Friends in High Places

Boy are my children well connected!

This story I'm about to share with you is absolutely 100% true.

We have a hen house, but when the weather got hot, we moved all the hens out to an open backyard fenced in run - much cooler for them there and they loved it. But now that fall weather and first frost are on the horizon, we want to move them back into the hen house to keep them cozy and warm.

So, DH went out last night to get the hen house ready and came back in very quickly saying there were mice who had moved in there. [ACK!].

This led to much chaos - all the kids were in the kitchen when he announced this, two of them immediately ran out to the hen house to "see" [and one of them decided to *touch* the "mousey" - guess which one? Hint: It was my fearless, animal loving Bull Rider... ].

As this was happening, another kid, the bleeding heart oldest, immediately went into dramatic hysteria about how we couldn't just *murder* the mice, they were so cute and little and we couldn't *kill* them and WHAT were we going to do to those poor mice anyway? [Which then led to a conversation amongst the children about diseases mice can carry - including the black plague [LOL!] and rabies...]

I was still just stunned [and completely creeped out] and had formulated no plan at all. After I frantically washed the Bull Rider's hands with hot water and antibacterial soap a couple of times, my husband gallantly offered to go out to the hen house with his air rifle and *shoot* the mice... somehow this did not strike me as a fabulous idea.

At this same time, I'm trying to finish cooking dinner [which was all done at once and needed my attention]. So, as a way to calm the kids down and deflect uncomfortable questions about mouse-icide and what exactly happens to your body if you get the plague and how does it kill you, I mentioned to my daughter that maybe she should pray to St. Martin de Porres to get the mice to move out so we didn't have to do anything horrible to them [there is a story about St. Martin where he did just that with the mice in the monastery].



They decided this was a great idea, so they got out one of their Saint books and Monkey1 led them in prayer to St. Martin to beg him to please talk to the mice and ask them to move elsewhere. Then they decided they should definitely pray to St. Francis of Assisi as well - the patron Saint of animals. Then, just for good measure, they decided to also pray to Mary, the Blessed Mother... because "she's the mother of everyone in the world, maybe she can talk to the mice". Then they had a long session reading about all their personal patron Saints....and they had FULL confidence that the mouse problem was solved.

I found this all slightly amusing, and honestly totally dismissed it from my mind [me of little faith...].

So tonight, I went out to check out these mice in the hen house so I could try to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of them and... they were GONE. I am *so* not making this up - there was no sign of them. Just yesterday they were all curious and coming right up looking at anyone who went in, and today they had vanished. I looked all over and couldn't find a single living thing in that hen house. It gave me chills - seriously.

I have often been humbled by God's answers to my children's prayers. Amazed even. But this... I mean seriously. It was wild.

So, THANK YOU St. Martin, St. Francis, and St. Mary. Thank you for hearing my children's prayers and for talking those mice into moving elsewhere so we did not have to "murder" them. [And nobody got the plague!]

Praise God and all His wonderful creation!