Stress

Life feels kind of crazy right now. I think I'm in one of those stressed times that I get into every so often. I notice that I start to get more quiet, I withdraw from my family, and I don't really want to do much of anything. It usually starts with finances, which is exactly how it is this time. There are certain rhythms to our finances. It seems like we do OK for a few months at a time, and then suddenly the bills all come at the same time, there isn't a paycheck coming for a while, and we have almost no cash in the bank. I don't know why I stress about it so much. Like I said, this seems to happen every few months, and we always make it. God always provides for us in amazing ways. And yet, I still stress over it.Add to that our newly growing family. Joy had her worst night ever last night....

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Friends

Friends are really important. I know a lot of people. It seems like everywhere I go I run into someone I know from high school, or from church, or from a sports team, or from ministry. All those are great, but I have very few friends. I don't say that in a sad way at all. All I mean is that I believe in a friendship that runs deep. It's something that binds people together through the good and the bad. I have one friend who has had some really tough things happen in his life lately. I've watched him struggle through this thing and I wonder how he would do if it weren't for friends. I remember reading Aristotle back in college. In the Nicomachean Ethics he talks a lot about friendship. I wrote a paper back then about the similarities between his view of friendship, and the things Jesus says....

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Strange and Sad

Our high school and college students leave this weekend for Winter camp up at June Mountain for a few days of snowboarding. I'm a little sad about it today because this year I'm not going. We decided months ago that I would stay here because of the baby, not being sure when she would arrive. So a friend of mine is going to teach and the rest of the staff is covering everything else. It's the first time I've been home while the youth group goes anywhere. So today we were going over any of the last minute things that need to be done and I guess it just really hit me that I won't be there. I don't really like snowboarding/skiing, so missing that part of it is totally fine. But I love the drive, talking with kids on the bus, the hanging out in the rooms, the meal times together, even having them...

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Joy!

She finally arrived! Joy Cara Copeland was born on January 11, 2008. Kimi and the baby are doing great. We are so blessed to have this healthy baby girl. She was 7 lbs, 7.7 ounces. That's right - 7-7-7. They told us to go to Vegas. She was 20 inches long. She's got a tint of red hair, which my mom was really happy about.We really felt all the prayers that people were offering up on our behalf. We felt for a while like we wouldn't get pregnant again. It was our three year old (at the time) daughter who began praying in faith that God would give us a new baby. She prayed and told us that "God said yes."Then when we got pregnant it was more praying...

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