Do you know how sometimes you just
know that God loves you!
I mean, not in a generic,
I've been raised to believe this, kind of way - but - more personal.
When you know He's paying attention to all the details of your life
and anticipating your needs,
like when I see my kids working really hard
and getting tired or discouraged so I do something extra
to love on them...
like that kind of love. Some special thing that shows them
I'm paying attention to them... I'm listening to them...
Since this is our first lambing season, I don't have anything
to compare it to but it has been really easy
other than the sleep deprivation :)
Nothing dramatic, just plain and simple births.
Yesterday morning, I finally "slept in" (all the way until 6)
... anyway, I woke to the most frantic barking from Basa so
I slipped on some shoes and ran to the barn in my pj's.
-not recommended by the way-
before I was even really awake. When I got there,
I was looking around trying to figure out what
was causing her such distress but bless her heart,
Basa seemed to assume that since I arrived
I would take care of things and she quieted down.
So I'm looking around, counting sheep and lambs
and trying to wake up enough to figure out
what the problem is,
when I realized there was an 'extra' white lamb
and it was in a water bucket right near my feet.
Without thinking, I reached down and scooped
to lift it out but my hand got tangled.
There was a piece of twine around its jawline
holding it's head up, so I untangled us and when I lifted,
well, you know how a wet towel feels
when it can't hold any more water and is just SO heavy,
that's what this little lamb felt like.
I started feeling like God loved me
so much as soon as
I realized, my hand wasn't cold.
The lamb had gotten in the only heated water bucket
on the sheep side of the barn.I'll never know how she got in there!
but I do know, that piece of twine
(that I was sure we'd cleaned out of the barn)
was holding her head out of the water.
It wasn't around her neck to choke her in any way,
it was just below her jaw at the perfect height
to keep her head up out of the water.
Remember, we raise Shetlands,
so even the smallest heated buckets are about
chin deep on a lamb and this was a newborn.
We had just emptied the lambing jugs and
prepped them for their next guests the night before
and I had even left a clean towel in the barn
no, we don't provide maid service :)
the towel was there from a previous birth
when it wasn't needed, so
everything I wanted was right there. I was able to get mama and baby under the heat lamp
in a nice, deep bedded, clean lambing jug
after soaking up as much water as I could with that towel
and by then Del had already walked the dogs
and come to check on me in the barn.
He went back to the house for the lambing bag
and the hair dryer(and a cup of coffee! what a guy!)
while I stayed with our newest lamb.
We were able to get her dry and warm and
she's had no trouble at all.
As a matter of fact, while she was figuring out where
to nurse, she stamped her little hoof at her mama
for shifting away from her.
She's a pretty determined little lady,
and I just love her to pieces.
Did you notice the spot on her hip?
It's about the size, shape and color
of a Nilla Wafer cookie
and since this is an "N" year for us ...
