OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Basketball Lines

We paved the first side of our driveway back in December to create a basketball area for the kids. This last weekend, we installed a net to keep the ball from falling down to the lower driveway. Yesterday, JD and Elijah used a stencil we ordered to paint basketball lines on the driveway.


Oliver and I just hung out while the guys worked. 








Oliver has his own hoop and  takes the game very seriously. 



I think my lens got dirty so these look foggy....




While we enjoyed our farm, Selah headed out to her first day of working at a horse farm with rescue horses; she was pretty excited when she got home!


Sunday, April 11, 2021

Science Fair


We survived 7th grade Science Fair!

Selah did "Are all dog nose prints different?"



Elijah did "The 5 Second Rule".  I am thankful for the experience and I am thankful it is over! 



Saturday, April 3, 2021

Lady's Triplets and Farm Help

I was going to just load the picture of Oliver feeding the babies at the end, but realized I never told the tale of our most difficult goat delivery ever. Two Saturday mornings ago, Lady clearly went into labor. She was pretty miserable and ready as evidenced by this photo - 


Her first sac broke and she pushed and carried on for over an hour; I was getting more and more nervous. At the hour mark, I called my friend the vet tech; she was out of town. I called my friend that has assisted in many goat difficulties, but neither of us had ever dealt with this situation. She and I called the vet by the 1.5 hour mark, but he was 1.5 hours away. I then called my friend's husband who has delivered sheep. He came, struggled, and suggested another vet; the phone went to voicemail. At that point, he worked really hard to rearrange the baby and found hooves. (I failed to mention that at this point, all three of us had taken turns pushing the baby back up because the hooves were stuck, and we couldn't loosen them. Once he got the hooves out, the first baby came quickly. I was emotionally prepared for her to not be alive as she had been stuck for over two hours. Thankfully, she was alive and well and we barely had her cleaned when her two sisters shot out within minutes. Triplet girls and we were all thrilled to have an alive momma and healthy babies. 







Baby Fern needed a boost to lay eyes on the new babies in the fence next door - 

Montana loves the baby goats, but the momma goats aren't nice to her if she is near their babies, so Selah had to sneak one out for her to meet. 



Since there are three, Selah is feeding them two bottle feedings a day to supplement Lady's milk. They are taking to the bottle pretty quickly; sometimes it is a complete struggle for a full week. 




It isn't hard to figure out who my dedicated goat companion of the family is!



Selah and I had some help from Oliver during chores today; everything is faster and easier with a toddler's help! He loves the baby goats though and likes to visit them frequently. 


Oliver and Elijah - almost 2 and pushing 13! 


Speaking of farm help, we have all kinds of exciting farm progress happening. I have a tree guy taking down some dead trees and chopping them into firewood. I have another guy clearing for goat fencing in the back area so Duke and Hans can live farther from the girl goats. JD and my son-in-law spent today laying another row of retaining wall to build up the driveway and camper parking area. I spent the day weeding and raking out all the front garden beds, but it was a beautiful day and I am very happy with all our spring progress. 

Have a blessed Easer tomorrow -