One of the surprises of going through infertility was not knowing, through that, I would make some of my dearest, closest friends. I already had dear, close friends that I’ve had since childhood, but infertility brought me even more! The way they entered my life is….strange….I guess you could say. I’ve met them all through my infertility blog! One by one, they contacted me via my blog and from there a friendship blossomed in very unexpected ways. None of them live in my city, but I have, at one time or another, met all of them!

Meg first contacted me via my blog right after Sweet Pea’s birth. I first met her in early 2014. She lives on a hay/cattle farm within driving distance of where I live. It is so sweet to sit together with her and just talk. We have so much in common and talking to her is like eating honey. It is just sweet and so uplifting to my soul. Having recently adopted from China, I didn’t know if visitors would be the best thing for her family at this time, so I sent her an email just asking. Turns out, it was perfect timing! God had orchestrated me asking the very week they would be on their CC Fall break and needing something to do to fill the time with all five children home. Plans were made for the girls and I to travel to their farm for an overnight visit! The girls were elated and I could not wait to sit and talk with Meg for hours while our children played together on their farm!

We left October 7th right after lunch. I left Sarge with my mom because I didn’t want to have to worry about sleeping schedules while away. The girls are older now and way more flexible with their sleep and I wanted to take advantage of that. And take advantage we did! (More on that in a minute.)

We arrived around 4:30pm and immediately the 7 children (my girls and Meg’s five) started playing outside. And they played outside the entire evening, except to come in for dinner. Then they were right back out. That is what I call quality playtime!

Little Bug was loving that I let her ride in the back of the pick up truck when we went to jump on hay bales!

A new experience of jumping on hay bales!

After the hay bales, we came back to the house and the kids played outside until dinner.

They made fast friends!

I LOVE that no plastic toy was played with the entire time we were there. These kids just played outside…all day! They used what was around and invented games. They made a “store”. This is the best play there is!!

Their property was gorgeous. This is a view of the old barn which Mark’s father can remember help build when he was a boy!

I just love this precious picture of Sweet Pea. In dress up clothes on a farm looking at the cow.

We loved watching the cattle out in the pastures.

Love this of Little Bug, too!

The next day, after lunch, we went on a long walk through the farmland. The weather this day was absolutely gorgeous! Blue sky. Nice temp.

V made a boat from paper and floated it in the pond while the little ones looked on.

We walked through the hay field!

We stopped here for a long while and let the kids play. Again…they all played for probably an hour with just nature!

After that we headed back towards the house and walked through a cow pasture!

So beautiful!

Little Bug wanted to pet him! haha! He ran away from her quick!

Walking through the cow pasture was a very cool experience!

I.LOVE.IT! This is what kids are made to do!

They took us to the barn to show us the cattle and calf in there. This baby calf was rejected by his mother. Nine year old V took care of him for 5 months by bottle feeding him twice a day! That little girl is an absolutely amazing child. I fell in love with her. She is the sweetest thing ever. Such a heart of gold and the product of excellent godly parenting.

Little Bug wanted to feed the cow, but Sweet Pea was keeping her distance and observing everything.

Love this picture of Little Bug! Girl was in her element. She loves the outdoors and playing in nature.

They took us to the new barn which houses all their harvested hay!

The older two children had built a house for the farm cat! V was showing the girls the house.

The girls were EXHAUSTED when we returned! I had let them stay up until 9:30pm! Their normal bedtime is 7:30pm. Then we didn’t nap the next day, so they lost quite a bit of sleep, but they are older now and able to recover quicker from lost sleep! The morning after we got back, they both slept until close to 9am! In the history of forever, that has NEVER happened! We took it easy the next several days and they were back to normal soon.

It was so nice to be able to talk with Meg for a day while the children played and explored together. As an added bonus, we had a fabulous October field trip, learning all about a hay/cattle farm!

- Elaine