Today...

Today was the day we hoped to welcome our 4th baby into the world. We looked forward to those little newborn cries, snuggling that baby close to us and talking about how much she looked just like all our other babies.

We were excited to be venturing into the unknown. Nobody in either of our families has more than 3 kids. He came from 2, I came from 3, and my siblings have 2 & 3 respectively.

We were looking forward to knowing that our 4th child would be our final child, due to the fact that I have to have c-sections and I didn't really want to go through that more than 4 times.

But this was not to be. Our sweet baby is already experiencing the true Glory of the Lord. We still mourn for our loss, our hearts still ache. The reminders are everywhere.

Yesterday, I fell on my knees in prayer to the Lord to help me through this. I called on my family to pray for us and as always, God came through. I was far less emotional than I expected to be.

God's grace is sufficient for me. This means if we never have another child, God's grace is sufficient to fill that longing in my heart. I rejoice that God, the creator of every good thing, loves me as His own precious child. I'm thankful that He longs to be with me as I long to be with our sweet baby in heaven.

It's a hard thing to explain when you already have children and you still mourn this kind of loss. Why aren't they enough to keep me from grieving? Because only God is enough. He is truly the only one that can keep me joyful.

Thank you Lord that you love us all in such amazing and personal ways. You are so good to us!


Our sweet baby, Lydia Rachelle Songer, is basking in the Light of our Saviour. I so look forward to meeting you in heaven. You are truly loved.

The Final Report...

Well, nobody hatched.

I took the eggs into the feed store today and returned the incubator. She poked holes in the tops of almost all the eggs and there were bodies, so they were fertile, just not sure why they didn't come all the way out.


We also picked up some baby chicks - 3 to be exact. When I got home and got them into our brooder (i.e. Fuji apple box and heat lamp), we had a lot of fun watching them run around and check things out.

The kids named them - Whitey (all white chick) is Sarah Beth's. She also called it Sarah Sponda. JoJo is Nathan's chick. Abigail started to name hers Pecker but finally decided on Scratcher - Scratch for short. I explained to her that people might think it was a woodpecker instead of a chicken and that seemed to do it.


I'm going to try the process again. I don't like failure really, so I figured that we'd give it another go and see what happens. I plan to get more eggs from a different source and a different incubator (same feed store) to see if it makes a difference.

I'll try to post more on this, but since any action is almost 1 month away, I'm focusing on other things.

Holding My Breath...

Well, I'm actually trying not to...not to just sit and stare at the eggs, not to question myself on all my possible mistakes. Really, I just need to relax and let things happen if/when they will.

The timing on this is just awful. We were scheduled to deliver (via c-section) our sweet baby, Lydia Rachelle Songer, on Monday - just 4 days from now. She is with the Lord right now and I couldn't be happier for her. My heart still aches for that sweet baby that I never met. My love for her is just as strong as for one of my earthly children. It's a strange feeling to love someone that much that you've never actually met.

If we don't have any chicks hatch, well, I'm going to try to not let it put me over the edge. We'll try again to hatch some little chickies. For now, if nobody emerges, we'll get some loaners from the feed store.

I know at least one was alive last week, we saw it moving in the shell. I'm very sure that most won't hatch - based on the candling. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for 1.

As with all things, it's in the Lord's hands.

Camping....with a toddler

We decided to give it another go. It had been a year. You forget a lot of things over the course of a year. Only the pleasant memories remain, so that's what you think is going to happen again.

And thankfully, it does. Our family loves to camp. At this time, we have a very nice tent that holds us and all our stuff perfectly. I do hope to someday get some sort of RV because let's face it - I love being on the go and I love the comforts of home. Because of our location, we'd have to pay for RV parking which is a ridiculous fee around here. It's simply not worth it - even as much as I want one, I totally agree with the hubby on this point.

Anyway, we had a great time. I'm sure in a year we'll forget how much work it is to set up the tent (it's a biggie - 10 person), how much work it is cooking for our family with limited space (it's better with my camping kitchen), and what a pain it is to take kids potty in the middle of the night.

We'll just remember the kids enjoying and being creative with nature, hiking, birds, squirrels, campfires, s'mores and spending time together as a family.

I'm also sure we'll never forget the EMTs coming to our campsite when our littlest biscuit decided she'd get into mommy's medicine. She enjoyed the ambulance ride a little too much and was sorely disappointed when she had to come home in the van. Thankfully, she was just fine, but needless to say she gave us quite a scare.

We did take a camera with us, but we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures! Next time! (I'm pretty sure I said that last time.)

Egg hatching update

We are currently on day 5 out of 21 and I couldn't resist checking on my eggs with no kids around.

I researched the process of candling an egg and rigged up a quick little system.

After setting up in the bathroom (the darkest place in the house), I brought in the eggs one at a time to take a look. I can tell for sure that 4 of them have some development. There are 2 I couldn't tell and the rest I'm pretty sure are duds.

Frankly, I'm thrilled. It doesn't mean all 4 will make it, but how cool would that be?

A pencil check mark is on the 4 good ones, question marks on the potentially bad ones and the 2 uncertain ones, double question marks. I know, it's a really sophisticated system.

I found this video on YouTube. It's not mine but it does give you a good idea of what I saw in the 4 fertile ones.

Now that I'm a little more certain of my own candling skills, I'll try to get some actual photos or a video. I'm going to try again on Day 8. I want to get rid of the potential stink bombs.

Resisting the temptation...

I'll admit it. I'm having a hard time resisting the temptation to peek in on the eggs all the time.

It shouldn't be hard, there's a little window. But for some reaon, that's just not satisfying enough. Maybe it comes from the fact that one of my eggs is very pointy and it keeps rolling off the turning rack. Or maybe I just want to double check to make sure all 11 are still there. Can you imagine how I would be if I were a hen?

So, in an effort to thwart a terrible miss-hatching experience, I'll just look at this photo. I might look at it several times each day, but at least the real-deal will be warm and snug and occasionally turning right where they are supposed to be.

Ahhh.... there they are.



And, just in case you are wondering, yes I did get up in the middle of the night to check on them. But only that the incubator was still on. Really, I'm not crazy.

Our Chicken Books

Since of course there's no way I'm letting this chicken hatching opportunity pass us by without some reading involved, we have checked out several books from our local library.

Some are better than others, but hopefully at the end of this process, my children will be able to tell you exactly how a chicken is develops from egg to chick.

Here are the library books we currently have checked out:

Chickens by Lundgren, Julie K.
Egg to chick by Selsam, Millicent Ellis
First the egg by Seeger, Laura Vaccaro
Five little chicks by Tafuri, Nancy
Chickens aren't the only ones by Heller, Ruth
Chicky chicky chook chook by MacLennan, Cathy

These are, of course, just our chicken books. I doubt you'd want to see the litany of other books we check out from the library.

We will read several more books about chicken/eggs/hatching before it is all said and done, but this is a fun place to start!

When I told my sweet big girl that we were going to the library tonight she said "Let me guess, chicken books.".

What is not listed is all my books on how to keep/raise/build coops for chickens. Still trying to convince my sweet hubby. I'll keep on trying...

The Eggs Have Arrived!

I went to the feed store again to pick up the eggs. I'd hoped to be able to get 6 extra, but no such luck. So we've got an even dozen and they look great! There's one that's a little lopsided, and the shell seems soft on one side, so I'm wondering how it will do. These eggs are fresh from the farm hens this morning.

I was somewhat surprised by the incubator. Not sure what I was expecting - guess I've lived in the perfect little SoCal bubble for too long. It's not shiny, it's not new - it's styrofoam, it's a little dirty and dented. Um, hello, it's farm equipment!






I'm still tweaking the increase/decrease dial on the incubator to get it just to the right temperature. It's to be 99.5 degrees Farenheit consistently. We're close, but just a little on the warm side. Don't want to poach my little chickies.

Here's the directions given to me with the incubator:

Day 1
- Add water in the bottom of incubator (only in designated areas) CHECK
- Plug in incubator and turner CHECK
- Set incubator temperature to 99.5 (sort of CHECK - there was no setting, just plug it in)
- Once incubator temperature has stabilized at 99.5 for an hour, place eggs in pointed end down in the turner OR place X's and O's on opposite sides of the egg to keep track of turning.
*So, I decided I should get a turner because I can barely remember to do things one time per day let alone 2 times per day for 21 days. Hoping to increase our odds of hatching*
- Every other day add water to bottom of incubator (as needed) - better set some sort of alarm or something....

The big kids are in class today so I know they'll be excited to see the developments when they get home. I wish we could have done it all together, but so it goes. I'm also wondering how I'm going to keep them out of the incubator when I'm, say, taking a shower...I'd better get to shower at least a few times over the next 21 days.

As a side note, the feed store gave me a FREE poster since I had to make a 2nd trip for the eggs. It's a poster of Chick Development and shows a drawing of what's going on inside the egg for each of the 21 days. They sell it there for $19, so I'm thinking it was worth it to make the second trip.