Haha, it hit me not even a minute later that I forgot to tell you guys about...

Little Mama Izzie and her five brand spankin new kittens!! My sister's young cat, barely a year old, gave birth yesterday to her babies. And, boy, are they gorgeous! Yesterday started out by me saying, hopefully I'll help Izzie deliver her kittens today, and before I knew it I heard soft meows out on the back porch. She'd had them without me!

So yeah, these babies are gonna have to be given away when they get a bit older, but I don't know how I'm going to do it. The little guy in the third picture I named Ike. He is cute as a button. He looks like a baby bear, and has very special markings. He's half black, half gray tabby. For real! I'll have to get a picture of him by himself later, but boy is he MY baby right now. Haha. And the babies' umbilical cords are still long. I read somewhere that they will fall off within the first three days. Oh, but it makes them look so babyish with them on...

Izzie is being real good about me rubbing her and the babies.

I told her yesterday, they're beautiful, Izzie.

It is SO amazing how she knew what to do just as soon as she became a mother of five. She knew to lay there and let them feed, even when she could've attended to her own needs first. She knew exactly how to lick around their tails so that they could use the bathroom (sorry if that's TMI lol). It just blows my mind - GOD's creation. He has created everything to work perfectly. Think about it. New little mommies like Izzie have never, ever done anything like this before. Izzie has never even seen another cat do that to her kittens. Yet, somehow it kicked in and she knew what to do, just like every other mommie cat will do. Who told her to lick their little behinds because they won't be able to use the bathroom on their own for weeks? The instinct that GOD gave her. Gosh, I'm just so in love with a Creator that just happened to know this longing in my soul, for Africa. He planted it there. He gave me an instinct to worship Him. To cry for Him to rescue me. To love those babies of Izzie's. To love those beautiful brown African babies. My "instincts" He has given me for a reason.

He's saying, Natali, I placed a love for Africa within you through loving whispers years ago. In fact, even before I started whispering Africa to you, you loved them. Remember that brown baby you asked for from Santa one year? That was ME. Even then you knew something. Those babies needed loving too. You loved them. Years later you grew to hate them, but I, your Father, still loved you and pursued you. I whispered to you, and sent my Holy Spirit to convict you about your hate. When you allowed me back in, you saw that love for them grow, flourish, explode into your life. Fight with everything you have. Fight. For them. For you. For a chance to share that love I've shared with you so that they too can taste and see my love. GO. Fight your way to Africa. I never said it would be easy, but the freedom you find in ME is worth it. The power you now have in Jesus' name. That power that heals, brings the dead back to life, it calls you now to rise. Rise to your calling, daughter. Rise and fight. With everything you have, rise and fight.

So yeah, I found something to write about. And had a conversation with my Father in the process. I wasn't meaning to write that last part of the post, but it just flowed from me. And I wasn't about to stop it :)) He loved me in my most unlovable state. My heart was so ugly, yet He loved it just the same, and said, Come, let me clean it up for you. I've shared my heart. And I'm not ashamed, because I see where He has brought me from.