Should I Watch What I Ask For?

Two days ago, we received our first egg from our lovely chicken, Gorgeous. We did not get an egg yesterday, and that one lone egg is still sitting in the kitchen, waiting for someone audacious enough to use such a special egg.

Yesterday, I mentioned to the kids that one chicken, producing less than one egg per day, was not really enough for our family. It was a JOKE. Our chickens live in a coop, and I'm not sure it is big enough for any more than the two chickens we already had living in it (did you notice the use of the past tense in that sentence: had, not have?).

This morning, I received a visitor - Maria Vicenta, one of the ladies who receives food through the Special Needs Program. She was so grateful for all we have done for her family, and especially for the wonderful food from Kids Against Hunger . . . that she brought us a chicken.
No, I'm not kidding, we have received another chicken as a gift. And I'm pretty sure she is going to bring us yet one more chicken tomorrow.

Of course, it is a beautiful little chicken, and has received the lovely name of Angela. I doubt that Angela is ever destined for the cooking pot.

Maria Vicenta's family is in the Special Needs Program because she has a son, Jose, who is mentally impaired, and cannot walk or talk. Her husband is a farmer, and they have five other children. According to our records, their home does not have electricity or indoor plumbing, and they have a dirt floor. I am pretty sure the reason she wants to give me a second chicken is that I gave her one of our empty five gallon laundry soap buckets today, as a gift. She will use that to carry water to her house, from the river. She had offered to buy it from me, and I felt that, since she had just brought me a gift of a chicken, I should give it to her. I guess now she feels indebted to me?

So, now we have three chickens, and soon we may have another. We are enjoying them a lot, they aren't much work, and they reward us with eggs. Plus, I know it is nice for the people we help, to be able to give us something in return.

Look at Handsome, standing so tall and proud. Doesn't he look like he knows he has a harem now, instead of just one bossy wife?