mama robin.

Meet our newest friend, Mama Bird.

I first noticed her building a nest a few weeks ago, when we were preparing the beds for planting--she was pulling clumps of dead grass nearby us, and adding it to her little home.  Liv and I check on her each morning and are keeping our eyes and ears out for little babies to appear soon... Liv is so excited to see them!

I especially love that Mama included some bling in her nest. I wonder where that sparkly strand came from... (I'm tempted to make one of these now with scrap yarn!)

I've never been worried about a bird before, but I thought about her last night as a wicked storm rolled through our area. We had the most insane lightning! It was constant, and everywhere, for a good five hours or so. We met with our small group for dinner at a park last night in Applewood, and left right as the rain began... it was good timing as the storm rolled in fairly quickly after that. We pulled off the road at a high point and watched the sky, completely fascinated by the power of God and the beauty of His creation..That tingly feeling of security inside the car, but pure terror had we been outside of it.  I thought about Chris Rice's song Wind and Spirit, and the lyric, "From the corners of creation / Comes the Father's holy breath / Ridin' on a storm with tender fierceness / Stirring my soul to holiness"... The sky was definitely fierce last night. Awesome.

The above images are from 9news, taken around the Denver area; the bottom pic there was taken at Chatfield Resevoir. A funnel cloud was spotted near us in Lakewood around midnight, and the tornado sirens went off--very scary. We ended up sitting in the basment for about 20 minutes, until the warning passed. We never have tornadoes in Denver, so it was crazy surreal. Raul prayed over our family, and you can bet we were giving thanks when the thunder began to subside and the lightning calmed down.  I was also thankful the girls went back to sleep without too much fuss.

This morning after breakfast, Liv and I crept out in our jammies, and were glad to see MBird was still there, safe and sound, tending to her babies-to-be. Whew.

PS. A New York update and photos coming soon...