Sunday, December 16, 2018

Adding More Work--Another Family Member

We (the youngest of the family) had been praying for a dog, but the kind we wanted--small, non-shedding were out of our price range. We (parents) procrastinated and one day a friend messaged me and asked if I would be interested in house-breaking her puppy.
I told her that we could probably do that, it would take care of the longing and actually might cure them of "needing" a dog.

The next day she called again and said they had a family meeting and we could keep the dog if we wanted her as they have decided a dog was just not fitting into their family.

Well she fits in ours very much! Even with the "fun" of housebreaking.
She took a little time to unlearn bad habits but Shekinah was surprisingly willing to do clean up duty. Her big weakness at this point is not liking to do her business outside in the rain and she loves to shred paper. We should change her name--she came pre-named "Eden" and we have a lady in our church with that name, but so far we haven't bothered.
She us remarkably patient with being lugged around.
She loves the grands and they love her.
I am now Grandma "Woof"

On mornings that are difficult, the puppy is there.

When the girls are at school the puppy is there.
I've seen a teen or two curl up beside the puppy after a day at school.
She hasn't had therapy dog training, but the other day one of the kids had tears running down their face and the puppy did a great job of comforting.

When you feel down because your classmate tells you that you will always be slow at doing things because, "you only have 4 fingers and I have 10!"
The puppy steps up to the job while mom scrambles to find the right words.
What can I tell my child to say in response to words like that?
I know that little kids will be little kids and she needs to develop a thick skin
but
how thick does her skin need to be!?
The other night one of us was wishing for 6 puppies to go around for all of us. One of our children has made some bad choices, we are hoping that he and we can muddle through this and come through the other side ok. I know God has a plan, I just wish it wouldn't be so hard to understand it.