Father's Day 2007!

Here are just a few pictures from this past Father's Day! We had a BBQ at our house after Church. Mom, Dad and Papa came over for a full day of good food naps and Movies! It doen't get much better!

"Help Me!" said the big bad bone.

Today was Gregg’s first appointment with his new doctor. Due to his insurance we had to change doctors from the one that first treated him for the breaks. Before we went in for the appointment we both focused on the fact that God is in control of who is Gregg’s Doctor. This really helps, especially when you feel like they do not care as much as you wish they would.
So the bottom line, the doctor is from God and Gregg does have to have a bone grafting surgery. This is when I really need Perspective on the situation. I had dreams of Gregg continuing on his journey with out any further complications, he has had enough to deal with. At least that is what my hart feels. Anyway back to the material facts. Gregg will have sugary in about 3-4 weeks from now. The recovery is 6-8 weeks to get back to where he is now. I am not caught up that much yet on what this procedure entails for Gregg but we are going to get set back a bit.
Please be praying specifically that Gregg and I will Honor the Lord through this. There are some issues we will be dealing with the immediate is the Workman’s Comp. They have to approve the treatment for Gregg. The thing we want the most is for them to approve a pain Management Doctor for Gregg. This surgery will have more pain management issues for Gregg because he is already on so many drugs. Then there is the timing. The sooner the better because Gregg only have a year to get back to work before they medically retire him. And then we have the Copeland’s coming this summer and we want to be up and “running” as much as possible while they are here for the month.
Thank you all for your support and taking time out of your day to check up on us and visit Gregg. We love you all.

Cuddle Puppies

Our new puppy Bristow loves to cuddle with our dog Sydney. She's been a blast, but a good learning experiance for us all.

"Red Bull gives you Wings"... Gregg!

This weekend was Christy’s 20th Birthday!!! We took here with us to Chula Visa to watch our Cousin race in the CORR Pro 4 races. He has a racing company “Barlow Racing”. He is the most winning person that Red Bull sponsors. He used to race the Baja races, but moved to CORR off road track racing because he kept winning the Baja.
Steve Barlow, my cousin, races the Pro-4 truck and then his new team mate races what Steve was racing. The Pro-2. We get to stay in the “Pit” in between races. That is where the RV’s, the Trailer, and the actual ‘Pit” where they repair the trucks after the races.
I used to watch Steve and Marie’s twin boys when they were 4 years old. They are now starting high School this next year. Bradley and Tyler love to play Nintendo Wii with Gregg. (Gregg brought it to play in the RV in between eating and the racesJ
This race was a lot of fun. We stayed in a Hotel and did some shopping and eating out to celebrate Christy’s Birthday. Also it was nice to see Steve make it on to the winners podium wit an amazing 3rd place win, even after getting a flat tire!
So there is lot’s more to share but I will leave it at that for now.

Norm and Debra on their way to Guinea!

This is a post from Norm and Debra's Post! Please read!

and take a moment to read their blogg! - Kathleen

http://copelandramblings.com/

The past 24 hours have left me confused as to what the day and time really is but I’ll try my best to keep things straight. We boarded our flight at JFK for Conakry (with a brief planned layover in Brussels) around 5pm Monday evening and quickly got ourselves situated in our seats. The Lord even blessed us with an empty seat to put Canaan in, a couple was willing to switch with us. We waited anxiously for our flight to begin… waited some more until a few hours had gone by and we were informed that all flights out of JFK to Europe were grounded.

It didn’t even sound like we were going to be leaving that day but after some more waiting the weather apparently cleared and we were ready to take off. The only problem for us was that we were leaving three hours late and our layover in Brussels was only two hours long… the math wasn’t adding up.

Canaan did great on the flight, slept for much of it and wasn’t a bother to anyone. As we neared Belgium we were informed that most flights would have to be rescheduled. As we left the plane we were met by an American Airlines agent who was assigned to make sure that we were taken care of. We learned that the next flight from Brussels to Conakry isn’t until next Tuesday and that just doesn’t work for us. The plan ended up being that tonight we will stay in a hotel in Brussels and in the morning we will be driven to Paris, France and from there catch a flight with Air France to Conakry. American Airlines is taking care of all of that and have been really good to us so far.

So here we are, waiting it out in a hotel in Brussels, Canaan is exhausted but doing ok, we are trying to get his naps timed out so that the time change will be easier for him. Keep us in your prayers as we drive to Paris and get onto our flight to Conakry. It’s been a long few days for Canaan, we left Sunday morning from Shelburne, Ontario. Thanks everyone for your prayers and comments, they are a blessing and encouragement!

Surgery? Again??

Yesterday was another check up with Gregg’s Doctor who did his operations. Gregg had to have x-rays done right before the appointment so that the Doc could see how he was doing. Because Gregg is much more mobile then he was last month, the x-ray technicians were able to get views of the breaks that we have not seen before. Gregg and I were shocked at what we saw! His breaks are way worse then I thought before! He has a huge part of the femur that is a “butterfly” piece that was just separated from the rest of the breaks. It was long and skinny. I could not get over how bad it was. No wonder he was in so much pain!!!
The x-rays shows that the bones are healing, except for one bone break seemed to be running behind. It is the long pointy part of the “bitterly” piece. It is probably not healing as fast because when Gregg was hit, the bone was ripped off of the muscle. The Muscle is what brings blood supply to the bone so that it can grow.
So we have an appointment for 6 weeks from now to take another look at the healing. If the bone does not catch up and show good healing the Doctor said that Gregg may have to have a bone graph. This is common for such a traumatic injury like Greggs.
Please be praying that Gregg’s muscles will reach the bone and that it grows faster. Another surgery would be a set back for Gregg. BUT praise God, We know that God is in control and we can rest in that!