Power In The Name...

With all the news footage of devastation in Joplin, Missouri one story sticks out for me. Of course, the massive destruction for miles around is incredible. People are dumbfounded; nothing is left. Except hope. Last night The Hub and I watched "Deadly Impact" by Anderson Cooper on CNN. As I watched Anderson, straight-faced and composed, interviewing these families I knew this could not be my job. My heart is usually on the outside and my goodness, I wouldn't be able to ask them questions. I'd just hug 'em and cry...hug 'em and cry...move on down the line. Everyone I see we would just hug and cry. Not sure how much good I would be, so thank God for Anderson, able to get these people's stories out there. I can't imagine the shock and despair they are facing. Yet, they have hope. People who have lost everything haven't lost everything. As Anderson reflected, they rebuild by holding on to hope, one piece at a time.

The most moving story I heard was the story of the teenager traveling home with his father from his high school graduation. They found themselves on the edge of the storm with no time to take cover. They made it into a subdivision and in the middle of the road, the father and the son held on to each other with a permanent grip force. The teenager was literally taken up through the sunroof of the car and this family was interviewed as they continue to search for him. The sister and the aunt of the young boy were filmed telling what happened. The aunt relayed that her brother, the teenager's father, said when the storm hit them, sounding like 100 freight trains at once, the teenager started quoting scripture. Word after word, sentence after sentence began pouring out of his mouth. Totally out of character for him, said the aunt.

Friends, how blessed is that? In the moment of extreme crisis, this young man relied on a faith that sustains. He called on the Name of Jesus. He spoke words that held power. You know I was a hot mess watching this. Praying instantly that they would find him and that the Lord Almighty would bring peace to this family. Thanking God that the teen grasped onto something stronger than the tornado they were in the middle of. My God. In a moment of terror, what would you do?

This morning as I woke up, this was the first thing on my mind. What would I do? What would my children do? Those same children whom I've raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord, who don't always love God out loud as I would like for them to? Every Christian parent's prayer is that their child would call on the Name of the Lord when He is needed.

Do we truly understand the power in that Name? This young teenager did. These were the words that he chose to shout out in his time of desperate need. The power of God is the power that protects, guides, leads, encourages, sustains. What a blessing that this boy knew to call the One who saves, the One who is most concerned for his well-being.

I wish I had a happy ending to this story. I don't know the ending yet. I do know that I am blessed that all over the place God's presence is evident in these Joplin residents' lives. Pray for the families who are searching night and day. Pray specifically. Ask God to show them where their loved one is. Ask God to find those that are still alive, perhaps buried. Ask God to reveal the bodies of those who didn't survive. Ask God to continue His miracles day after day. Friends, our job here is to pray. Most of us can't jump in a car, leave our homes, jobs, responsibilities and head on down to Joplin to help. Let us not take for granted the power in speaking with Jesus on behalf of those we don't even know. Your prayers are heard and answered. Get to praying.

Faith That Sustains

As I drove into work today, working from a remote site, in a heavily congested area (that information will matter later), I was listening to wtop, news radio. I was so moved by the reported story of faith based organizations on the ground in Joplin, Missouri. A lady interviewed was there with her church distributing sandwiches and sodas. Something so simple, yet as she said, so basic and so needed at this very moment. "People are forgetting to eat," she said. Hundreds of people are searching through wreckage for lost loved ones and items that survived the storms. What a blessing to hear the voice of this one Christian lady sending the message of hope and love. As she said, its something so easy for us to do and we want to be here doing it. Before the federal aid can get processed and arrive on the scene, here are these soldiers for Jesus sustaining these folks.

This is the part of Christianity that I love. This the part that makes me stay a Christian even when my faith is shaken. When my prayers don't seem to be answered, when I am filled with anxiety and doubt and when trouble is rolling through like my own tornado. The fact that people who love God, love others. Christians are flawed people just like anyone else. But basic Christianity is loving and helping others. Reaching people in their time of need. Its not just helping, but wanting to help. This lady and her little old church was just one group of people handing out sandwich after sandwich. In times of despair we hear stories like this all the time. God's people helping people. Makes me proud to be a Christian. Makes me encouraged to see Him represented well.

I'm in the car, just feeling so overjoyed by the good of God in a terrible situation when WHAM! I clip the back of a car. Did I tell you how congested the area I was driving in today is? Try one intersection with seriously seven offshoots. No lie. If you've ever been to the seven corners area of Falls Church then you feel me. It really is like that. Here I am thinking both my lane and the other lane go down this one offshoot and apparently that was not so.

As I pulled over to the side I took a really deep breath and reached for my phone. No one was injured but you gotta report it to the police, right? I can see the dented in fender of this fella's car and to tell the truth I really don't want to see what has been done to my car. Or should I say The Hub's car. This would be the car I happen to be driving today. I do not want to go look at it. Not that anyone was inviting me to. It is a super busy intersection so over on the side of the road was a good place to sit and wait.

Mr. Friendly comes out of his car and barks at me some question that amounted to exactly what did I think I was doing! "I thought both lanes go this way," Second bark amounts to something like clearly, they do not! As he storms off to his car he lets off a large F-bomb. Now friends, I do not cuss. I think there are parts of the English language that God doesn't find pleasant or colorful so, many years ago I made the conscious choice to zap them. As you know, if you aren't used to being around something it seems more pronounced when it does happen. So Mr. Friendly's choice of word caught me off guard. As I watched him walk back to his car I literally asked myself if this guy was serious. I had seen his car and really didn't find it worthy of all that.

He comes back and looks at my car and shakes his pitiful head. "No damage. You essentially have no damage. How does that happen?" Well, dude. There is a reason people buy and drive Mercedes Benz vehicles. Its not just for the looks. Unlike him, I don't drive a Mitsubishu. I called 911 and me and my new bff waited 20 minutes until the operator called me back to inform me they didn't have an officer available now. We could continue to wait or exchange insurance and be on our way. I'm late to work, so if this guy is cool with it, so am I. I'll refrain from commenting on the police force availability. It is Falls Church so...

Mr. Friendly offers to buy me a coffee from the gas station we are parked in front of. Um. No thanks. I do get out and look at the front bumper and exhale for the first time. Not bad. The Hub won't be happy, but all in all, not bad. Mostly paint dust. Minimal scratches. The Hub might not see it that way, exactly, but that's what I'm going with.

Insurance exchanged, apologies exchanged. It needs to be noted the apology wasn't from me. Mr. Friendly apologized for his temper and language. Hadn't been in an accident in years and so he was mad, he says. As I walked back to my car to head to my office finally, and late, something dawned on me. The grace of God truly did keep this emotional girl calm. I think his choice of language helped. At that moment I knew I wasn't going to react like this guy. Not the language of course, but the reaction to a minor hiccup in the course of life. If you would have asked me about this in advance I would have told you I would be shaken up. I'm so delighted to say this was not the case. I could feel the presence of God surrounding me, keeping me calm and reminding me "you are in a Mercedes Benz girl."

I also have "Mercedes Benz" faith, friends. God's covering really is that more valuable vehicle. More reliable, more sturdy, less easily damaged, protective (I could go on and on)...Faith in God means I am sustained by the power of the One who covers me. Oooo God is so good. Another and I may walk away from an altercation and the hot-head fella may walk away scratched up, dented in and twisted out of shape. But this girl? Well, shoot. This girl got some Jesus and I walk away in shape, not twisted up and no dents. Hallelujah! Girlfriend bout to preach up in here. Friends, may I encourage you with something? See God in everything.

Congratulation Sadness

What an amazing time of our lives. Our sweet Oldest graduates in exactly 26 days. In less than a month he will be walking the walk of pride, accomplishment and satisfaction. In exactly 10 short days that same young man turns 18. I have been pondering which milestone hits us harder.

As he is our oldest child we get, or I should say he gets, to live all the emotions fresh. We, being me, are going to be a hot mess in less than a month. I will confess I am a particularly emotional person. I'm sane and all, but I do get attached to my TV shows. The characters bring me joy and sadness. I rejoice with them. I cry with them. And they are one dimensional. It doesn't stop there. I can evoke those tears faster than you can say "what happened?" A commercial or even a TV show preview has been known to get them rolling.

I say that as a proud basket case-crier. No shame in my game. I don't mind going there with my TV friends and so certainly, one can anticipate I am all in for these upcoming events in my real life. My baby boy is turning 18 and graduating high school. It's a joy and a success, but to be real with you, it's like adding insult to injury, as they say.

I won't tell you how his mind checked out of school somewhere around January. Or what a tough road school has been for him. You probably already know that he came to live with the Hub and I when he was 4. And from the instant I met him, when he was just 1 year old, I fell in love with him. God truly does work in mysterious ways. This child won my heart without saying a word.

I will tell you he is excited about being finished with school. He's excited about heading to college in August (go Potomac State!). I will also tell you he's my baby and I'm not ready to let him go. Life is going to be so different without him here. None of us are ready to face that. I have figured out that a lot of what we are saying goodbye to is more than just Oldest, himself. Sure, not having him here with his amazing sense of humor, charm and frustrating bullheadedness, that will be different. But beyond that, life will be different. We are actually saying goodbye to the bumping into classmates he's known since kindergarten, remarking how much they've grown. It's goodbye to prom and homecoming. It's goodbye to Friday night football games. It's goodbye to the community of high schoolers and high school parents we've grown to be a part of. When we become attached to something we are literally sewn together and it hurts when it comes apart.

Although there is a tremendous amount of pain in making this life adjustment, we know that this is a part of life. We have to let him grow up and spread his wings. We have to give him space. You hear me talking myself into this, right? Graduation time I have taken two days of from work. It's going to take every bit of that to get myself together. I'm so not ready for this. Despite my doubts I know that God will take me through it and believe me I will be praying hard that He helps me to at least stay composed as much as possible. Who wants to be a sniffling, rambling, snotting mess? It's inevitable, I know. But lest you see me somewhere around that time frame, you've been given fair warning, don't so much as blow on me or I might fall to pieces. God is good friends, all the time and all the time God is good. His mercy carries us through gracefully.

Weakened Muscles

Friends, it truly is correct that if you don't use it you lose it. We hear this all the time and we see it played out over and over again throughout life. Yesterday my dear family decided to walk to a local shopping center to hit up the Baskin Robbins. I can tell you with a straight face that walking totally justifies the guilt of going. It's a one mile walk each way. So, Copelands trekking 2 miles is a big deal. From the looks on Youngest's face it was a long walk. He tried everything from telling me his legs were jelly to saying they were too wobbly to continue. Funny thing, as our house appeared in front of us, his complaints got louder. Isn't it supposed to work the opposite way? Once you can see the end, aren't you supposed to feel better? Not if you're five.

I can also tell you that I haven't embarked on exercise since my beginning of the year journey with Jillian Michaels, via her wonderful 20lbs in 30 days DVD. I worked my butt off for 30 days straight, up at 5:30am, and ungodly hour if ever there was one, and I lost 4 pounds. Okay, maybe 5. I know you are wondering if I changed my eating habits. Yes. I sure did. I certainly made sure I was eating lots of vegetables, drinking only water with just one cup of coffee in the morning, cut back on red meat. And still. Four pounds. After that I took a self-imposed hiatus from exercising. If thoughts count I did look at the hand weight the other day as I was plopped watching Grey's Anatomy. Even went so far as to think I should do some bicep curls while I'm sitting here. The feeling passed. All this sitting lately did make last night's two-miler a trip.

As we got near the end I could feel how tired my legs were. Its true. You don't use it you lose it. That include muscle strength. As I laid in the bed last night I said to the Hub, "my everything hurts." This morning, my everything still hurts. The valuable lesson in this is to examine what in your life you may have let go of. For way too many of us it is the exercise. For others, it might be prayer, motivation, energy, drive. Hope I can encourage you to get it back. Get it going. Use the muscle so you don't lose the strength. I'm sore today but that will wear off. The benefit of being in motion is way worth the cost of a little everything hurting.

Youngest logic for you to enjoy today: after his third or fourth trip into the kitchen to nose his way into a conversation, the Hub says "what are you doing back down here again?" Youngest responds, "I didn't come from upstairs, so I am not 'doing down'. I came from the basement so I 'doing up." The Hub, amused says, "okay, excuse me. What are you doing "up" here again?" To which my darling almost-kindergartner replies, "actually dad, this is the middle level of the house. You should say 'what are you doing middle again?"

A Weekend of Losses

Somehow this Monday morning feels like a weekend of losses. Lost games, the world was almost lost. Loss goes hand in hand with grief so I am feeling grieved over the silly hype about the world ending. What brings the most sadness is how events and people such as this make us Christians look like super fools. If we profess to believe the Bible is God's unchangeable, infallible word, we must believe all of it. We must read it and know it. We don't get to pick and choose. Especially the beautiful little scripture that plainly states we will not know the day or the hour that Jesus will return. So, if we don't know when it will happen what is it that gets a grip on some smart guy and convinces him beyond doubt that he knows something no one else knows. Something that Jesus Himself stated no one will know?

Its like the person who ruins the surprise party by blabbing about it. This guy blabbed on a surprise party that he didn't get the invite to. Most amazing to me was watching the followers. They really believed it. How does that happen? As a Christian, this makes me feel the loss. There is grief that comes as the world makes fun of us Christians for our belief in Jesus' Second Coming. And grief that we've been played for fools if we believed this guy.

As I watched this whole deal play out in the news I read an article about a family with three teenagers. Mom quit her job to become a full time missionary spreading the news about May 21. The woman was sold hook, line and sinker. She and her husband made full preparations for Saturday's big event, including not paying bills that were due after 5/21. The three teenagers were interviewed and I was again grieved by the damage that has been done. They think their parents are crazy. They are embarrassed by their parents and saddened that their mother can boldly proclaim how sad she is that the will leave earth on Saturday and know that her children will not go to heaven. My God. Now that its Monday morning how is the damage in this family repaired?

Wisdom, friends, is worth its weight in gold. Just ask Solomon. The man prayed for wisdom and received it. May we all continue to seek God through seeking wisdom. The Bible tells us that we can be led astray by false teachings. The only remedy for this is to know what is false and what is not. How do you do that? Learn the Word. If you don't know the Word, then every crazy thing sounds plausible.

Our weekend over here on the home front didn't include end of world preparations but we did suffer some losses. My Soccer Chick and her teammates slept through a game Saturday afternoon. Not sure what those girls did between Friday night and Saturday evening but they played as if they were sleepwalking. Needless to say The Hub was pitching a sideline fit. His voice paid the price. Not sure how his blood pressure managed to get him through those minutes. I was only happy that parents were restricted to the opposite side of the field. We lost 2-1 to a team that was less than great.

We went on to a Sunday evening basketball game for Oldest. I haven't blogged about his team too much this season. For a reason. We lost...again. This one, though, was a close one. Oldest hurt his ankle but still managed to be a rebounding machine. He's a funny one to watch. He doesn't deal too well with pressure. Complete opposite of his dad who is Mr. Cool. Oldest gets those rebounds and looks to pass that hot potato as fast as he can.

My third and final loss of the weekend would be my one-on-one basketball game with Bball Girl. She has sat this spring season out of sports but only by formality. She's gone to every soccer practice with her sister and practices harder than the girls on the team. No point in pointing out that she's not on the team. She is athletic by nature and driven to compete. Doesn't much matter what the sport is, she just wants in. Sunday morning during children's church I think I may have a shot at beating her. Not really, I was just out for some fun. Girlfriend beat me and made it look easy. Ducking and dipping, turning and spinning. I had to remind her it was not a real game and she didn't have to whip me quite so bad.

All in all, a lovely weekend with the family. We suffered some losses but the win was in the living. Not cliche, just real. We have an amazing family. Great kids, great parents. Family. Wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world. Soon my world is changing as my sweet Oldest heads off to college. Just a few short months away. Not ready to talk about that now. Sigh...

Game On

Hey friends, Saturday and Sunday past yielded an interesting turn of events in the Copeland sports world. Saturday, Soccer Chick and her girls, with Coach The Hub in tow, headed out to what should have been an easy win. Our girls dominated the entire game. The. Entire. Game. I just can't write it in a way that will sufficiently satisfy the frustration behind this one. Our girls were on their game, passing, shifting, turning. I don't actually know what any of that means, in fact, I just wrote what sounded good. Truth is, though, the girls played great. This was a great soccer game to watch. Lots of action, fierce defense and incredible offense. Somehow our girls made over 7 attempts (I stopped counting at 7) and couldn't connect any of them to net. We were too wide, too high, blocked by the goalie's over-sized hands. Just couldn't make a goal. Yet, we spent three quarters of our playing time in their zone.

Somewhere after halftime I had a thought. How tragic would it be if this team made a goal by accident and won this game? When our girls are playing like this? That would be a robbery. Friends, we were robbed. At gunpoint. By blind people with water pistols. It was that bad. The opposing team tapped the ball and it went straight to our goalie's hands, bounced off her hands and rolled under her legs into the goal. Alright, not the definition by accident, but NOT worked for. You know what I mean. You've watched some sort of sports game where your team was working its butt off only to get handed a defeat to a team not half as good. That was our Saturday story. The girls lost 2-1.

In all fairness, our girls had a goal that the sideline ref called a goal. Raised her pretty little flag to signal it was a goal. The ball bounced off the girl's gloves and crossed the goal line. Yet, our head ref said no goal. After a brief conference, and apparent talking-to, the senior ref announced...no goal. Now, that was robbery. This absolutely should have been a tie-game. It should have been a landslide in our favor, but I digress. Nevertheless, for some odd reason Mr. Senior Ref called our goal a no goal. Unbelievable. I mean, everyone on the sidelines was cheering, you could see the disappointment on the parents' faces across the field. We all agreed it was a goal. Why couldn't they?

We moved on to a makeup game on Sunday...only to have the opposing team be a no-show. The girls were a bit disappointed but they quickly got over it by an impromptu parent/sibling vs. soccer girls game. We enjoyed a few minutes of this spectacle with shoes flying in the air, fancy footwork, coaches falling, headers gone wild and girls squealing everywhere. Much fun.

We ended our weekend sports with Oldest's basketball game. Our boys didn't win, but Oldest has really developed into a rebound king. He's actually gotten to be quite amazing. He's getting crazy rebounds all over the place. Picture my 6 foot, slimmed down 170lb 17 year old, nothing but muscles for days. Jumping, diving, connecting...He's doing great. Great fun to watch. We keep telling him to go up and take the shot. Too much pressure, he says. Gotta love the boy. No matter how big he gets, he's still a big old teddy bear. Shy, quiet and reserved.

Our soccer girls have two games left before the season-end tournament weekend. Bball Girl gets to attend a summer basketball camp that she's thrilled about. We'll have some quiet weeks while they enjoy their summer and we send Oldest off to college. Sigh. Then we'll be back in the swing of things for the fall.

Milestone Down...

Well, friends, we conquered a milestone this weekend. Oldest went to prom. It was our first prom as parents. And we did surprisingly well. It was certainly bittersweet. I, you will be happy to know, didn't shed a tear. Oldest was all smiles. In the midst of a difficult senior year, it was really nice to see him happy, mingling with friends, getting ready to enjoy a really important night. As a parent, it's a little bitter to know that your son is growing up...getting into God knows what after prom. I can remember what my after prom plans were. Could his be worse that mine? Well, sadly, his plans could be the same as mine were. Funny how as a parent that feels so much different than it did as a teenager experiencing it. For me, its a little bit of a lot of sad. They have to grow up and you have to let them. But you don't have to like it.

On another note, Soccer Chick had a rocking game on Saturday. Friends, you won't believe it. They won 9-0. Major boost for the team. They started out making attempt after attempt and they just could not hit net. They were too wide, too high, or simply way off. Funny thing is, they dominated this Reston team they played. The entire game was played in their territory. They may have possibly one, maybe two, goal attempts. The girls played exceptionally well. I don't know if The Hub's spirit is contagious or something but all of a sudden he has two die hard dads lined up coaching with him. Three dads, friends. Just sit a minute and try to imagine it. If you can make it to NOVA in the next four weeks you MUST watch one of these games. They are fun to watch. All three are very animated, very involved and very funny. It's turning out to be a great season. Where's the video you wonder? Well, I have found it very hard to live up to my soccer mom antics and hold a video camera. This week, Bball Girl volunteered to video for me. I was all set to get super-involved from the sidelines. Turns out the video camera hadn't been charged. I'm working on it, friends. I want you to be able to enjoy this season with us. I claim no responsibility for the quality of footage you may get with Bball Girl behind the lens...

Game On!

Finally! Our little soccer super stars finally had a game. Want to know who was more excited? Well, that's certainly debatable. Soccer Chick was doing her fist pumps for sure. But The Hub wasn't far behind. Plotting strategy, circles "x"s and scribbling "o"s on his whiteboard. Fired. Up.

Game 1: Make up game, played Friday night. Um. Not exactly pretty. First game of the season, end of the week, can you say "rusty". It's alright, friends. We're just getting warmed up. Fans/parents on the side did our best not to cringe or scream too loudly. We went toe-to-toe with our opponents following their first goal. We got stuck somewhere around goal 4 for us. While they went on to score two more. Play of the game: free kick for them and our poor girl, new at goalie and nervous beyond belief. She would have had to have been a 300 pound giant to catch that ball. Needless to say those opponents of ours jumped from 5-6 and we just couldn't catch them. The girls took home their first loss of the season.

But, The Hub devised a plan. Figuring out that his strategy of strength in the front left him defenseless at times caused him to shake things up a bit. Game 2: Saturday. The girls took the win! 1-0 with no less than 8 great goal attempts. Each of them slightly outside the net, two of them just above. Nonetheless, we dominated the field and our defense kicked some pa-too-ey. How did The Hub celebrate the win? Came home and plotted his "post-game walk through" for the girls at practice on Monday. Seriously. And plotted his game 3 strategy. Important stuff.

Play of the game: The Hub throwing himself face first into the grass, clipboard strewn about, after a slight miss of the net by one of our goal shots. Classic drama. He doesn't do much quietly.

"Youngest" moment to put a smile on your face: He buys one of those animals on a stick w/ a lever at the bottom that opens the jaw of the plastic animal. His happened to be a dolphin. At church yesterday, waiting for service to start he puts his long silly sticky slap toy in the mouth of the dolphin, extends the dolphin's head out in front of us and makes gagging noises. He opens the mouth of the dolphin and the string begins to fall out. It appears to drip out although this isn't a liquid. Youngest continues making these mock gagging noises until the dolphin drops the whole sticky toy thing out of it's mouth onto the floor. Total appearance of the dolphin gagging, choking and finally throwing up something gooey. Dis.Gus.Ting. Most hilarious moment ever. How did he think of that? Who knows. He's an original.