Monday, May 9, 2011

God's Blessing

A little history must be presented to start this story.

Way, way back when, David and I adopted ourselves a beautiful, high strung yellow labrador retriever.  We named her Savannah.  We had high hopes of training her and making her such a good dog.

Then I got pregnant.

Those great training plans or our beautiful, high need dog were shot.

Fast forward 8 years, three kids, and a new house later, our great, high need dog passed on to higher places.  After so many years with such a beautiful, and have I mentioned high need dog, needless to say, we were a bit burned out.  So we didn't immediately go out and get a new one.

But we endured.  Endured three kids begging, pleading, promising to scoop every last bit of poop. 

Each Christmas and each Easter, David and I would think about it, pray about it, ponder it.  And come to the same conclusion each year.  Nope.  Not yet.

This year was no different.  Christmas came and went.  Then Easter was in the not so distant future.  And finally, the time seemed right.  Thus we began our search.  (Secretively, so not excite young minds in case we decided that this was the craziest decision we could make things just didn't work out).

Criteria- preferred a yellow, female British labrador retriever.  We did consider other types, and contemplated several times adopting from the pound.  But we are just lab people.

So, late at night, after the kids went down, we would sit and peruse dog listings and kennels.  But nothing seemed to fit just right.  We were kinda bummed, but decided to put it on the back burner and just ask for direction from God.  We didn't want to force anything.  Esp something as big of a commitment as this.  So we prayed that it would be an easy decision

So, yes, we prayed about a dog, let it go with a great peace, and Easter came and went.

A few days later David gets a text from his sister of a beautiful 5 1/2 week old lab, one of a litter belonging to one of her best friends.  Honestly, we both fell in love.  Even before we knew if it was available.  We found out more info.  We were third on the list for two available pups and the price was below our budget.  (Umm, Thank you God!).  For three long agonizing days we wondered if we would even get one.  Yep, in God fashion, someone backed out.  That put us at second on the list (We Get a Puppy!!) , meaning not first pick.  We had fallen in love with one in particular, but either was a great choice.  We were satisfied with either.  About mid-week, we found out that the other family backed out.   We get the puppy we want! (okay, being honest, the family was split, but happy none the less).

So, you wanna know more right??  You remember, now, that we were looking for a yellow female?

Yeah, well, in only God fashion, He answers with what He thinks is best and that usually isn't what we think.  Right?  So, here He provides a puppy, easily (which we prayed for) and within a certain price range (He really blew that one out of the water), but He surprised us with this:



Nope, he's not yellow.  Notice I said "he".  Yep, a chocolate male.  He is an American lab, not British. His name is Bear.

  God sure is fun sometimes, isn't He?

For more great pics and info, check out my eldest child's blog.