Meanwhile, back on the farm . . .

While we were in Oregon we heard that KL was only $70 from completing her end of the agreement with her dad. The agreement was that if she could save up enough money to feed and care for a horse for six months, her mom and dad would buy her a horse. (Of course our first thought was to send her a check, but her mom said "No way, she's doing chores for me and I want to "milk this all I can!")

Now, mind you, this child has loved horses since she was seven years old. She has read every book there is on the subject of caring for a horse, can identify every breed of horse, knows what it costs to care for a horse, has taken horseback riding lessons on and off for seven years. It has been her dream to own her own horse.

Two years ago the family moved up to the "country" and their new home came with a barn, coral, and lots of room for animals, and she realized that perhaps— just maybe— that dream actually had a possibility of coming true.

Over these last two years the family has slowly acquired a barnyard full of animals: three dairy goats (Destiny, Cover Girl, and Joey), twenty laying hens (too many names to mention), two prize-winning bunnies (Elwood and Miss Lillian), a "barn cat" (KeeKee) that really doesn't like being outside at all, three bantam chickens (two of them turned out to be roosters . . . whoops!), plus a yellow lab (Murray) who came with them from the city . . . but no horse is in the mix. However, KL has been a good sport and has somewhat patiently waited for that day to come when she would acquire the most important animal of all—a horse, working hard at taking care of the animals, feeling the responsibility of getting up early to let the animals out, feeding them morning and night, collecting the eggs, milking the goats, then returning them to the barn at night, and actively participating in 4-H showing the goats and chickens. All the while in the back of her mind (or most likely the front) thinking that someday she will, indeed, be able to have a horse.

TODAY was that day! Angie, a beautiful quarter horse was delivered to Simply Country Farm at 10 o'clock this morning. I've never seen KL smile so much all the day long. And her dream has come true. Angie, eleven years old, is not only a beautiful animal, but she is mild-mannered, trained, and seems to feel right at home in her new domain with the chickens and the goats sharing the barn and barnyard.

Here she is bringing Angie over to the fence for us to meet her, and give her a carrot.

That's the grin on her face that lasted the whole day!

She is such a sweet horse.

Beautiful chestnut color (horse people call that color "sorrel") with tiny spots of white, almost like powdered sugar was sprinkled on her.

Here KL shows us how she lunges Angie. KL had full control of the lead line (I'm sure that's not the appropriate term but I think you know what I mean) and Angie responded to KL's verbal commands. It was amazing for us to watch because it seemed like the two of them had been doing this together forever, not just for the last few minutes.

It was wonderful to see that after just a couple of hours together the two of them seemed to bond beautifully.

One more thing about KL— besides being such a responsible kid, she is bright, is outstanding in school, and has good Christian values—plus she is a beautiful person both inside and out. We couldn't be more happy for her. She has worked hard and deserves this dream come true. We feel so blessed to have her as our granddaughter.

Life is good!