I slept in really late, it was wonderful. I am usually up at 4:40 am, but this morning was a planned sleep in for Annie Laurie and I. We were quickly and unmercifully awakened but with a good reason. The loud knock on the door was followed with a quick and forceful opening of the bedroom door. The announcement was "get the tractor down to the field, one of the cows is dying." Sarah had instructed one of the children to interrupt us no matter what was going on." I thought that was an interesting interpretation of Sarah's request. Even though Annie Laurie and I enjoy a very affectionate relationship after 31 years of marriage the only thing going on was our attempts to wake up while holding each other's hands.

I was up and dressed withing minutes. But I was not the first down to where Sarah and the cows were. When I arrived one of our cows was lying down with her head downhill. After delivering twins just three days ago, she is weak and just could not get up from that position. She must have been laboring to get up for quite a while, because she was exhausted. We could not get the tractor in next to her because of the trees. Someone had enough insight to bring a couple of ropes.

With two ropes, each around both legs three or four of us pulled her lower half to the downhill position. We only moved her about two feet and up she came. She trotted up in to the pasture and began head butting another cow. We then took all of the cows along with the ten new calves up to the feed lot in order to seperate her, (Number 17), and her bull calf Wesley, from the rest of the herd in order to watch her for a few days.

After discussing it later, our daughter Sarah said something that was quite inspirational and actually quite chatacteristic of our family. She had called the house desperate to find me to come and help and within moments she looked up and saw almost all of the children racing towards her. She shared that it was really a wonderful thing to see so many people come rushing down to help her. It may seem a small thing to some but to us it was a wonderful. Not only did Annie Laurie and I come to help but 2 six year olds, 2 seven year olds, 2 eight, 2 ten, 3 elevens, 2 twelves, a fifteen year old, a sixteen year old, and also our 22 year old. It was quite the rescue party. All responded cheerfully and quickly to a call for help. What a gift it is to be a part of this great family.