DARBI ALIYA

Merry CHRISTmas from our Darbi Aliya.  She is officially eight and a half months old now.  She spends most of her time eating and trying to walk, our earliest for sure as far as walking goes.  She's cheerful most of the time and still sleeps well.  She's a go-get-'er, it's about time we had a child with energy (joke).  The kids enjoy taking turns feeding her, carrying her, playing toys with her, making her scream and wrinkle her nose.  We are so grateful and feel blessed to have her.

Please check again for updates on the other children soon.

The Story

Yes, well I didn't clarify WHO was writing as it says Nate and Robyn Copper.  Sorry about that.  Here's the story in short:

Nate (husband), Halley and Andi all had come down with strep throat on Wednesday so I spent that night and Thursday cleaning places that might have been slobbered on and washing sheets and towels.  At 2pm Friday Nate (husband) asked me if I wanted to go hunting?  There were only a few days left of the season and he was sick and I didn't think I should go alone.  Anyways, to make a long story short I called a friend (Vince) who has A gun or two and has hunted some recently :) and told him I was going hunting, with him.  So, Nate Michael and I ran down to the store to get me a license and by the time we got in the hills it was 3:30 or so.  Really not much time until dark so we drove quite a bit and saw a couple Does.  To make another long story short we saw this buck (the one on my wall) looking at a Doe and her fawns.  We were driving out of there with our buck in less than two hours from when we drove up there.

Like I have told people before, I don't have 'time' to mess around.  If I am going to do something I need to get there get it on the ground and get home.  :)  

I told Nate it takes more of a man to stay home with the sick kids and let his wife go hunting than it does to go out himself.  Vince mounted the antlers already so they were on the wall with a little plaque reading:  Robyn Copper (the date)  "One Hour Buck".  Thanks Nate (husband) and Vince and Nate Michael for being such a trooper and hunting with me.  

~Robyn

MY DEER

Our good friend Vince took me and Nate Michael out one evening and I was able to get this SWEET little buck.  It was a great story.  The kids and Nate were excited for us.  

It takes quite the MAN to watch the kids and let his wife go out hunting!

LEAVES

Well, as you can see we had a great time this fall with the leaves.  Raking, piling, jumping and then back to raking, piling and then of course you know, JUMPING!!!!!!

We also went to the pumpkin patch and rode the hay wagon.

Another TWO year old!!!

And what fun she is. Andi Kristyne ....










We asked her what she would like for her birthday meal. She said what she always says when it comes to food, "PANCAKES!!!!!". I should have guessed. So, we had pancakes and bacon and lil' smokies... Grandpa and Grandma Copper and Aunt Kaytra and Uncle Titus came over to help us celebrate.

After her four pancakes and 3 lil' smokies... It was present time. She received two different colored doll umbrella strollers (which was actually a blessing 'cause she now has one to share with others, makes things more fun when you don't have to 'fight' over the one).

Just before she started opening presents the mail lady came to the door with a package from Grandpa Carne and Grandmaria. Thus the adorable sweater and skirt that match the purple 'running' shoes from Grandma.

So, she's dressed to the hilt with even a new doll from Dad and the kids to go in the stroller.

A birthday is not a party until one blows out the candles so "CUPCAKES, HERE WE COME".

She's our cuddly one for which we are so grateful. She reminds me often to hug the kids with her sweet little voice " Hug, mom, hug please mom?"

BUILDING

We have had so much fun helping a family build an addition onto their house. The kids have done nothing but play. They talk the entire way home about all the stuff they 'built' and all the help they gave and the people they talked too... Then it's no more than 30 seconds when they hit their pillows to the time they go to sleep.

Watching 'our' Dad build has been a dream too. The kids always knew that he COULD build but to actually see walls go up and everyone asking him for direction and watching him run on the rafters and cut boards up-side-down 30 feet in the air with one hand and then nail it in all in one movement.
Nate Michael has worked soooo hard... In this picture he has hammered a screwdriver in to the floor and can't get it out. Dad came and saved the day and showed him a better way to get it out.
So many people have pitched-in with what they are good at. A friend of ours (and this families) has offered to do all the plumbing. I seriously never knew how much work goes into getting the plumbing so it works and passes inspection.
I have even been up helping on the roof some and/or cutting boards and bossing people around. :) It's been grand just being with Nate and watching him do something he's soooo good at.

Mom, Grandmother, Jan Carne

Have you ever thought that praying about a certain situation was futile. That people around us are ‘healed’ miraculously but it never happens to us (so we think).

I’m one of those cases that the circumstances were not beautiful leaving the end result even uglier. Yes, thoughts such as, “so what was the whole point of praying about it,” crossed my mind more times than I can recall. In my heart I know God’s will was accomplished and I claim that to this day. My burden is for everyone who has a false view on ‘crying out’ to God/prayer. Maybe you are like me in that the subject of crying out is clear all the way up to the aspect of God’s will, what is His will and how do you find God's will.

A couple of days before the year 2001 I got a call from my sister saying, through sobs, that our mother was given 6 months to live. I had just left her in seemingly perfect health the night before. The little lump on her shoulder she thought was a reaction to a sedative she had a few months prior, turned out to be cancer. OUR MOTHER, who almost always ate healthful foods, took her vitamins religiously, exercised regularly, and loved the Lord more than anything else in the world?

I immediately left my gathering of friends and began the 4 hour trip home. Did I cry out and talk with our Savior? You bet! Honestly, I didn’t really know what to say so mostly just cried and listened for something (not sure what). When I met my family at home never had I seen my father so broken or my mother so ‘strong’.

The elders prayed numerous times for her healing. People all over the U.S. were asking the LORD TO SPARE HER LIFE. We As a family were beseeching the Lord to heal her body and rid her and my father of all this pain and suffering. Never did we think that He would answer our prayers in the way He did.

We spent 8 long months encouraging each other and looking for some sign of rejuvenation in Mom’s body. My brother and I both were married that Spring and I and his wife were pregnant with our first children. September 3^rd we were all gathered at my parents home. My mother had a seize or two and was now in a coma. She probably weighed under 80lbs and was hardly recognizable.

Up on the hill behind their house is a special rock I would often visit to be alone with the Lord. I know the time was near for something to happen as she was hardly able to breathe. On that rock my heart was screaming with hope of her recovery, but my mind and mouth were literally yelling for the Lord to free her and us all from this pain. Within a half an hour she took her last breath. I watched the hand I was holding turn blue and lifeless. The pain and sadness on my Dad’s face was like nothing I’d ever seen before and it felt too big to bear. But we had to bear it. The Lord’s will was at that point made known to us all in regards to our mother’s life. She was healed and rid of all the pain, not only physically but in every aspect of her being.

I then heard many people talk about ‘crying out’ and how ‘it’ works. Never once did I hear any speaker tell any story other than those of success and God bringing someone to health and safety. So, did I not ‘cry out’ good enough for God? What good did it do anyway? Why didn’t ‘it’ work for me and my family? --

It did ‘work’ for me. The Lord sustained her life long enough to meet my husband and feel our first child kick in the womb. Only selfishly could I wish her back here in our lives. After she has met the Savior face to face do you think she would even consider her life here on earth? Death is so very ugly yet God’s will was accomplished through her life/death and it is beautiful. Yes, we miss our mother but this is a different kind of ‘success’ story. God heard and answered our cry. He went far beyond what any of us ever though or imagined even though it wasn’t the direction any of us thought or wanted Him to choose.

I didn't have the time to post yesterday because of being out of the house all day but yesterday marks 6 years. I no longer cry myself to sleep EVERY night, it's down to once a week now. But I sure do think of her most days. When I am trying to cook and need someone to help me out. When my children have a birthday or come to know the Lord as their Savior, or loose their first teeth or my children ask me what it was like for me when I was little and I can't remember the details correctly, or maybe when I want to go shopping or just go out to coffee/tea (she didn't drink coffee), Or maybe each time I have given birth... Those times is when I miss her the most, when I am living my everyday life.

Enough for now...