Thankful Thursday on the New Blog!

I am finally posting something real for the new blog address. It is only a month late. This is not a new place for me. We are currently travelling to Franklin, TN for the annual Christian Child and Family Services Association meeting. Troy is navigating us through the storms. I just finished a book. Ron is taking notes from our meeting today, our totally cool communal discernment project that Ron has been working very hard on for his D-Min at Abilene.

Today I am thankful for dogs. I am especially thankful for our Mercy. (As seen below finishing the last bit in a jar of good ol' Jiff!)

I love that God gives us dogs. Cial, the one we had before Mercy absolutely saved our hearts from ruin. She helped us through the failed adoption and loss of Troy's dad and hurts and moves and losses of plans…

Mercy is just a goober. She is a rescued-from-the-pound dog. We saw her on the website and saw that she was not the cutest dog ever. Her ears were, and are, HUGE! She had not grown into them at that point and really hasn't fully done so now. The first time we had friends over, she growled at the young girl from her kennel. We thought we would have to get rid of her. I called the pound and asked about what we should do. The lady there began asking me questions as to what I had done to prepare her for people. I cried and cried b/c those were the style of questions I would have asked a parent with a child that was unruly.

So, we went to work and socialized our odd-looking 9 month old mutt. This was January, 2007. She has been with us over 2 years now. She now lies in the bed all day and loves the little girl she once was so startled by. In the mornings, she stretches out and lays her head on your ankle or gets up between us for what we have dubbed "Family Cuddle Time." Yes, it is all quite silly. However, she is our child. The only one we have right now. She minds us (almost always) and when she leaves the yard b/c we have missed the boat, she comes back home.

I am thankful for the way God has chosen to use dogs to touch the hearts of people.