Thursday, March 26, 2009

My first Liberia story is NOT a Liberia story

Good morning!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so sure I'd start today telling Liberia stories. Instead I am going to work backward with a home story first. GOD IS SO GOOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We fed the goats last night and discovered that my first doe to kid for the season was in labor. GOOD DEAL!! She had a long labor for #1, needed some help, but a beautiful baby girl (hurray, after last years over abundance of 'worthless" boy babies, this was GREAT!) and after a short rest, #2 BABY GIRL slid right out. Morning Glory was still obviously going to have another baby, and I was concerned that she very likely had 2 more. NOT a common thing for a dairy goat...their babies are pretty big. She rested for quite a while, and after a bit I came in thinking that she'd be fine to finish up. I was exhausted, it was after midnight and I'd been up since 4 AM, oh yes and having traveled 1/2 way around the world, I was not as wide awake as I'd normally be at that hour. I went out to the barn at 6 to discover that my assessment had been correct: 4 babies.
BUT Morning Glory was so exhausted herself, that she gave birth and never tended to the last two babies at all, and in her tired out state, never got back to the healthy ones either. I had 3 beautifully formed and configured baby girls and one handsome little boy, all dead lying next to Morning Glory who was making crying sounds , like mourning. Last night's excitement quickly turned to sadness.
HOW is God good ALL THE TIME in that? IF she'd had these babies a day earlier, my younger children would have had to handle all that, with no knowledge of what if any meds to give the mamma, how to help birth the babies, what to do with the bodies, AND I am sure would have felt an incredible sense of responsibility for the outcome. PRAISE GOD, even though it was home coming day, IT WAS HOME COMING DAY and I was there to tend to it all. Their faces were so sad this morning when I explained what had happened, they went out to see where I'd put the babies and to marvel over how big and beautiful they were, but its a sad start to the day. We only buried Walter the Saint Bernard the day BEFORE I left for Liberia.
My Liberia stories will come, and there are many. IT was a wonderful week with our children, ALL the children, seeing the Atlantic Ocean from that side of the world and splashing in it, singing Lord I lift Your Name on High with the children, teaching them some new songs and hearing them singing those songs throughout the day as they walked and played and ate.........HOW MUCH MORE BLESSED CAN YOU GET?????????? Putting some more of Jesus love into children's hearts and seeing it root and sprout. Seeing our children's faces light up as we arrived at the gate of the home, oh MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But now its time to feed that animals and start school with the kiddos at home who are so glad their mommy and daddy are home, and sad that their new sibs are not.
SO MUCH TO SHARE, SO SO SO much that I am still pondering in my heart

No comments: