Under Fire

Wow is our Family taking some hits lately. They always say the Devil knows when you are on the right track and will try and knock you off, by throwing stumbling blocks your way. It is so much easier to walk through these trials though knowing that is what it is. It is from the Devil and we must continue down the path that God asked us to go. He asked and we said yes. It would be so easy to change our minds or look at the challenges we face and say maybe this just is not a good time in our lives.
The weekend was going great, hubby and I got a date night in and Sunday we woke motivated to work on the yard and house. I was getting kids ready to head out to the farm store when my oldest comes running up the stairs yelling, "there is water filling the dog area, it is everywhere". Not what you want to hear. I go running down the stairs to hear the toilet running and see water just pouring over the edge of the bowl. and the dogs standing, looking helpless in about 4 inches of standing water. OH MY GOODNESS! I quickly wade through water to the back of the toilet and shut the water off, and then start yelling instructions to the children to grab any and every towel we own in the house and start soaking water off the carpet. Yes it had gotten to the carpet. I let the dogs outside and start removing their crates and accessories from the house. I run upstairs to garage and get the push broom and started pushing water out kids used every towel they could find in house, including wash clothes and hand towels, we started resorting to dirty clothing. Hubby finally joined in and brought the shop vac. That helped a lot! We got all the standing water out and then started on cleaning of the carpets. Soaking up towel after towel of water and also shop vacing the area. We pulled the carpet up to shop vac the pad and also set up as many fans as we could borrow to start drying it. Oh so not fun at all. We will be assessing the damage over the next week or so.
As for what caused the blockage we have a belly in a pipe going to our septic. We knew it was there and have been so cautious about what we flush etc. Not sure what exactly happened. We did have to call and make an appt for Monday morning to get the blockage cleared. So no water or toilet usage until then, that was fun!

Went to softball and lost horribly, I did hit though and caught the last out, a popfly so that made my day. First game I had played in years. Honestly my goal of the games are to make it through without getting hurt, lol. Body just does not work the same anymore. It was fun though. Came home. Hubby goes to put animals away and I sit down to finish the 25 Kindergarten Graduation hats that I had committed to make. Let me tell ya lots of work when you are working with scissors, glue, and a stapler.

KC comes in and whisper,"something is wrong with one of the ducks". WHAT? "Its leg is all messed up deformed (exaggeration slightly, lol)". With nothing I can do at 9pm at night I decide I will deal with it tomorrow along with the septic issue. UGH really right now is what I was thinking. After dealing last week with our tragic accidental chicken death, I was not sure how the kids would handle losing a duck as well.

Next morning I give kids a heads up that one of the ducks is injured and that I would be taking her to the vet. I was not sure what was wrong or what they outcome would be, of course they were worried. I get them off to school and then head up to check out this leg. She was quacking away for her breakfast as usual, but did not come out of her house. I picked her up and set her on the ground and there she laid. Not wanting to put weight on her leg. GREAT! So I flip her over the best that I can, I do not see any obvious deformity, but she is favoring/protecting the leg and also I can feel warmth to the touch. I know something is wrong. Not knowing which duck this is Snowbelle or Daisy (i know bad duck mom, kids know), I get her settled in an area away from the other animals with food and water. My assumption a goat stepped/jumped on her leg. The goats get jumpy and hyper and ducks just are not fast creatures. The chickens seem to be pretty quick at getting out of the way! I head in the house set up a vet appt for after my septic appt., what a fun Monday this is turning out to be, lol. Long story short take the duck to vet, where we discover she has a broken toe. It is the middle toe and higher up where the toe and foot connect. For a duck this is significant for weight bearing etc. So I can not justify putting a duck down for a broken toe, so splinted and bandaged it is. I currently have another baby to take care of, lol. Although this one I can leave unsupervised most of the day in the front yard. She can not get her bandages wet, if you know ducks they love water and are soooooo dirty and messy. Seriously. they can be gross. She can not be around the other animals, besides her sister. So we are back to square one, duck on the lawn, staying the nights in the garage. Plus she has to go to the vet for splint changes every 3 to 4 days for 5 weeks and I am currently giving her meds by mouth. Oh my farm life. Crazy Lee Farm I tell ya. Here is a picture of her all bandaged up. It is sort of cute, poor thing. She semi hobble/drags herself around, but mainly sits in one spot unless I move her.

So although we had a rough go the last few days we did not let it get us down or stop our joy of living and enjoying life!! Yesterday was AMAZING!! Baby and I went to the post office and mailed off our dossier (all documents and papers) to our agency CCAI for final review. This is the last step before they send them to China! We also mailed a package of goodies and a photobook to a family that will be traveling soon to China. There son is living in the same foster facility as ours and they will deliver his gift to him!! How cool to know that in the next few months our son will see our pictures for the first time!

Then right after we mailed those off we headed over to the Elementary school for little man's Kindergarten Graduation. Where has the time gone? Way to fast do these kids grow. He was so excited for us all to be there. Aunt Sam and Cousin Deacon Little came, and Mimi too! They did a slideshow, and mini skits. He played Humpty Dumpty! So cute. Now he is ready to be a 1st grader he says.

So no matter the storms that are thrown our way we will continue to try and look at the good in our lives. To know that as troubles come, we can pray our way through them and know we are doing good. I am just on cloud nine that we are moving right along and will hang onto that excitement still while dealing with the other stuff. LOL! We are still needing to raise about $10,000 to be fully funded. Our most recent need is the remaining $800 for our CCCWA fee that we will need before our dossier can be sent to China. So I am thinking in the next couple of weeks. If you can help in anyway with donations you can donate here http://reecesrainbow.org/71271/sponsorlee all donations are tax deductible. We can also use prayers. Prayers that all are paperwork is correct. Prayers that the young girl we are also trying to adopt, that her file reaches our agency quickly (it is getting closer, at CCCWA now). Prayers that all our house and animal troubles will resolve. Thank you for supporting our family and becoming a part of our childrens story and village.