Opportunity revisited

A couple of months ago Isabella and Moira had the opportunity to trade work for horse riding lessons.  They were working at a beautiful facility.  The instructor made sure that all work was done carefully and completely.  She had the same attitude towards the lessons.  It was a wonderful fit....except for the extremely long drive that it took to get them there.  When I did the calculations for the amount of money we were spending in gas to get there and back, it ended up being the same amount for the lessons....the ones we couldn't afford!  It was heartbreaking to have to tell the girls that we would have to discontinue with their work/lessons.  They took it much better than I imagined they would.  I told them that we should pray that the Lord would open up another opportunity. 

We waited.

We prayed.

We waited.

Isabella asked if we could talk with another ranch, one that was closer.  There is a place just 5 minutes from us that she wanted to ask.  However, they had told her last year that they were not looking for a work trade situation.  I really didn't think it would be worth our time to stop and ask, but it certainly wasn't out of our way, so one day I stopped.  I told Isabella that all talking would be up to her.  She was told to call a certain person.  That person said she needed to email another person.  That person said she thought they could give it a go, but that she needed to call back in 3 weeks.  I still wasn't sure that anything was going to come of it.  Call me a pessimist.  Ha. 

And, as you can conclude, they got the go to give it a try.  I do say, "try", because their instructor has told me that they have had many girls come in to work for lessons, but that they always peter out, failing to do the work that was expected of them.  Ah, so that was their reason for being uncertain as to whether they would have them do the trade.

It's only been two weeks since they have started.  In that time I have heard many times how wonderful our girls are.  That was encouraging.  The big shocker though?  The owner asked if Isabella and Moira would be willing to learn how to feed the horses and clean out the stalls.  He was on standby to be going out of town and needed someone to care for the horses while he was away.  Wow.  That was a pretty big calling, seeing as how he cares for 25 horses!  That's a lot!  Well, at least I think so :-)

The girls jump at the opportunity and they did a great job.  I'm very proud of them for working hard and being dependable.