HeartBreak

I received a heart breaking message today from the lady that bought Sissy. Sissy was bred to Valiant and was due this month, below is her message:
I wanted to let you know of the great loss that we recently had. On March 31st Freya aka Sissy began to colic. It was a blessing and a curse that Tasha just happen to be off of work that week. She was able to be there with the mare through most of her troubles. The vet made several trips to the house in an attempt to relieve her symptoms. But she continued to be in distress for the next 4 days. We lost Freya on Good Friday. And again a blessing and a curse, the vet was there at her death. They were able to take the colt at that time. He was not breathing but did have a heartbeat. After much effort he began breathing on his own. They transported him to the vet clinic and did all that they could for him. But he had too much fluid on his lungs and succumbed to death 24 hours later. Tasha had decided on the name Legacy to honor Freya. He was a beautiful boy. Our hearts are burdened with the loss of both of them.

Our hearts go out to D'Anna and her daughter Sasha. What a hard thing to go through, to try everything possible but still lose both. We are saddened for their loss.
We had a busy day at Meisters. We had a new volunteer come in, Roma has offered to start helping us on Thursdays. We were so busy the camera wasn't taken out though until after Roma left for the afternoon. We were able to get all the letters and studies read and processed but not all the Bibles got mailed. The ink didn't come in for the postage machine so no stamps were available. We were able to get out 144 Bibles but have probably have more than 200 requests waiting. We also ran out of Bibles but Tim Martin has promised another load on Monday. Below are a few pictures of the morning.

 Above and below Diane R, Emily, Rachel and Jessica are preparing the Bibles that needed to be UPS'd to chaplains

 Rhoda had a short day of work at the vet clinic in Bloomington so came as soon as she could to help. We were thrilled to have her back.

We ate lunch at Tyroni's then headed back to the farm. Rhoda and Emily decided to work the new Andalusian mare Jurista. The lady we bought her from told us she had 90 days of training when she was 3 years old but nothing since then. Emily has been round penning her and re-introducing her to the saddle and bridle and has laid across her back but not sat up on her yet. Rhoda wanted to be the first and today she rode her walk and trot in the indoor.

The movement on this mare is wonderfully smooth and yet expressive. 

Mark and I were invited to meet with and eat with Nolan's parents tonight. Around 5:30 pm and storm came through with wind, rain and hail, so much so that we wondered how we were going to get out to the car to head in to Peoria. The white streaks in the picture below is hail.

We were relieved when the storm blew over and was done by 6:00 pm. We met at Old Chicago.

Nolan's mother Amanda is an amazing woman, she and her husband Dave have raised three wonderful sons and Amanda home schooled them all! Nolan is the oldest and just happens to be engaged to our youngest daughter Sarah.  As we were finishing up dinner the lights start dimming, the wind started blowing, the rain was coming down in sheets and the sirens howling. We were not in a hurry to leave the restaurant and glad to wait for this storm to blow over. The wind here at home is still howling around the buildings and slamming into the barns but the rain seems to be over for the night.