An alpaca stood nose-to-nose with its owner... the animal's beautiful fleece backlit by the sunshine. This photo in our local newspaper was our introduction to alpacas. The accompanying article told of AlpacaPalooza, the show sponsored by the Alpaca Association of Western Washington, which we decided to attend. After viewing the alpacas, attending the "Alpacas 101" seminar, and speaking with many breeders, I was totally smitten.

I plunged headlong into an intensive quest for information. I spent hours on the Internet, reading everything I could. My husband, John, and I visited several farms. After each visit with alpacas, we would come home, look out at the green grass of our empty backyard, and say, "Boy! Wouldn't it be great to have some alpacas out there?" We assessed whether a move into alpacas was the right one for our children and us. For years, we thought how wonderful it would be to have acreage where our boys could spend the day outdooors running around in the fresh air, building "forts", and exercising their imaginations.

As soon as the possibility of living a farm life seemed viable, it became more appealing to us than the jobs we both held. As an aerospace engineer, John spends 10 long hours a day in an office. Despite his life-long love of aircraft, he looks forward to the day when he will be able to work outdoors in the sunshine. I have spent the last two decades as a Registered Nurse, working first in Labor & Delivery, and then as a Lactation Specialist. I am thankful for this experience, and hope that at least some of it is helpful when working with our new alpaca moms and crias.

Spring 2000 arrived, and we decided that we were as well prepared as we could be. We visited Don and Julie Skinner at their ranch in Idaho, where we selected a beautiful, vicuna-phenotype alpaca named Afrodita, as well as two fawn maiden huacayas. A month later, Julie called to tell us Afrodita had delivered a lustrous white male. We have four sons: Chris (18), Jeff (14), Kyle (12) and Greg (5), and since this was the fifth time we had heard "It's a boy!", we immediately began calling him Cinco. This summer we have been blessed with two more wonderful crias.

Right now, we still live in suburbia, and are searching for the perfect acreage parcel. We chose the farm name Genesis Alpacas because our entry into the alpaca industry occurred in 2000, which (arguably) marks the start of a new millennium. What a wonderful way to mark a new beginning! In the Bible, the book of Genesis is the story of God's creation. Surely, the exotic alpaca is one of His crowning achievements!

We look forward to the day (hopefully soon!) when we will look out at our own green pastures, nestled between the sparkling waters of Puget Sound and the snow-capped peaks of the Cascade Mountains, and there will graze these magnificent creatures who have found a place in our hearts. When that day arrives, we hope you will pay us a visit!