Surprises around every corner!

This morning we saw our first Robin in our backyard! How exciting is that?!?! To celebrate, Corynn and I decided to walk to the store and buy a bag of birdseed for the little feller. What was meant to be a pleasant stroll turned into quite an adventure...which still has me reveling in its' glory.
I took my camera to take some pictures of the local dam-but the water was too muddy to make anything appealing but on our way back from the dam I spotted a large dog behind someone's house. Because Corynn is infatuated with dogs, I stopped and pointed it out. Then I saw something else move-then something else. I looked around and there were more than 30 Llama's and Alpaca's gathering around-poking there heads out to see the lady who thought a dog was more special than them!
The driveway led into two houses so I contemplated whether I would be "trespassing" or if I would just be going down a "lane" since it wasn't a particular person's driveway. I couldn't pass it up so I went ahead-keeping my distance just in case someone came out screaming at me. Two little boys came out and said, "Hello...." We exchanged social words then I asked if I could get up close to have a look at the animals. The one boy ran to get his mom while the other one led me to the animals-and told me all about them. The mother comes out and she is young-no more than 30. She's tall with a muck boots and a corduroy coat-and such a kind face. Her name is Debbie. She does foster care and has adopted 6 children with all different backgrounds ranging from 11 to 5 months. I meet three of the boys. What characters! We talk for over an hour and she ends up inviting me into their home! She tells me that they started a 4-H division in Candor-and that they homeschool! She tells me her dear friend has six children and homeschools too...they BOTH live in Candor! They have 30 animals between the Llama's and Alpaca's. That is not including the donkey, sheep, goats, chickens, roosters, guinea hens, and angora rabbits. The baby guinea hens and the rabbits live inside with them until it is warm enough for them to go outside. There whole property does not exceed 3 acres...not even two probably.
We went into the pens and Corynn touched all the animals-and even got licked a few times. At first she was frightened-just like she gets when she sees a dog or something-but by the end, while all sorts of llama's and sheep were sniffing her face, she was giggling. She was very brave-and I was SO happy. I have been so worried that she would grow up a sissy around animals because we can't have any in our apartment. But I realized today-I just need to give her these experiences and seek them out until they can be realized within our own lives.
As we left, Debbie gave me her phone number and email address and told me to come down anytime-even when they aren't home we can come a visit the animals. And so, on our way to the store and back home, I couldn't keep from smiling. It does my heart good to meet new people-friendly one's at that. I am so excited that there are living and breathing homeschoolers right here in my very own town. I have always loved Candor because it was our very first home. But maybe it will become our very own community too!