The Mama Turtle

My boys and I spent the better part of our Monday at the ENT doctor.  Luke has been waking during the night and acts like he's in pain.  When I say acts like he's in pain, he yells, thrashes, cries and seriously makes me want to bang my head against the wall.  We love, pat, give ibuprofen and  bring him to our bed hoping for the best.  We're on day 4 of this new found hope and I'm tired.  His ears are fine (he had tubes put in a few weeks ago) and seems to be a healthy little boy. Praise the Lord but the child needs to sleep.  Period. 

As I was pulling into the driveway, I noticed movement in our front yard.  I parked, unbuckled Sam (Luke was snoozing) and we went to see what was happening.  We crept up on a HUGE slider turtle.  She was digging a hole to lay her eggs.  We live about 150 yards from  Fort Loudon Lake, so we see turtles and other creatures on a regular basis.  This sweet mama had made her way, up a long hill to our yard and decided it was the perfect place to put her babies. This was an amazing thing to witness and a perfect learning opportunity for Sam.  I took a video because I had no idea what was happening at first. I sent the video to David and he explained what she was doing.  This mama was on a mission, our presence didn't interfere with her determination. 

What an amazing expereince for all of us!  We have talked about Mama Turtle all week.  I'm doing a little research about this particular type of turtle and plan to do a few activities with the boys which I'll update on in a later post. The baby turtles should hatch withing 60 days and start making their way to the lake.  We will be keeping a close watch on these guys.  They have a long trek to the water. 

Such a sweet little adventure and what a fabulous learning opportunity for all of us!