This morning we did chores as normal. There were no complications, which was pleasant. The sun was shining through the clouds, shining with all his might.
At the end of chores, I put Papaya, our new heifer calf, out into the field. We gave her some grain. She was hollering for milk, but she gets that only in the evenings.
I went inside and filtered the milk then washed my hands at the sink. I saw there was no Papaya in the field. Yesterday, she had,slipped under the gate and gotten into the yard a couple of times, so I sent Anne out to get her in.
But there was no calf. I went out to help look. Nothing. Dane joined us, and we went over the whole farm, up and down. No sign of her. How could she have disappeared in only ten minutes?
We searched for about an hour without success. I told the children we should stop to pray. We were down at the bottom of the pasture when we asked God to show us where Papaya was. We prayed she wouldn’t be drowned.
I told the children if we didn’t find her by the time we walked back to the house, I’d call Percy. My phone was in on the kitchen counter. We checked all the buildings again, then I went in to call.
But there was a call I had just missed from Percy. He would have called about the same time as we were praying. I called him back. He said a neighbor saw a calf running along the highway and wondered if it was ours. A miracle!
How she got up to the highway so quickly is amazing. Percy says he figures she remembered walking that way when we brought her from market.
Anne, Abbey, Dane, and I took the truck up to the road. Percy beat us there and caught the calf. He brought her over to the truck for us. The children held her in the truck bed. We staked Papaya in the field this time. She’ll have to be staked awhile until she learns this is her home.
Isn’t it incredible how God answered us so quickly? We feel very blessed that God kept Papaya safe, especially considering she could have been hit by a vehicle on the highway. And we’re grateful He chose to give her back to us.
Juan David 