Turkeys and Bunnies and Froggies Oh MY!

I think I am trying out to be the caretaker at a zoo.
We have added two Royal Palm Heritage turkeys, an Angora Rabbit and an African Green tree frog to our collection. Not to mention the 40 some baby hens growing up in the workshop. I am just utterly in love with God's creation. I giggle each morning as the tom turkey gobbles to greet me. It is such a sublimely silly sound. I am enraptured that softness can be so soft as I cuddle the bunny on the couch. And I can't get enough of watching how fast the frog can catch and eat his crickets. Holding him is amazing due to how delicate his little toes are and yet how strong.

I am still processing the lessons from the trip to Ethiopia. An absolute must read is the book There is no me without you by Melissa Fay Greene. It chronicles the story of an Ethiopian woman who began taking in AIDS orphans when everyone else told her not to and that she was crazy. It was one of the most inspiring books I have ever read and tells the story of the AIDS crisis in Africa better than any other source I've been able to find.
God also has been good enough to provide me with a Bible study at church entitled God of Justice and Compassion. There are about 100 ladies in 5 small groups studying God's response to poverty and suffering. We have all been feeling God moving in our hearts to do more than we have in the past to meet the needs of those God loves: the poor, the widow and the orphans.
I have started reading Kay Warren's book Dangerous Surrender as another way to figure out what I've been feeling since this summer and where I'm supposed to go from here. It's like standing on an abyss with a glider strapped to my back. Can't wait to see what the ride will be like even though it feels a bit scary. I'm looking for opportunities to serve locally like I did overseas.
I've applied to go back to Ethiopia with my church in February. I would be able to meet my World Vision children as well as help with some construction at the camp at Langano. I am praying that God's perfect design will be evident as the team is selected and the finances of those going will be worked out.

The roosters are still amazing me. There are about four roosters without any hens of their own and as the hens from this spring mature, they have been industriously courting them by digging up bugs, finding grain and following them all over the yard. Over the past month, there has been a selection process and now only two roosters have been left without a batch of hens to look after. And one of them has favorably attracted the attention of the female turkey. Not that she follows him around, just that she comes when he calls her to a piece of food, and she doesn't drive him away from the pile of scratch like she does the other chickens. It is comical to see this little white banty rooster clucking for this gigantic turkey hen. She is mainly devoted to hanging out with the tom turkey, but I guess is finding friendship where it is offered to her.