What a beautiful day today was. I woke up to birds singing in the trees in our front yard - I saw two cardinals and a robin. There was a gentle breeze blowing and everything felt so fresh and new. Just like God's mercy and love.
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
I am so humbled when I think about how much God loves me. And He shows that love to me in so many ways - especially (to me anyway) in the beauty of nature. I feel His presence more when I see and hear the birds, in the gentle breeze blowing on my face, in the vivid green of the trees all around. How He must love me to give all that to me. His mercy and love is new every morning and He is always, always there with me.
I felt Him today as I was watching Thea walking across the yard - very very wobbly. I found myself thinking what now - why is she doing this? Then I thought - ask God for his comfort and strength; and I felt that no matter what happens, He is there to see me through it. Thea is getting older and things just don't work like they used to. And I will be thanking God for every day I have with her. She goes to work with me every day, so I have her companionship with me all the time. So even in this time of concern, I can feel God blessing me.
I am so thankful for His love, His mercy, His comfort. He is my Lord, the King of Kings, and I love Him.
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
John 14:2-3
Today we made a very difficult decision. Sitting here writing this tonight - I start to cry again. It was a decision that was for the best but was still very hard to do.
We let Jenna go back to the Greyhound Rescue Group. She did nothing really wrong - she did not have an aggressive bone in her body. She is the sweetest, most loving dog I have seen in a long time. Unfortunately, she is also a very playful YOUNG dog and we have three SMALL, OLD dogs.
Jenna's favorite pasttime in the last couple weeks has been - "let's pounce on the dogs". The three IG's are afraid to go outside with her - they refuse to go out if she is out in the yard. And they all love to be outside when it is nice. If they did go out when she was out there, we would have to stand over the little ones to keep Jenna from jumping on them. Thea has already borne the brunt of one such "pounce" when her neck was cut. And now she is becoming more and more unsteady on her back legs and it doesn't take much to make her lose her balance. The last 3-4 days Fancy and Jenna have been out together (they seemed to get along better). But for the last 3-4 days, we have gone running to the back door because Fancy would be yelping and crying outside. We could not see what happened but Fancy was very scared and wanted inside.
So after discussing it this morning and realizing it was not fair to any of them, we decided to let Jenna go. We know she will find a new home really fast as she is such a sweet dog. And we are hoping she will have a BIGGER playmate that she can run and chase around the yard. And the little girls here can now go outside and get off the chair without being jumped on.
We both will miss her and we both have cried, but we also know it was the right thing to do for all the dogs and for us. We love you Jenna!!
And here she is - my own little "Frankenstein" - Thea-stein. Today she had her 3rd accupuncture treatment and she is showing definite improvement. Her head tilt is almost gone and she seems a little less painful. She can move her neck a little more freely now. Dr. Olson is pleased with her progress and her next appointment won't be for 3 weeks!!! Then after her accupuncture treatment, she is extremely tired and as you can see, she crashed in the back seat of my car and slept SOUNDLY all the way home.
I am very thankful she is feeling better and I pray she will continue to improve. Knowing she is feeling better makes it easier for me to leave her for a few days while I visit the Shenandoah National Park. I am excited about seeing some beautiful country and taking some beautiful pictures.
Vacation - what a wonderful thing!!! My vacation started on Friday and I will be off all this week. It will be a time of relaxing, photography, and fellowship. My friend Sandy and I will be leaving on Wednesday morning and driving to Shenandoah National Park. We will be spending three days and two nights in a lodge on the Skyline Drive in the Park. It is supposed to have fabulous views and lots of hiking trails. I am looking forward to peace and quiet, and taking lots and lots of pictures. We will also be visiting a couple of the caverns that are there - Luray Caverns and Shenandoah Caverns. Then we will head back home on Friday and will probably stop and see other sights and spend the night somewhere along the route home. It will be a vacation with no set in stone plans and lots of time to do whatever we want. I know though that I will miss my "girls", especially Thea. She seems to be doing better with her treatment. But we spend so much time together (she goes to work with me every day and she follows me everywhere I go in the house) - that it will be hard not having her with me. But I know Terri will take good care of her. I am looking forward to this vacation - I know the Lord will bless our time together and bring us even closer to Him!! Lord, thank you for loving me and thank you for all the blessings you have given me. I pray you will watch over us and keep us safe while on vacation and that you will reveal yourself to us in everything we see and do. I pray everything we do while on vacation, that it will bring glory and honor to You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
