It was about 9:00 or 9:30 pm. Dark outside. I was standing in the kitchen busily preparing lunches/ bags for work and Kids Klub. Kalyn suddenly remembers that she left her toy in my bag which is still in the truck. So I send her outside, in the darkness, by herself, to retreive her toy. A few seconds later, she runs screaming and crying back into the house, SNAKE!! SNAKE !!! I doubt her and say , "Kalyn , Are you sure you saw a snake?" Sensing my doubt, she replies " I think it was a snake, but maybe it was a tree root. It was beside the tree." Steven is not at home, so I'm thinking "okay, what do I do?" I grab a broom, don't know what I thought I would do with it, and head outside with a flashlight. All the time I am asking Kalyn " where was it?" and try to shine the light all around on the ground. She is still scared to death and crying, so between sobs she points to a huge oak tree beside our driveway. I walk around the tree and sure enough there he is, a 2 feet long brown snake trying to climb up the tree. Okay, now I believe her. I don't know whether to just let it keep going or try to kill it. Now I'm scared with her. I just know it is a copperhead. So I gather all the courage I have and get the hoe out of the garage. By this time, the snake is climbing higher. I don't know if I can reach his head so I just swing the hoe, hoping to hit something. I knock him off the tree and when he hits the ground he faces me with mouth wide. I frantically keep chopping over and over, seemed like forever, until I finally cut his head off. With snake dead, reality sets in. I couldn't help but sob uncontrollably. I asked Kalyn again, where was the snake when you saw it? She pointed to a leaf in the drive way. I asked " Where were you?" She said that she had opened the truck door and looked down and saw it.....could not have been 2 feet from her. At this time, I am still convinced that it was a copperhead. And to imagine that snake being that close to my baby was almost more than I could bear. I grabbed her and knelt beside her, thanking Jesus for protecting my baby. Even in my own stupidity for sending her out by herself, He was there standing between her and the snake. I can just picture that snake crawling toward her and when it saw Jesus's feet, it turned around and headed for the tree. After my praises went up for her protection, then I had to repent of my neglect. Once Steven came home, he said it wasn't a copperhead after all but probably a king snake. But, it doesn't matter what "kind" of snake it was, Jesus was still walking beside Kalyn and His lesson has hit my heart. Point taken.
