorating. I don’t know if they even chose a winning class. We did not get too many pictures the kids did great. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Emmaus’ class singing songs to us.

At the end they brought us, the “jury,” into one of the back rooms and had a very nice spread of Senegalese appetizers. They thanked us for coming and the mayor spoke and thanked us as well. Very official and Senegalese like. We had a great time. Merry Christmas!

Vente!

Debra — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:50:36 +0000

So sorry the posts have been few and far between lately! But we have been kinda busy… apparently preparing for a huge life change takes a lot of time. Haha. We have been preparing ourselves mentally as well as physically. We have a lot of things to do before we leave Senegal. We have started out “Senegal Bucket List” of all the things we want to do before we head back to Canada. One thing this bucket list takes is a lot of time. So in order to do all that we have planned we need to start selling our stuff and packing up as early as possible. Thats what has been keeping us busy this year. We participated in a big garage sale. Around here every now and then someone decides its time for a garage sale. Someone picks a place, advertise to all the missionaries, and a bunch of missionaries participate. The one we just participated in was public right out on a road. Which means a lot of Senegalese people will come buy a lot of stuff to sell. They can really be very pushy… but at least a lot of stuff gets sold! It was extremely physically challenging and very emotionally challenging as well. I am so glad its over… for now.

Take a look at some of our pictures. We also did a pre-sale at our house for our fellow NTM co-workers. It really helps to have less to haul around town!

Canaan helping me sort out the toys. We ended up keeping about 10% of our toys. Not including legos and k’nex. No way we will give those up!

Before organizing and pricing.

Thanks to several of my friends, Sharon, Andi and Chantal for helping me organize and mark the prices! It would have been impossible without them! And of course Norm who has been my backbone and shoulder to cry on through the whole thing!

Nicely displayed!

This is everything compacted after the pre-sale. This is what we took to the garage sale. It ended up being 2 car loads and a van load. We sold about 75% of it or more. We ended up having only 6 boxes or so of stuff left over. Praise God! Looks like we have a nice amount of stuff left for one more garage sale and it will be done.
The garage sale was so hectic I didn’t end up getting any pictures. We were strung along the sidewalk… our spot was very long. We had a lot to sell! I had moments where it was ok and other moments where it took every fiber in me to not just start bawling my eyes out. Its very hard to sell your precious belongings to people who are being very rude to you. But either way God sold what he wanted to sell and he helped us make what he wanted us to make from it. All that to say… I am so glad its over! And I am so thankful to have such an empty house now. Its going to make our bucket list adventuring much easier!