An Experience They Will Remember

All of us that work with children long for those memorable moments. We plan a big trip and we want them to remember it. Yesterday was a pretty cool day for us. To help out with the summer heat, we've created "Thumpin' Thursdays" for our elementary kids. One Thursday per month, we will provide our kids with a Thumpin' Good Time. Yesterday was our first one. We took the kids out to Bayou Wildlife Park - 86 acres of exotic animals. We took a tram ride and fed the animals, took pony rides and had a great lunch. After lunch, our plan was to go to the "petting zoo" and then start packing up to go home. We had a little over an hour to kill at the zoo.

Well, the "petting zoo" consisted of about 20 goats and 1 big fat pig asleep in the corner. The kids were having a fine time, but there was no way we were going to make this stretch to an hour. As the kids played with the goats, some workers came in to check on the pregnant goat. Honestly several of them looked like they could be about to give birth (one in particular looked like it was about to pop, then we found out she was a "he"!). They located the suspicious goat and said it could be about an hour. We were told we could stay in the pen if we just gave her space and if she had the baby, not to touch it. God was providing us an hour of anticipation!

Well, it didn't take an hour and our kids got a front row seat for the birth of baby "Springs," as they called the new goat. Had God really provided us with this incredible experience? I'm not sure all of the parents thought so last night as their kids asked questions like "How did that baby goat come out of the momma's bottom?" It's no surprise that the experience was the highlight of the day for all the kids...and us too. I'm not sure how we are going to top this first Thumpin' Thursday, but I have already vetoed a trip to the hospital.