Winner Announced, Lindsay's Dream Job and The Goodness of God

I got my man to draw the winner of the Hand Milled Soap.

 The winner is....

 Jaclyn Hicks!  I'm so excited for you to get to use this wonderful soap!  Email me with your contact information and I'll get the soap mailed off this week!

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In other news I wanted to share about Lindsay and her dream job.

Lindsay has always been an animal lover - it's a part of her DNA I think.  Horses, dogs, cats, birds, chickens, you name it - she is interested and loving it!

Here are a series of photos she took yesterday of her horse Sandy.  You can tell when Lindsay whistles for her and she turns and comes to her.

She has worked since a young teen at first a corn maze and then at
 Sight and Sound Theatres in concessions.  She has wonderful customer service skills, and has excelled in her position.  But she hasn't loved it nor did she love working in our shoppe.

After we decided to close our business, she noticed a job opening at her work in the animal handling department. 

 Seriously.  

They use live animals in all their shows and have a whole department that trains and cares for the animals.  She applied and they called her right away with "We were so excited to see your application!"  Apparently this job had been listed for 2 months!  They interviewed her right away, and though they had made a job offer to another person, they offered her a job as well!  Full time!

She gets to work with horses, camels, a young Brahma bull, parrots, llama's, dogs, sheep....

She even has costumes she has to wear at two different times in the show.  She leads a governor on horse back into Nod, then later retrieves a donkey from the set.  Out of sight, she retrieves animals during the loading the ark scene, haltering llama's and taking them back to the holding area...she is responsible for sending Noah's dog out to him on stage in the ark...

Can I just say that she is in heaven?  She is using her considerable skills already and is getting on the job training as well.  Every night there are stories of the horses worked with, camels that she is doing ground work with, a near catastrophe in the back of the ark when some sheep ran under the camels' legs to get to their food, and the camel freaked out!  Never a dull moment!

This job is so *her*.  Completely.

We are thanking God for providing meaningful work for her using the gifts and interests he has instilled in her.  

Oh, and when they do Moses next year?  She'll be driving a chariot onstage during the show...she is really beside herself with excitement!

Here at home she is busy with the horses and giving riding lessons on Mondays, our rooster and hen take her attention as do the chicks we bought.

Now here are two photos that are just plain cute and show off my granddaughter who turned three on Saturday!

I am so thankful for these days of blessing and joy.  I try to stay focused on the Lord's goodness in the midst of struggle, and his leading in times of uncertainty.  This is where we find daily joys.  He is good, He has a plan, and He is working His plan for my life.  I can and do trust Him with it.