SURPRISE

Surprise might be an understatement. This will be a long one. Hang in there with me. Ronnie and I rescued Noma and two of her young ones. If you have followed any of this for the last year, you know the baby died right after getting here. Pete is her other baby. Now, several months after getting Noma we got more donkeys. We separated Noma from Pete and the other donkeys not long after we got them for obvious reasons. Noma went into the area with Cracker Jack. Fast forward a few months. Noma had been skinny and no well when she got here. She started putting on weight and looking better. Now fast forward further. Noma started looking really healthy. She started looking fat. I started to question, was Noma pregnant?? Ronnie said he didn’t think she was pregnant. I had a few other people out here and I mentioned it, but it definitely could have been grass belly since she had been so malnourished when she got here. She had been laying down a lot but that wasn’t abnormal for her. She had started walking slower, but her hooves are so bad and I will address that in a bit. Recently, I started noticing little things that I’m not going to mention, but a few signs. I even texted my friend asking her if I was crazy because I felt crazy. Maybe I was seeing things that weren’t there. I thought she was in labor, but I wasn’t for sure what was happening. Then nothing happened for several days. I decided I was crazy. Yesterday Noma looked swollen in her milk area and I looked at her and asked her if she had milk coming in. She just looked at me like you’re an idiot. Then she walked away. This morning I was slow getting out of bed since I’m just exhausted. Ronnie comes running back in the room and says get up, get up. I jump out of bed asking who died. He said just come on. I thought something bad was happening. He was standing at out glass door and said look. I finally see a baby donkey nursing from Noma. All I could get out is I told you so. Now, I’m trying to figure out the timeline on how this happened and it’s a toss up. Donkeys are pregnant 12-14 months. Noma has been here 14 months and we got the other donkeys exactly 12 months ago. I did not want any animals to breed here since there are so many animals, donkeys in particular that need homes. That’s how I have so many donkeys. It doesn’t matter how it happened, it happened. Since Noma got here, her feet have been bad. We have had 3 different farriers flake out on us and not show up in the last year. This would have been traumatic for Noma if they had shown up and the baby might not be here. I have named the baby Mattie. Mattie will be the mascot here at Mattie’s Mountain. Mattie represents new life but this baby also shows me to trust God more. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we want them to, but Gd has a bigger plan. God sees the whole picture where we only see a portion. I see now why things have turned out the way they have. Mattie is here. Welcome to the world baby Mattie. You are a miracle.