Hope in a basket...

Meet Hope.

Yes, that is her in the basket.

She arrived, a stow-away on a farm truck delivering goats,

in November of 2009.

And she stayed.

It was this time last year when she first let me touch her.

And she stayed.

The warmth of a family of goats was her shelter that first winter.

And she stayed.

So, of course, we named her Hope...cause she stayed.

That's what hope does -- thru all else, it is right there, has to be.

Sometimes we just need to find it -- or perhaps it finds us.

Now each morning, I start my day with a good dose of Hope.

And now, also greeting me in the barn are her children:

Whisper, Pumpkin, Marmalade, Cinnamon & Chestnut.

And at the end of the day -- it is to the barn I return to be reminded of

all things good -- with Hope always at the helm.

I will take Hope in a basket, in the pasture,

in the sunrise, in the sunset...

however she is gifted to me.

Where do you find your hope?

An additional note....

Meet Marmalade -- Hope's baby -- born this past September 11th.

P.S. They are hunting the coyote in the fields around my farm...

we see the trucks and the dogs that seek them out. 

They have taken over 70 so far. 

I feel badly, but yet they need to thin that pack.

The coyote will call out the meek & the mild.

Don't mess with my Hope.