Spring Celebrations

It's been a good couple of weeks for the Copeland family. Stretching back a bit, Craig took his board exams for med school, which was a nice thing to get past -- he and Anna celebrated with a week at the beach. They had plans to watch seasons 1 and 2 of LOST, but the weather was too nice to be inside. I guess that's ok; one kind of hopes for nice weather when at the beach. But...it is LOST and I'm hoping they get to catch up soon.

Dad found out week ago this past Friday that he passed the bar exam, which was incredibly exciting! He missed passing last summer by a mere 6 points, so he wasn't too excited about having to take it again in February. But he did and passed and is now a lawyer. He'll have his swearing-in ceremony in a few weeks. Our family is very proud of Dad; one of the reasons for me being grad school right now is a result of Dad going to law school. Hard to believe, but he started four years ago, graduated last May, passed the bar, and will hopefully be practicing soon.

And this past weekend brought two more fun events. First, Bethany graduated summa cum laude from Lipscomb University with a major in Spanish. She's going to be working in Memphis this summer at White Station church of Christ as a youth ministry intern through August. Her plans beyond that are somewhat up in the air right now, but she's got some great possibilities in front of her -- but I won't mention them yet until they get closer to happening. (Actually, I don't want to jinx one of them from happening; hopefully I'll write about what she'll be doing soon.) I'm very proud of Bethany and who she is as a child of God. She's got a beautiful heart and is going to do great things for his kingdom.

Second, Luke made his return to the U.S. He flew into Miami from Guatemala on Friday and "surprised" Bethany on Saturday before graduation. "Surprised" because she was suspicious of his showing up because the rest of us didn't/couldn't come up with a consistent story about when he would be getting back stateside. He finished up three months of language school in Guatemala and now can't speak English. Ok, maybe not. :) His English is fine and I think he feels relatively ok with Spanish; he plans to go to the Dominican Republic in a couple of weeks to begin work with a mission training group that's getting started. It was great to see him; I'm really excited about this coming weekend, getting to spend time with him on our road trip. We're headed to the Field of Dreams in Iowa, then going to a baseball game in Milwaukee, followed by a stop in Chicago to pick up Bethany and spend the day in the Windy City. The three of us will then head back to Florence. If there's even a remote possibility for a trip, we'll do everything possible to make it happen.

I'm finishing up a paper, will do a little grading on Wednesday when my students turn in their final drafts, and then I'll take a final Thursday night (which better not be too long because I'll need to watch LOST at 9:00). Hopefully I'll finish my paper tomorrow and be able to rest up a bit before beginning the road trip on Friday.