What was she thinking????

I am not sure what this crazy mother bird was thinking. On my porch, 2 feet from my front door, where 3 crazy children, 1 cat, and 1 golden retriever live, a mother bird decided to make a nest and lay her eggs in my hanging fern plant. Very cool, but very dumb on her part. I, of course, take this to heart. This mother bird feels safe enough and comfortable enough to want her babies to "grow" up here. I am not sure if it had to do with the invitro thing(I remember growing plants during the time of my invitro process thinking that if I could make these plants grow, God would "allow" me to be a mom) or what, but I get myself rather "worked up" over moms trusting me to help them with their babies. I know, Jimmy reminds me daily, that a bird just randomly picks a spot, makes a nest and lays her eggs. I choose to believe other wise!

Here is the first picture of "my babies". I had no idea what a baby bird looked like...UGLY!!! City girls don't have things like this happen to them every day:)! I watched them develop and was actually sad when we left for MIS...what if they did something and I missed it?

This is what I came home to. They actually looked more like birds. I hadn't seen the mom in a few days. My mom told me that if they a breathing, they are doing good. I tried to make it a learning experence for the kids and lifted them up to see "how cute" the birds were. WRONG THING TO DO!!! Yesterday, I get out of the shower when Isaac tells me that he touched to bird's mouth and it didn't bite him and now it is under the porch. What? I go out to the nest where there is only 1 out of 3 birds! I instantly start to cry. Upon talking to the girls, I get the story that Isaac moved the chair, got out a long toy ( a semi-trailer to be exact) and tried to hit the birds down. Now, I have to say, Isaac is not a mean or hurtful boy. HE DID NOT MEAN HARM TO THE BIRDS, he just wanted to hold them. Yes, he did know better as we had this discusion many times NOT TO TOUCH THE BIRDS which is why he did it when I was in the shower. Anyway, Isaac, with his nose to the wall basically confirmed to girls story. The bird "flew" out of the nest, he touch the beak of the bird and it ran under the porch in the smallest of openings.
Jimmy looked and could not see the bird. I could not leave this poor baby under the porch to die...especially since Isaac was to blame. I ended up digging out under the porch until Jimmy pulled it out...with latex gloves on. My mom informed me that a mom will come back even if the bird has been touched, but we did not want to take any chances.
A little while later, I go to check on the baby and the nest is empty. What? They must have flown away. Jimmy was mowing the front lawn, Brady was running around chancing my screaming children, Chevy was walking around the bushes, when I look down and see it. Sitting in the bush.

Poor thing. I became obsessed with this bird. I sat on the porch crying. Jimmy yelled at me, "This is a bird and your crying. Give me a break!" Not a lot of sympathy. Good thing for my mom. I think I called her 20 times (literally!) about this bird yesterday. Everytime I called she listened and let me have "my moment". Thank you mom, you really are the best mom ever. Even when it comes to stupid things that are really important to me.
So back to the bird, I look again and their are two birds right next to each other. I am not sure how this happen. If they both fell out again, flew out, what? After much to do, I convinced Jimmy to help me put them back in the nest. I promised to drop the obsession, but he had to help me. They needed to live, at least I had to "right" Isaac's wrong. It was getting late and cold and I needed to help them. So we both got out the gloves and grabbed a bird and went to put them back in their nest...for the last time...when we noticed another bird in the nest. It was empty. Jimmy and I both saw the empty nest. Not sure where the third one was, but all three of the babies are back in their nest. I did my part. From this point on they are on their own. Well, I might have to check on them every once in awhile. Old habits are hard to break!!!

Of course, after a day of stressing about these silly birds, I get to start the process all over. Another silly bird made her nest and laid her eggs in an even more stupid place than the first. In an ornamental tree no more than 3 feet off the ground, right in front of my house. Again, I say we have three kids, a dog and a cat. Give me a break! But no, I will have to "mother' these birds too. I have learned me lesson, the kids will not know they are there:)!!!!