I must have said, Oh help me God, 50 times during that 5-minute time frame.
As I went out this morning to do “baby watch” or “hear” baby watch instead of “see”. I use my ears to alert me of any new baby lambs; they have a certain newborn cry. There was ‘that cry’. I went around to the backside of the barn to see what mother had birthed. No one was there, but still a newborn cry. I went back around to the front; no lamb, no new mother. That was strange. I thought a new mother and baby would never have been able to scamper away that fast. But still, a newborn cry. IT HIT ME. That cry had been from one of the newborn lambs that were born the day before.
He must be under the log barn. I ran back to the front, knelt down and peered into the crevice that only a lamb could get into. Yep, sure enough, there was the backside of a baby lamb. I reached my arm under the logs and freed his two back legs, but I couldn’t bring him through. My arm wasn’t long enough to reach to his head. So, I ran around to the other side, tear off the tin that had been nailed to close off the outer hole of the log barn. I felt his head, actually could see what the problem was. That is where I starting asking for God’s help. I knew I would need it. That lamb wasn’t coming out easily. He had managed to get his head/neck wedged between two logs/boards. I maneuvered my arm, my hand, trying to push his head back through two logs, boards, or whatever they were, No LUCK. I said, there was no way I could see I would be able to do it by myself. Outcomes my cell phone and I texted two of my neighbor menfolk. My fingers were shaking as I typed, I knew that time was of the essence. Back to trying to free this little lamb. I pushed his head back, thinking that there is no way, his little head must be swelling from all the trauma of being caught. Keep asking for help, because by now, it was clear to me that I was not going to be able to push his little head through those two logs.
Would my neighbors have to saw the logs with a chain saw?
Would they be able to do that without killing the baby lamb?
Would they take all the wood out of the barn? OH MY GOSH, that barn was literally PACKED. That would be an entire day’s work. Would they do that for one lamb?
Back to the baby, my hand went. That’s when God gave me the insight to maybe push his neck through the crevice instead of his head. I felt his little throat swallow, I heard his little cry. I continued to hear the plea of his mama sheep on the other side of the barn.
I pushed his head up as hard as I could and maneuvered his head higher to enable his NECK to go through the small crevice…SUCCESS.
Now, I had his head free. I thought I was ‘out of the woods’ by then. But I thought: I had his head, what should I do now? Push him back through the other side? Pull him through the two outside logs? Back to the cell phone. I learned that I could type with my left fingers. Still shaking, I had already typed the neighbors that I had got the lamb free, but I thought, I still need someone to be on the other side, to either pull the lamb through or stop him from getting caught again. That’s when I saw an opening between two outside big logs. Was it big enough for the baby to come through my way? That’s probably when I was on my 49th prayer. Well, I went for it. I guided his head to the opening and LO AND BEHOLD, the entire lamb slipped right into my arms. I hugged him tight, texted my neighbors, no need to come; I had freed the lamb and he was on his way back to his mama. Holding him tightly, I brought him back to his mama and the two were united and instantly back to normal. And me, what did I do, of course, a thank you prayer, and the next three hours were used to gathering drills, screws, skill saw, boards, to patch that hole in the barn so never a lamb would go there again. Just another normal day at the farm…..freeing a baby lamb wasn’t on the agenda. But those surprises happen every day here. Life ain’t’ dull. Thank you, God.