He is the butterfly kid, a lover of nature and any type of creatures the Lord has made. For as far back as he can remember, he has been a creature lover. When he was 4, and before we moved here, it was snails. Then we moved to the country, and an entire new world of creatures entered his life. We have seen so many things here. Foxes, a mink, gopher tortoises, deer, squirrels. The lady who owned this home before us knew exactly what to plant in the yard to attract and nurture hummingbirds and butterflies. And the greatest of these is butterflies.

My butterfly kid has done it all. Twice we have bought butterfly gardens, and interestingly enough, he recently again asked us to send $5 to the company to obtain the Painted Lady caterpillars. We did this, in fact, and yesterday, 5 butterflies emerged from their chrysalises in our house. While that event generated a stir in our home, it was only 5 ... out of 10 caterpillars. That is not such a good turnout. Sadly, some butterflies died. We don't know why.

We have had 100% success with caterpillars and chrysalises found in the outdoors, though! I can't tell you how many times our son has brought a caterpillar, or a chrysalis, inside his butterfly container to experience the metamorphosis. Countless times. For a while, our entire screened breezeway became the butterfly container (until I discovered what the butterflies were doing to our screen!).

Our little son has always taken out books from the library on every imaginable small creature. Books on insects, spiders, worms, amphibians, turtles, snakes, birds, ladybugs, lizards, the list goes on. He has learned so much about all these creatures, and he has retained the information. He has educated us so much about a subject that we knew so little about. He has taught us to be more aware of, and to appreciate more, the abundance of nature the Lord has placed around us!