Nesting....vicariously.

So there have been an abundance of pregnant ladies around lately, and I have been loving it!  Remember back in the day, when I was not loving it?  When it was so hard.  I'd try to put on a smile and while I was happy for them, I was a wreck inside.  Losing baby after baby...not knowing if God planned for me to carry another little life to make it home to the waiting crib.  It was hard.  But God saw me through that pain and suffering, and brought me another little one, Ian.  And the joy of his little life has opened back up that joy that I have for other expectant mothers!  It's been a real journey, and to be back to a place of joy for not only myself, but true joy for others is quite a blessing.  I feel like I've come back around full circle to the beginning when I got pregnant with Isabel.  And it's putting that spark in my heart and that longing for another baby.  But for now, I'm nesting vicariously. 

Through the pregnancies of my friends!  And also through this little mockingbird family in our backyard.  Errr....what used to be our backyard.  You see, we had to move our fence line.  Apparently when the guy built our fence, he built it just over our property line.  And now, our new construction neighborhood is finally starting to build behind us and notified us that our fence was not on our property.  So we Rob, began to embark on the mission of moving the rear portion of our fence.  However, there was a  problem.  You see, this mockingbird pair had already begun building a nest in the jasmine which is attached to the fence.  And then, before we knew it there were 4 brown and blue speckled eggs.

So we moved the fence....all except for the piece to which the jasmine is attached.  The mother mockingbird was really concerned, but eventually she figured out her nest and eggs were just fine even though the surrounding fence had shifted. 

Then, the unthinkable happened!  The fence move took several days.  At one point, the 5 foot section of fence fell over onto the jasmine, knocking the nest.  All four eggs were cracked.  Oh, I was heartbroken!  So we kept an eye on them and that same day, the mother kicked one egg out of the nest.  When Rob told me, I couldn't stand it...I had to go out there and find the egg and see at least at what stage of development the baby bird had been.  And when I found the egg, the bird was ALIVE!  And covered with ants!  So I picked up the bird, still in its egg, and the ants kind of crawled out.  Isabel wanted to hold it...

So we put it back in the nest and have been checking on him.  And the mother accepted it back!

Three days went by and the little guy was doing well and I was starting to have hope for the other eggs that maybe their cracks were due to them getting ready to hatch instead of the unfortunate fence accident....at one point I even saw a beak stick out of an egg, so I knew that at least one more baby bird was still alive! 
And then....we checked the nest and this is what we found:

Our little survivor, beak wide open....but all the other eggs had been tossed.  Not just tossed in fact, taken away!  I know this because I was on my hands and knees at the base of the jasmine, looking through all the vines and leaves to try to rescue them...but could find not a one.

Some of our own "little birds" have made it, and others we've lost.  It's strange how I've been able to connect with a mockingbird (!) on hatching babies and raising them to leave the nest!   I'll keep you posted on this little guy's fate.