HAMMOND | In between the raindrops, Joe Meihalik led his brood of 10 baby ducklings on their first journey past the tall golden sunflowers to the calm waters of Optimist Lake where a duck's life was waiting.

"It was a miracle of God that these little guys hatched on their own and survived," said Meihalik, of Crown Point.

The 12-week-old mallards waddled safely out of their car carriers and paraded down the ramp, through the weeds and onto the rocky shore where one by one they plopped into the pond behind the Indiana Welcome Center on Kennedy Avenue.

The ducklings splashed and then preened their wet plumage before flapping their wings, causing them to skim the water's surface with the tips of their webbed feet for their maiden flight.

There lives were in peril while they secretly incubated in their shells in a nest located in the parking lot just feet away in the branches of a compact bush with pink blossoms.

A car ran up the curb and into a concrete light pole and ended up on top of a steel garbage can and missed the nest by mere inches. It scared the mother duck away, but six days later on June 23 the eggs hatched.

Meihalik, who is involved with 4-H and has rehabbed other wild animals, got a call from worried employees concerned the abandoned ducks were scurrying and quacking all around the parking lot without a mother.

Employees Judy Brown, Luke Weinman and Ron Detterline were on an avian rescue mission crawling on their bellies with a fishing net to corral the newly hatched fledglings that kept scattering under cars and behind wheels for protection.

It took them an hour to catch the palm-sized furry creatures.

"We wanted to make sure they were all right, but, unfortunately one got away from us -- and that's what bothers me the most," Brown said.

Meihalik adopted the ducklings into his family home, where they ate pellets, bugs, hard-boiled eggs and grew fond of playing in the mud pit from his sump pump. They came to know and follow him around, but the time came to let go.

"They started flapping their wings, which was something new to them," he said.

"They'd take off and not realize how to get back in so I'd go out and walk them back in to the fence and then they were happy."

Plans were made to release the ducks into the lake just feet from where they hatched.

"Ducks are ducks and they like the rain no matter what," he said. "It's still ducky weather."

Detterline said every morning when he comes to work there are a half dozen full-grown mallards who make the lake their home.

"It's cool to have raised the babies from day one," Meihalik said. "I feel glad I did something to help Mother Nature." He said he'll stay away for a week and then go back to check on and feed them.

"Maybe they'll find their mama," he said. "It's nature and they know exactly what they have to do. And if they don't come back to me, I'll still be happy because at least I know they are free."