Our household expanded this week with some new little chicks. My sister-in-law asked me what happened to suddenly make the prospect of chickens palatable. I'm not sure exactly how or what changed, but this spring found me poring over poultry catalogs and getting excited about the experiment. The more I read about the different breeds, the more my mental flock grew so we ended up with 6. Let me introduce you.

A White Leghorn named "Purse"*:


The red one behind Purse is "Hazelnut", a Rhode Island Red:


Two Ameraucanas named "Pigwidgeon" and "Erica", respectively:


"Penny", a slightly older Buff Orpington:


And this black Barred Rock, "Inkheart":


*Incidentally, our motley crew has a motley assortment of names due to Eden's system that we each name one.

I really would have been tempted to expand a little further or switch out a couple of these for some polish chickens, but no local suppliers had them and I wasn't up to ordering 25.


Quite aside from our new birdie boarders, I've been thinking about families today. My thoughts have been with some good friends who have a c-section scheduled for Thursday, and another great couple who have an adoption deadline for the same festive day. With these dear ones in my mind and heart, I went to a baby blessing for yet another family I love today. We met Jodi & Rory our first Sunday in our new ward in Hawaii, almost 9 years ago. I watched Jodi on the stand today and remembered seeing her for the first time on the stand that day in 2002 (cute haircut!) and couldn't have known then the bond we'd develop and the enduring love I feel for them.

A month ago I was able to be with them in the Salt Lake Temple when they had their youngest adopted child sealed to them. It was a powerful spiritual experience for me. The officiator performing the ordinance told Rory & Jodi that Daisy knew she was coming to their family before she was born and it was moving to see Daisy so excited to be there, flapping her arms in happy anticipation. I couldn't help but feel that she knew what was happening and was overjoyed.

Today Jodi made some remarks about the overwhelming gifts their birth parents have given them in their children and that in heaven it won't be birth families and adoptive families but we'll all be one--one family. This struck me as so profound. Rory mentioned today that their experiences going through the adoption process (5 times!) has, maybe more than anything else, convinced him of God's presence in his life; they have experienced many miracles, and what some would call amazing coincidences, that witness to him the hand of God in their lives. I don't know how everything gets worked out or how to explain the gut-wrenching circumstances behind many adoptions, but I believe him.

Rory and Jodi's beautiful, multicultural family, and the cinco de mayo baby, and this relatively recent adoption, and the other pending adoption dear to our hearts, sort of all mixed around in my head today.

It is awesome the way God makes families.

I'm really grateful for mine.