Are you ready for our big announcement?
Kevin and I would like to announce that we are expanding our family...
with a
PUPPY!
Kevin and I have had our hearts set on adopting a puppy since before we were even engaged. We both grew up in dog lover homes and knew that once we were married we'd be on the hunt for a pup of our own.
Well life happened, cars broke, a new car was purchased, we traveled to see family...etc...etc.
So we put off looking with a goal in mind of sometime in January...
but my heart couldn't help it and I started looking in early December despite our said goal.
We had decided we really wanted a labrador retriever and one that is a young puppy so we could train her and grow with her. Problem with that? Those in the pounds and shelters go so fast that the minute you find them online, they're gone! Those through breeders cost up $1200! Holy Moly! No way.
I found what I thought was our perfect sweet puppy off craigslist for $40! But by the time we talked it out and looked through our finances they were gone...
and I cried.
About a week or so later I found that Pet'sMart was having an adoption event in OKC. I convinced Kevin to go and we left as quick as possible after he got off work, with our home set up for a puppy.
None tugged on our hearts, and none of them were lab puppies...
and I cried again.
My tears probably weren't totally attributed to the puppyness...I was starting to feel a little lonely on Saturdays and work had been busy and quite lonely as well...it all just sort of mushed together and created a crying-me nightmare. Poor Kevin.
After the second round of tears, I promised myself to not look again till January. We'd be done visiting with family by then and I'd have four days at home alone to search and get some other things done.
But I wasn't very good at holding promises to myself.
Saturday morning before Christmas, I woke up early and watched a tv show... and did a little craig's list search. I came upon a lady who was offering her 8 week old black lab for $150. She was giving her up because her precious 4 pound yorkie and the lab weren't exactly playing well. The lab wanted to rough house more than the yorkie, obviously.
On a whim, I sent the lady an email...knowing full well that we were leaving in a few days and had no reservations for a dog kennel or knew of any...and all of our friends had left...
But she was a full bred lab and so young but she was also black haired.
That threw me.
I had a white one when I was in highschool and had my heart set on another.
I had tons of reasons why I wanted another white/blonde/tan (whatever you want to call it).
But my heart was drawn to this sweet little face staring at me on the screen:
I watched the email like a hawk and tried desperately not to get too excited.
Kevin woke up not too much later and came downstairs asking what I was up to.
I showed him the screen and he melted too.
GREEN LIGHT PEOPLE!
He said to go ahead and email her...haha already did that husband!
As we sat there together, the lady emailed back. Our conversations went back and forth. We wanted her to know we were interested but didn't know what to do with her while we would be away in Florida.
We prayed, we talked, we emailed.
We felt peace.
We emailed her back and said YES! And within the hour we were rushing to get dressed and look presentable to go see the puppy we'd just said we'd adopt.
At a Dollar General we met the newest member of our family.
The lady was kind and clearly took good care of the puppy, she appreciated that we prayed about the puppy and she offered to take care of her for another week until we returned from our trip.
God answers even the smallest of prayers.
Our hearts are so full!
Though, we won't lie, there have been times already in the 3 days we've had her that we've asked ourselves, what did we get ourselves into?!
Yet she melts our hearts and we are so excited to train her and have her be a part of our family,
forever and always.
So yes, you can expect plenty of puppy pictures in future posts...
and also coming soon to the blog...a series of posts recording Kevin and I's story.