Gabriel Jr...

I love where we live.  Every so often, Mr. Quilting Bug tries to convince me that we should move, but I really don't think we could find a better place to live.  The other night was a perfect example of this.

First some background.  We celebrate May 8th as Gabriel's birthday.  It's really the anniversary of the day I found her by the side of the road.  The vet thought she was around a year old, so we adopted it as her official birthday.

Gabriel and her ball

On the evening of this birthday, Mr. Quilting Bug and I were outside on the deck with Gabriel.  We had been playing a little bit of ball with her, but were mostly just sitting and talking.  He suddenly noticed something going underneath our deck (we're pretty high off the ground) and thought it was a deer.  We're quite used to seeing a dozen or so deer in the yard each night, but this was unusual.  When we went down to check it out, we saw a deer in the process of giving birth!  I have never seen anything so amazing (and a little bit gross at the same time).

We didn't want to upset her, so we took Gabriel and went back inside.  Unfortunately, when we looked for them later, they were gone.  We prayed she had a safe delivery, but didn't see either mother or baby around. However, in honor of the baby being born on Gabriel's 'birthday', we named it Gabriel Jr.

Fast forward 10 days later when I was lying down with a bad headache.  The exact moment that I got up, I saw the tiniest baby deer enter our yard and lay down in front of our bedroom window.  There's no doubt that it's Gabriel Jr.  S/he stayed for about half an hour before leaving.  I'm sure mom was close by, but I didn't want to go outside and scare either of them.  This isn't the greatest picture as I had to take it from inside the house.  To give you an idea of proportion, this deer is about the size of my 22lb cat, but with much longer legs.

Gabriel Jr - 10 days old

I haven't seen either of them since, but I was glad to see that the baby was healthy.  I just love where we live!

Until later...

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. 

Matthew 5:8 (NLT)