Meet the Family

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Alex Lamarche with our Alpacas

We are the Lamarche's! We are located in Bryan, Texas, just 10 miles from Texas A&M University. This has been a journey for us. When our son Michael had his car accident at age 16 our lives changed. He received a Traumatic Brain Injury and we knew that we would be taking care of Michael for a good while. When Michael graduated from High School at age 21 we knew that one of us would need to be home with him. So Donna was the first to retire after 26 years with Texas A&M University and Alex retired a couple of years later. We wondered what we could do that would be productive for us as well as help Michael.

We both have always been animal lovers so when we saw an ad on television from ILoveAlpacas.com we thought perhaps this is something we could do. Alex and I are both animal lovers, so we just had to find out more about them. We also thought this might be something Michael could get involved with. We began doing some research, visited some farms and decided we really could not afford to do this, but this was not the end. We went to a seminar on raising alpacas and Donna was convinced that we could do this.

Freckle and Donna

Donna continued to do some research on the web, when she came across a picture of an alpaca which belonged to one of the farms who had hosted the seminar. She knew that this was the one and convinced Alex that if we did not act she would be gone. Alex agreed and we purchased our first alpaca.

From there we purchased several more animals and boarded them for three years. By the time we moved the alpacas to our place we had 9 animals. We now have 26 alpacas and 3 llamas. We board animals for several individuals so we have an abundance of animals to care for. We love each one. We know all of the names, and each one has their own personality.

It has turned out to be good for Michael too; he has learned to feed and is learning to pick up poop. He has one area that he is taking responsibility for and we hope one day he will be able to do it all by himself. This has been quite a journey. Neither Alex nor Donna has ever dealt with livestock before. We have learned a lot over the years and now trim toenails, give shots, help with birthing babies if needed, and all of the other things that go along with owning animals.