FOGGY WEATHER...

Well, Kansas is never dull when it comes to weather. When I walked out the door this morning, the temperature was 17 degrees and it was foggy! There was a hore frost on everything including horses and one wee donkey. It was beautiful and weird.

I heard from a friend of mine this afternoon, one I haven't heard from or seen in three years. I've known her since she was just barely three years old. We met when her folks called me to say that she was coming home with them. She's adopted. And her folks were thrilled. It had taken nearly three years to complete the process of getting the child they wanted.

Am. was tiny with freckles, red hair...and scars. She had been removed from her Mother's home because of extreme abuse and Mom had been sent to jail along with her boyfriend for child abuse. It wasn't going to be an easy ride for Am. or her adopted parents. There's always more to scars than what you see on the surface when it comes to abuse in childhood.

But Am. is a grown woman now with a daughter her own that is the spitten' image of her Mom, a home of her own, a job and a man who loves her. I think she's a real success story, even with all of the exaggerated teen problems that were inevitable.

We talked about her life, her daughter's life and my horses. I think Am. is one of the reasons I found my way back to horses. She was a rider as a child and I used to go out to her barn to watch her on her horse. I'd sit there and day dream about being with my own horse, riding and just being, the way you always are when you love horses. When the opportunity presented itself for me to have horses in my life, I jumped and never looked back.

So, thank you Am. for being one of my horse muses!

The guys were mellow today when I went out, both times. For them, having the temperatures go up nearly thirty degrees from -5 to 25, made it seem like a day on the beach. Lots of running, bucking and playing out there.

It was a very good day. I am content and that's not a bad way to start the year off!

Nancy, smiling