Boy, do we have a lot of catching up to do! But since today is Mother's Day, I wanted to share a little glimpse of something sweet that happened at our house. A couple of months ago we noticed a little red house finch flying busily to and fro around our back porch. We soon noticed she was building a nest in an alcove of the porch rafters. She worked on the nest for a few days and then we began to see her sitting there patiently and realized she must be sitting on some eggs. One day we heard some high pitched chatter and noticed the mother and father bird flying all around. An egg had hatched! We kept watch all afternoon and by nightfall there were 4 little birds cheeping from the nest. We enjoyed them so much for about 3 weeks. The nest was high up so we couldn't see into it, but we could see them through our back door and hear them squawking and chirping. It was so fun to hear them and watch the parents working so hard to feed them. We noticed that if both parents were gone from the nest, the babies would be absolutely silent, but if the parents came close, the babies would cry and squeak for more food and attention.
One afternoon, we noticed there were only 3 birds. Oh no! We wondered if one had fallen from the nest. And then another disappeared and we realized they were learning to fly and leaving the nest. By the next day, all four had flown away and the mother abandoned the nest too. I felt really sad all day long. I loved seeing and hearing them and watching the girls get excited about their observations. Of course I drew many parallels about how soon our nest will begin to empty and how I will feel about that.
Two years until Maddie goes to college!! It seems just a few years ago she was finishing kindergarten and I had 3 young children who were so busy and I was always exhausted. Now our fourth daughter is finishing her first year and I will never send another child to the first day of kindergarten again. I am exhausted from running teenagers around and staying up late to hear about dances and parties! But I did love having the little bird family in our life for a while and thinking about how quickly the times and seasons of our life can change. I sure do love my pretty little birds. I'm so glad to be a mother.
2 comments:
That was such a sweet and sad and wonderful post. Lately I've been thinking about how quickly the "toddler years" are going and how I'll miss the unconditional love, hugs, and kisses when they turn into sassy teenagers. Emmalynne goes to kindergarten in the fall! Remember when she was a baby and we came to hang out at your house all day? I loved those days with you.
I love this. Thank you!
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