Christmas Eve Quote

Christmas gave us some great times with the kids! they said so many funny things and reacted to each gift they got with great drama and joy! halarious and fun for us parents! on Christmas Eve we went to friends house and had the whole turkey meal and it was so nice. on the way home, paul said, "oh my goodness! i have waited sssssssooooo long for Christmas and it's HERE! i can't believe it's here!!!! mom, dad! Christmas is in my heart!!!!!!!!!"

A good shot of the Mt. (volcano) around Salatiga

Mr. Greg AKA studmuffin

Dream and Kelsy, two students and good babysitters for us!

and little Hazel...pretending to be shy

Chrissy is almost on her way!

and i am almost on my way to bali to pick her up! it's a sacrifice i must make. i have to leave my family and go to bali for 3 days to get her. i know, i know...:D life will be good with her around!
greg and the kids are going to another beach with members of our org so life will be good for them as well! then on the 31st Chrissy and i will meet up with them and ring in the new year with spray paint hair dye...and glow in the dark glow sticks and i am sure some fireworks...we can get anything here! so yeah...just to let you know we are still kicking even though i still haven't really updated this thing...and i can't download our pics onto this computer so i can't put our pictures on but the friend that we are borrowing from has a couple of pictures i would like to post...so that should happen :D and this is really just to let you know that we are out of town til the 3rd....so see you next year!

poor bruiser

we found out that the chicken that brusier supposedly killed was NOT killed by brusier. the ladies, our neighbors and friends, came here just to get money out of us. it was a set up. merry christmas to us.

cultural and communtiy living

here's a few things that have had happened in the past 2 months...

we found that if you spray cecuks with soapy water while on the ceiling...they will fall and the boys can catch them much easier. we have lost one cecuk and 1 other lizard thing in our car...we see them occasionally...how long will they last? right now we have 2 frogs, one hamster, several cecuks and one dog.

the only one dog story came about because bruiser started killing chickens after the celebration of sacrificing animals. he ran down to the mosque and grabbed some bones in which he thought tasted good so he went after two chickens in one day. our neighbor wasn't so happy with us as she brought the chicken to show proof of the kill and we had to pay a high price of $6. so the only nice thing we could do to keep good relations in our community was hand over bruiser to our other neighbor who went and made "sate" out of him...meat on a stick. so sad...very very sad. so now poor sassy sits alone in the backyard and cries for her brother to come back.

i brushed my teeth with an ant. enough said.

the termite season keeps living on. i don't know how many times we have woken up with 100's of termites on our floor. it's getting old.

the mosque just down the street is decorated with christmas lights...hmmm????

we wrapped our christmas presents last week and they are now "molding"... the paper is damp and all...so nice and refreshing. mold is growing everywhere in our house now. coming up in all sorts of areas...

two mornings in a row now we have woken up at 5:30am to someone cutting wood with a saw. they only make about 10 cuts...just enough to wake us up. just cuz the sun is starting to come up...does it mean we ALL have to be up?

i went to our ibu-ibu meeting...a monthly meeting of women in our community where we all wear the same outfit to be united....and we went and visited a lady who is sick with diabetes. it is really nice to be in a community who really cares about their neighbors. we went and prayed for her...

we are alive

so sorry to many of you wondering "where in the world are they?"
but we had too many computer problems along with rainy season and no internet to contend with for 5 weeks but we are back in the game...not fully but almost! our computer died after 5 weeks of open heart surgery. it's over. we have to get a new one. in the mean time we are borrowing our gracious friends' computer till we get back to the states in just 74 days! we are looking to buy our tickets here this week coming into LA on Feb. 27 (paul's birthday) and flying out of LA on Aug. 1.

things are going ok here. i, martha have been sick with a nasty flu for 10 days and today is the first day i feel a bit "back"...besides the constant nausea i still have from baby #4. still throwing up daily but that comes with it :D
thankfully the kids and greg did not get what i had...paul had a minor case of it for 24 hours. but now we are hoping to stay healthy for the duration of christmas break coming up on friday thru jan. 13. our great friend Chrissy is coming to visit for the break and we are so excited!
so that is our lives in a tiny little nutshell...just wanted to poke our head in for anyone who might still check this????
we are here...and i will get this updated asap :D

red handed

hazel was busy in the kitchen. i could hear her. she came around the corner with a pack of gum. i said from a distance, "no gum hazel." so she put the gum down and ran away. shortly she came back with a towel and wrapped the gum in the towel and began to come towards me again, not realizing i had been watching the whole situation and i think she was thinking she was pretty smart to be doing this cuz NOW she would get past me to give gum to all the kids outside. but no. mom caught her red handed. she didnt' want to admit there was gum in the towel but yes...eventually we all break under pressure...she confessed and hung her shoulders as she put the gum away.

Quote

Paul asking on our way home from swimming today, "So does anyone like onions in this whole wide world?"

He might like to know if you DO!

i'm publishing Gavin's first story

this is all in his writing and wordage...Go FIRST GRADE!

October 30, 2008
The raddit is jumping out in the fores
t and he bonk his heab. One little
raddit jumping in the forest in he
bib not bonk his head.
The End.

coming out of the woods

well...its' been a long time since i have updated this site. it's been a long time that i have not felt 'up to it'. this baby is a gift and we are excited about that but i have been much too sick, in my opinion, for having such joy in our lives! i didn't even leave my house for 3 weeks. but i am now starting to walk a little in the mornings and going to friends houses to lay on their furniture and have a different atmosphere. my energy is returning and the meds are working to keep food down. it makes a huge difference to have food and water in your system! but in all this i have become a little more negative and i wish to be a little more positive. i wanted to wait to write on this BLOG until i could say some positive things! and it's the kids that keep me going on the funny stuff. they have all become good little encouragers making cards for me, rubbing my back, asking if i need anything. and so here brings me some funny stories for you from them in this time of my laying down and them trying to understand it all.

episode #1: Paul is telling Greg what he wants to write on my card (i get them almost daily from all 3) but first Greg has to write it out and then paul copies it...so in a very dramatic and sad voice he says "dear mom, i am sooo sorry you are sick, but this is just the way it HAS to be" and then in a very happy-party-like -there's-no-tomorrow voice...he says "but I'M SO GLAD WE GET TO GO TO AMERICA TO HAVE THE BABY!!!!"

yes it's true, with my past history in labor, we think along with nurse and dr. here that it's best i go back to america to have the baby. so that means we will be living in LA starting the first week of March for a couple of months :D

episode #2: about every other day i still seem to have to throw up. and because of the stress on my body from all the previous times...something has pinched or pulled on a spot in my head. and so now whenever i throw up this spot becomes inflamed again and it drops me from the pain. i can't move for like an hour cuz the pain is so intense. but again the kids are getting more used to this and paul asked me as i was laying on HIS bed, "mom, do you just feel like you can move?" and i said, "no paul, i can't" and he said, "YES!!!!!" and greg pulls him aside and asks, "why are you cheering that mom is sick and can't move?" and he says, "because that means i get to sleep in her bed!!!" so there are pluses to everything when you are 4...1/2...

episode #3: many times the kids would ask me a question and i just couldn't answer with words for fear of opening my mouth. so i would nodd yes or no or communicate with a "uhhuh" and hazel has heard from us what she said to me. "mom, use your words, i can't understand you!"

there are more episodes of course but these are the ones that stand out still today. :D i'm glad for my family taking good care of me and that we can have the opportunity to come back to america to have the baby and live at the copeland house. the school is going to cover greg's classes in the last quarter here so we are thankful for that too and we hope to get gavin into first grade in bellflower. greg will hope to find some murals or painting jobs and maybe even work again with his old boss. my doctor that delivered Paul and Hazel has agreed to take me on as a patient. seems God has had all this planned for us...we just have to keep resting in that...that He is blessing us with another life!!!

yesterday in Kopang...just up the mountain

Notice

we are giving you fair warning that our blog site will have to be changed come spring time 2009. copelandfive.blogspot.com will no longer suffice seeing as how we will be adding another child to the mix come may!!!! we are excited to say that copeland baby #4 is well on it's way. Hazel is certain it is a "pink" baby. Paul wants to name it Sally. Gavin likes Luke. whatever the sex...this kid is definately a copeland at heart. it doesn't care for sweets! how am i going to make it nine months with noooo sweets??? and my cravings are all AMERICAN so far...so sweet Hazel is my little waitress and she takes down what i would like and we dream of eating great things from a far off land :D. it's nice to do that kind of thing since i am sick 24/7 anyway...and most of what i eat...comes right back up...BUT i think the worst is done...i hope...but we could really use your prayers to make it the rest of the way! and we have some big decisions to make on where to have the baby. not one situation is easier over another. but we are grateful that we have a Father who knows just what we need and sees our lives and all the details it takes to run it. we trust Him completely. thanks for celebrating with us!

Foliage

take a look at these vines growing on this palm tree...
















and this grasshopper hidden in the grass

Beans, Beans, the musical fruit...

While we spent some time up at the retreat center, the kids found the ground was covered with all sorts of beans...so of course they began collecting them. (Gavin was intrigued because they are taking about planting trees and garden stuff and he thought he could use these to start NEW ones :D)
they spent a good hour one morning doing this...until they found a momma cat carrying a lizard to her baby kittens...then all focus was on the baby kitties
But before we saw the cat...we had to count all the beans...in all we counted 530 beans...this was after we had collected brown ones AND red ones...

Jr.-Sr High Retreat - Salib Putih

Last Thursday-Saturday we spent on a retreat with 117 students from Mountainview. We went 10 minutes up the mountain to this GREAT retreat center. Good view of the mountains, Salatiga, and all the area surrounding. The focus of the weekend was on community...so it was good to focus on that whole idea through hanging out, eating snacks, listening to a speaker, having worship time together, bible studies, playing 3 legged soccer, and swimming together. unfortunately i didn't have my camera out at all these activities...but here are a few shots (the only ones i got!) of the weekend...we all went away a little more encouraged and more rooted in our community and a little more aware of "names and faces" for me...cuz i don't get to hang out with the H.S. as much as we did the first time we were here...so sad :(
Some of the teachers brought their younger kids...it was pretty cool to see how the students really wanted to love on our kids and haul them around. we barely saw them the whole time from all the help we had there! they had a great time worshipping too...
the dining area...some of the kids...this was breakfast...most looked pretty tired...so i didn't think i should take more shots...

Hazel and Daniella

The beloved swimming pool. the big pool is an infinity pool that looks over to this great view. during one of the sessions greg came up and took the kids swimming instead of them "listening" to the speaker :D what he doesn't sacrifice for his kids...

local village soccer

Greg and his team played a local village last sunday night. these shots were taken before all the rain came. the field became a pool and most of them said "this was the best game i have played in a long time!" i think the mud and water added to that great experience :D

Beena Anna

Hazel is starting to come out of her little girl words starting to say the "right" sounds for the words...but my favorite that is leaving is her word for BANANA...which she has about 3 a day! she calls it a "BEENA ANNA"...but the last couple of days i have started to hear "BANANA" and i say "oh...i like the Hazel word for it better" :D but i guess we all have to keep moving and growing

do we understand? can we understand?

yesterday and today we are experiencing a difficulty to really understand the poor here. our helper here in the house, Ibu Yanti, (we are down to one helper because i am not going to school full time anymore and we don't need the accountability that two held with watching kids...)...but yesterday this is our conversation: of course i will translate into english for you!
Yanti: Good morning ibu. i hope you are strong and healthy today.
Me: yeah... we are good except for each person is just a little sick today.
Yanti: Oh Ibu! what is wrong?
Me: blah blah blah...i went on to explain our tiny little pains and then i ask "how are you?"
Yanti: yeah, God keeps me strong and healthy.

an hour passes and i go in to tell her about the laundry i was just doing with Greg's socccer clothes cuz they had played in the rain the day before and all was MUD...then she began to tell me the story of HER day.

her and her husband, their two kids (3 and 1) and his mother moved into a tiny little house in the inner city of Salatiga so that they would be close to everything without having to walk too far. this was earlier this spring. they didn't know that when rainy season would come...which is starting just now...that their entire house would be wet on the inside. so much so they have to sweep out the water. so much so that all the mattresses are soaked and they don't have a dry place to rest their bodies. and her baby is already sick on top of this. some bronchitis thing that he has to take meds for like 6 months...the electricity went out all over town this particular night and the kids were scared, the food was ruined from the rain, and they had no place to sleep. her telephone was out of pulsa so she wasn't able to call anyone. her neighbor invited them stay at her house but her daughter wouldn't sleep there cuz it was so dark and dirty and smelly. she began to cry like a little girl but her mother-in-law told her to stop. so she did and she began to pray that God would keep her family strong and healthy. that night they all went to bed with hungry stomaches and she sat up and held her kids so they could sleep.

i felt soooo foolish for having complained of our little sicknesses to her. i feel so bad for her and this whole situation. the owner will not help fix the roof and they still have a contract with the house. they can not afford to move again! nor can they just leave this spot with so much money already paid. now that ramadan season has started...there is a lot of theft that goes on because people are trying to "pay back" debt they owe...so they steal in order to pay back. it's an awkward thing, and their house has already been broken into 3 times. she feels unsafe as well.

what can we do? i say lets build a big house in our back yard and let people live there...we know this family and one other that would go nicely there. wouldn't that be the easy thing to do? just save them? shouldn't we let them sleep in our house? she won't do it. i already told her to just come...it's a fine line here of helping and handing out...but i can't help but think out loud on this blog to all of you and wonder what to do? i know you don't understand all the cultural ins and outs of this matter and why we can't just jump on getting her into a new spot...but what i am wondering now...'would it be so bad if we overlooked culture right now?' couldn't it be said that it's "ok"? i am finding out that MOST people here have leaky houses when it rains...even foreigners...but not to the extent that Indonesians live with. what to do? can i really say to her "i'm so sorry, i will be praying for you and i hope you can find a better place to live."? and call that good? i don't think so! so please be with us in prayer over this and many matters of culture here. we just can't even begin to understand the miles they have walked in their shoes.

friends

just liking this shot of me, brookie, and hazel and how symbolic it is of friends going the distance...with each other. i am really feeling that lately. we are settling in more and more here but i am finding that i am missing the friendships more and more of "good old friends"...God speed!

Michael's photo

paul

Miss Ashley says, "Paul, i need to hurry up and find a husband and get married so that you can be my ring bear."
Paul replies, "But i don't have a wedding dress yet!"

soccer coach

Greg is enjoying the soccer season. the guys (33) seem to like him as a coach so that always helps. they are working towards their first game. the one down fall is that they hardly have any games to play because of Ramadan...season of fasting here for the Muslims starts Sept. 1 and goes for one month. in that time people are pretty lethargic because of the obvious. so they hope to accomplish team building and more foot skills this year and hopefully next year they will have more "game" time. none the less...it's good for mr. copeland to be out there!

Gavin's first day of 1st Grade

i think it's a little obvious that brother and sister are going to miss big brother as he goes to school for a whole day. but they said good-bye to him and everyone is adjusting to the new schedule. you can pray for gavin as he is doesn't like this change yet. he wants to be home playing all day and he is still having ear problems. pray for his ears to be healed completely and that he can hear 100% and that he doesn't mind the new strict diet of getting rid of all the yeast in his body. we are doing everything we can to help him out!

Independence Day for Indonesia! Aug 17

There are certain games everyone in each neighborhood plays every year for the celebrations of Independence Day. the day is actually the 17th but they play games throughout the whole week. i was gone to Singapore so Greg and the kids went and had a great time carrying marbles on spoons, eating krupuk from a string, having bike races, being blind folded while swinging at a plastik bag filled with water. then the grown ups played ping-pong and greg came in a winner! i missed not being there but i did find out some great things from the doctors in Singapore. i am completely healthy...i just need to allow my body to catch up to the shock of the past year! so thanks for your prayers for our family...as you can see...we are adjusting better and better and life is going to continue to get better and better! enjoy the pictures!

17 Agustus 2008...night time

the night festivities were all done on a stage and everyone that performed was all dressed up to do their dances. the women of the neighborhood made food for everyone...called "soto" and it's one of my favorite meals here. the party lasted until 1am and it was fun to be "the official photographer". here are a few shots of the night.

i was the official photographer

the night before the wedding, the father of the groom came to ask greg if he could drive the bride and groom around for the day. greg had to decline cuz he had to teach at school, but he offered me to drive...so of course i said yes! but then i realized i had no idea what the cultural obligations were! so i began asking and i had to go get some fake flowers and ribbon and dress up the car for the day....putting a bunch in the front, on the back and on the doors with ribbon tying them all together. so that morning i was talking with my ibu and she said that she had never heard of a woman driver before. she thought it was a little funny that i was driving. so i thought maybe i should hire a man to drive. so she went over and asked the family what to do and they said they have a whole family of drivers (it's actully a job here to drive for people) so they would be happy to drive for me, but they still wanted me to come and take pictures. but i didn't even know that i was to be taking pictures! the groom had forgotten to ask me... but because i have a camera...it works like that...that i would be asked :D !!! so i quickly got dressed for a wedding and took the camera and the whole grooms family met at his house and we ate food. then we piled in two cars (ours had 15 people in it) and maybe 10 motorcycles and we all drove to the church where her family was waiting on us cuz the groom was 'late' and the ceremony began immidiately with only family there (and me) and this was a christian wedding so it seemed pretty typical of what we would see in the states. even the lighting of the candle. then after the ceremony we all jumped back in the cars and on the motorcycles and drove to the brides home where the whole neighborhood was waiting under a tent. we arrived and the bride, groom and parents sat in front and we all sat in chairs looking at them. about 4 guys got up and talked for a bit and then we ate and left again. they were married. but rituals will go on this whole week and not until saturday will they come together to live in the same house. and on saturday we will have another party with more people and more driving and more pictures! but here are a few pictures of the day. they don't like to smile for photos but i did manage to get a couple of people grinning (i know only a few words in 'javanese' which is the island language and i would say those words and everyone would laugh so i would take the picture cuz they think it's so funny when we speak 'javanese'!) :D i took 247 pictures in 4 hours. it was a great day and i felt honored to be apart of the family experience. it's great to know our neighbors in a time like this :D we love to help and it seems they are always having to help us!

We are going to miss you

and it won't be long before you are back here...we know it!

Gavin, Paul and Hazel will cry when they need their hug-a-bug hugs from you and we will cry when we want someone to play games with...or eat more food with...or...

Brookie and Michael contributions to the copelands

Brookie bought Blue and Purple hair dye for the kids

Brookie and Michael took the kids to McDonald's one night in bali...and it was a huge story of mishaps...but greg and i got to go eat out on a DATE at Hardrock Cafe and have REAL food!
(and no mishaps)

Borobudur. but something was added this time :D Michael is so funny!

Brookie and Michael laughed as they took about 10 pictures of paul cleaning out the inside of his nose. he had no idea anyone was watching...and now the world gets too!!!!

We found this really cool bug. it's GOLD...all over...and just like a button! we were so impressed by it and wondering how come we have never seen this in a book or something???