An Eagle Takes Flight & when mommy gets sick

Our family had the opportunity to help Bryan with his Eagle Project this last Saturday.  He has been working really hard to put it all together and it finally culminated in this amazing project!  

His idea, and it was HIS idea, was to build a butterfly garden for Sunshine Acres. Sunshine Acres is a huge piece of property with lots of homes on it where orphaned children can come and live in a family setting.  They live in homes with a mother and father who are basically missionaries who have donated their time and actually live there with them and watch over and care for them.  The children love it there.  The facility exists entirely on donations, and they don't go out looking for them either.  People will just visit Sunshine Acres and then have a desire to help out somehow.  That is how they ended up with a skate park, a pool, a barn with a 4-H program, beautiful playgrounds, and more.  People just walk in, look around, and say "You need a (fill in the blank)" and then go to work making it happen.  Even the homes they live in were donated.  The children take such pride in everything they have and feel so blessed.  They spend a lot of time giving back to the community in all sorts of ways.  They live there until they are ready to leave for college.  Right now they have about 70 children.

Bryan put in a lot of hours planning the whole thing, and then the two of us put in a lot of hours driving around to Home Depot's and Lowe's to see if they would help with donations.  We also were blessed to receive many very generous donations from ward members at church.  Extended family members from all over the United States also wanted to sponsor a plant or more.  People are very kind and generous!

The week leading up to the project, Bryan and I went together so he could pick out all his plants and the drip line supplies he would need.  We made 3 trips to various Home Depots and Lowes.  At the end of it all we had 45 plants - all of them perennial so they would last through the years.

The night before his project I got sick - fever, chills, achy and a horrid sore throat.  I woke up the morning of the project so disappointed.  I wanted so badly to be there and watch the transformation of his project take place!  I decided to take some ibuprofen and just sit in the shade and watch for as long as I could.  It was a nice morning - not too hot - and as the medicine kicked in I felt quite a bit better.  It was so fun to watch Bryan guiding this whole project as it took place!  He had 32 people show up to help!  It took about 5 1/2 hours (I stayed for the first 4) and it looked lush, beautiful, and amazing when they were through.  I'm so proud of Bryan!

When I got home I started to feel quite a bit worse.  Even on ibuprofen switching off with Tylenol, I felt terrible.  I crawled straight into bed and tried to sleep but that was hard with as achy as I was.  I couldn't find a comfortable position.  I couldn't even hold a book to read because my head was pounding.  Later that evening I heard someone come in.  It was Kyle.  He saw I was sleeping (my eyes were closed) and he tried to be really quite.  He came over and turned off my lamp by my bed.  Then he went over and gently shut the bottom half of all my shutters.  Then he left for a minute and came back with a step stool so he could shut the top half of all the shutters.  A little while later he came in with a glass of flowers and gently touched my shoulder to wake me and tell me what he had.

What a sweetie!  He was trying so hard to watch over me.

Bryan was also amazing.  Saturday and Sunday I felt the worst.  During those days he made sure all the kids stayed quiet and didn't disturb me so I could rest. That was without me saying anything to him.  At one point I tried to go down to the laundry and start a few loads so we would have clean clothes.  He came in and stopped me and said, "Mom, I've got that.  You go back to bed and rest."

I really love my kids.  They really know how to take care of their mom.