Gretchen walked in just as they were finishing. “Hey, you all! Getting ready to go? We sure are going to miss you around here! You have been such a blessing to us this week! I cannot even begin to tell you how much all your hard work, encouragement and support has meant to us—and I mean all of us.”
Kristi looked up at Gretchen with tears in her eyes. “We hate going when there’s so much left to do yet. I would gladly earn a few more blisters if it meant you could get the zoo back on its feet more quickly.”
Gretchen patted Kristi on the shoulder. “Well, my dear, I want you to dry those tears and go home with a happy heart and put some lotion on those blisters! I have some more good news! Remember the story in the paper this morning about you and all the work you’ve done? Well, the phones have been ringing off the hook today with people and organizations volunteering to come here and help us get the zoo running again! We’ve had offers of thousands of dollars in donations and supplies. The paper wants to come back and do another full-length feature story about the zoo, and what’s more, several newspapers from Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee heard about us and they want to do stories, too! So I am expecting that the number of volunteers and donations will just keep climbing beyond our wildest imagination! And it’s all because of you wonderful people and your generous hearts and hands—and your proud grandma, too, of course!” Gretchen smiled at Elizabeth.
“Actually, it’s all because of the Lord,” Kristi said. “When we do our parts as good stewards of His creation, He does His part and multiplies it for His glory!”
“How true, Kristi! How very true!” Gretchen smiled. “I guess sometimes we just need a little thing like a hurricane to remind us of that every once and a while.”
“Hey, Dad,” Skeeter spoke up just then. “Can we stop by and say goodbye to Bejo before we go?”
“Only if the rest of us can go with you, Skeeter!” Steve stuck out his tongue and waggled his fingers in his ears, and the others started laughing. Kristi and Skeeter suddenly realized that the joke was on them!
Kristi giggled. Their week at the Little Zoo at Palm Shores had been full of hard work, danger, fear and worry, but it had also been full of good times, good friends, and now good news! It was really hard to say goodbye, but hopefully someday they’d be back again and saying hello!
The End
Peril at Palm Shores (Kristi Cameron Book 7) Page 12