After he had been outside for a while, Stephen came to the sliding glass door and knocked on it to get my attention.

He was standing there with a 6-foot black snake in his hand.

He says they’re harmless. I don’t mind snakes, as long as they stay away from me. But a snake about as long as my husband is tall, and I’m perfectly happy to keep my distance.

All this happens after I had weird dreams last night about snakes. At least he didn’t find a copperhead. But then again, if it were a copperhead, he wouldn’t have caught it – he would have killed it!

He did tell me later why he had caught it though – it was in the chicken coop. We’re not getting too many eggs a day yet, and we certainly don’t want a snake eating all our eggs before we can get to them!

Here is our newest addition to our little farm. We named her Saphena. Isn’t she a cutie?

Stephen got home this afternoon and went out to check our goat Sasha to see if she had kidded yet. He came running inside the house to get me.

“She’s having her baby!”

We ended up having to help the baby out because it was so big and Sasha was having trouble. They seem to be doing fine now, but we’ll be checking in on her and the kid several times this evening just to be sure. We haven’t been able to check the gender yet – we want to let Sasha take care of her kid a bit and get it cleaned up and eating first.

I’ll post pictures later!

It was 95 here yesterday, and last night, I noticed that the emergency heat light was lit on our thermostat. A little bit later, we noticed that we didn’t have such cold air anymore. We turned the air off for a while, and then turned it back on to see if it would help. It didn’t. We still didn’t have any air conditioning. We turned it off for the night and went to bed with the windows open and ceiling fans running. It actually wasn’t too unbearably warm last night, and it was wonderful to be able to wake up to the sound of birds singing this morning.

Thankfully, a man from our church works on heating and cooling units and was able to come out here today to take a look at it. He was able to get it running again with a very simple fix.

I am so thankful! I was concerned that we would have to replace the entire unit, but instead, all he had to do was spray it with some WD-40. What a blessing!

Since it’s supposed to be 94 here today, I am so very thankful for that one!

Last week our family got an amazing surprise.

After almost six years of infertility, we were stunned to discover that I am pregnant.

I am still amazed. In many ways, it still doesn’t seem real.

We received our diagnosis of PCOS before we ever started trying to conceive. Over time, we tried some fertility procedures, but none of them worked. Eventually, God led us to adopt our precious son. I honestly believe that God’s plan for my life included infertility and adoption so I would see that even a child could not fill that void in my life. I just love how God used my tiny little son to lead me to Himself that July evening in 2004. If He had allowed us to conceive before then, we may never have adopted him. . .and I may never have accepted Christ as my personal Savior. I honestly believe that I would have become so wrapped up in my pregnancy, my child – that I never would have listened to His gentle prodding that I was lost.

After we adopted our son, we eventually started praying for more children. We didn’t care if they came into our family via adoption or birth – we just wanted to grow our family. I’ve had a desire to become pregnant for years, but I gave that desire over to the Lord. I wanted His plan for my life more than I wanted a pregnancy, especially if that pregnancy might keep me from serving Him in the way in which He had intended.

When I met with my doctor last fall, she told me that with my insulin levels the way they were, I would never conceive. She also told me I was well on my way to becoming diabetic. I followed her instructions – not because I was desperate to conceive – but because I am scared to death of becoming diabetic if it can be prevented or delayed. As time went on, I lost weight (64 pounds!) and my cycles returned and became regular. The changes I made were for my overall health, and not with intent to lose tons of weight or to conceive. I had hoped for both of those things eventually, but they weren’t my end goal.

Recently, I realized that many of the symptoms I was having were pregnancy symptoms. I wasn’t sure if they were pregnancy symptoms or just pms, so I decided to wait a little before I did a test. I didn’t want to test too early and chance getting a false negative or wasting a test. When I finally did test, I was shocked when it turned positive.

I went in for a test last week to confirm the two tests I had done at home. They calculated a tentative due date, and scheduled an ultrasound. That’s in two weeks.

I am so thankful. I never thought I’d ever be able to say, “I’m pregnant,” but look what God has done! I’m not sure what God has planned for this little one’s life – but I can’t wait to see. His timing is best!

I sat down today to bring the balance down in our checkbook and pay bills. I had noticed yesterday that there was a big discrepancy in what our checkbook register said compared to the bank website. I printed out the bank page and went at it, comparing every single transaction until I found the missing one.

How in the world did I forget to enter my husband’s paycheck last week? I’m sitting here laughing at myself. I’m very thankful that was the mistake – but I feel rather silly about it too.

Guess I’ll have to make a point to enter the paychecks right away next time. I usually do, but I don’t know what happened that week!

Silly me.