Today’s prompt: Tell us about one of the best days of your life.

The day I was adopted.

While I don’t exactly remember this day {I was only 3 days old y’all} I’ve heard the story many times. I’ve wrote about it a few times on my blog and thought today would be a perfect time to republish those posts.

A young teenage girl found out she was pregnant.
She was afraid.
She was ashamed.
She was embarrassed.
She was judged.
She was confused.
The road ahead was filled with tough decisions.
Running away from them was not an option.
In front of her sat a “quick fix”.
It meant no one would know.
The shame would end.
She would no longer have to be afraid.
Though her baby was just starting to develop, she already loved it.
She couldn’t take the quick fix.
Her faith was strong.
She knew what was right.
She chose life.
The most selfless decision she could make.
God brought a wonderful woman into her life.
A woman who heard her story, but never judged.
She reminded her of God’s love and grace.

She hugged her while wiping her tears.
She told her of a dear friend who struggled with infertility.
And with that, a decision was made.
A decision she knew would leave her heartbroken.
For 9 months, the life grew inside her.
She felt every bump and every kick.
She watched her belly grow twice it’s size.
Every passing day her heart broke a little more.
She knew the hardest day of her life was right around the corner.
Eventually the day came.
She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
The reality fell heavy on her heart.
Tears rolled down her face.
She had so many fears.
And felt a void already.
But she knew it was God’s will.
She handed her baby over to the wonderful woman.
And watched her walk away.
In her young mind, she had no idea what an impact that single moment would make.
That one day, she would be that baby girls hero.
For choosing to give her to an amazing family.
For choosing to have a selfless heart.
For choosing life.

It makes my Mama heart ache when I think of my birth-mother handing me over to that sweet lady. Watching her walk out of the hospital and get into a car and drive away, knowing that there was a possibility she would never see me again. The strength and selflessness it took to make that decision at such a young age still amazes me.

It makes my Mama heart jump with joy when I think of my adoptive mother waiting for her precious new bundle to be delivered to her. How she must have felt so over-the-moon but still felt a little ache in her heart knowing someone else gave up their baby so she could experience motherhood.

So today, I am reflecting back on the absolute greatest day of my life. A day I don’t remember, but one that impacted every aspect of my life. My adoption was such an amazingly beautiful thing and I love telling the story. I am truly so blessed to have never once felt an ounce of resentment or anger, to have somehow understood from an early age that it was just right.  To have never questioned it, to never have felt different but instead felt fortunate that I had two sets of parents when most kids only had one.  And  most of all to have an adoptive Mother and Father that absolutely supported me in finding my birth parents and understanding why I needed that.  My mama told me that she never felt threatened by it because she knew she had raised me with enough love in my heart for all of them.  She’s an amazing, amazing woman.

It’s a perfect example to me of how God has His hands in our lives, even when we don’t realize it.  And oh how thankful I am for that!!!

Today’s prompt: Record a VLOG! It can be about anything you’d like!

Today’s prompt: Just for fun, your latest obsession. What can you not get enough of these days?

I spent months researching different breeds, narrowing down what ones I wanted and one day I just took the plunge and ordered them. I just jumped in blindly with both feet. I kinda roll like that sometimes. I think that might be a quality of mine that drives my Mama nuts.

The first chicken we got were ordered online and came through the mail.  The postal worker had a bit of shock in her voice when she called and said you have a package here, and I think it’s chirping.  The breeds I got first were golden laced wyandotte, buff orpington, buff brahma and cuckoo marans.  Once they came, we decided we needed a few more.  Off we went to a local farm and brought home a few black copper marans.

The next year I got the bright idea to hatch out my own.  I mean, how fun would that be!  So I borrowed a friends incubator and went to work.  I’m so thankful I did.  My favorite roo passed away suddenly, but I was able to collect a few eggs beforehand.  I knew if I hatched them out, they would be his offspring.  Out of my first batch, only one egg hatched.  I thought he was super lonely, so I went to TSC and bought 3 bantams to keep him company in the brooder.

I wanted to try my hand at hatching out my own again and I still had a few breeds I wanted.  It’s all about the egg basket looking pretty y’all.  I found a listing on Ebay for hatching eggs that included the breeds we wanted.  Once they came in the mail (and warmed up) I put them in the incubator.  That hatch yielded six babies.  Of course half of them were roo’s, totally my luck.  We’ve since gotten rid of two of the roo’s, they were super aggressive and kept terrorizing my ladies.

We’re in the process of building a new coop.  The current coop is an old camper, and it just doesn’t have the room we need.  With the room we’ll have in the new coop and run, I have room to add a few to my flock.  And with that, I have a dozen eggs in my incubator.  I currently have this huge desire to have olive egger layers.  With an olive egger roo and my black copper marans, I can hatch out my own.

If you have had a huge desire to get chickens, like I did, you can read a blog post I wrote last year about what I wish I had known before getting chickens.