Blessed

This week has been a whirlwind of crazy! Wednesday night hubs came into the living room and woke me up to tell me his great-grandmother had passed away. We debated our options for a while and I went back to bed with everything left hanging for the night. We had no idea about the arrangements or what hubs' work would let him do as far as time off went.

We were anxious about me making a seven hour trip after a minor spotting issue Thursday, and his dad suddenly changed his tune and seemed to think we should just stay home, but we really wanted to see them, and we knew in the coming months travel would only get more challenging. With the doctor's okay, we headed out around 4 am on Friday morning.

I'm so glad we chose to go. The circumstances were not the best, but it was wonderful to see everyone and it was great to celebrate the life of an amazing woman. We saw family that I have never met before. Right away, we realized everyone knew about our news and we were both overwhelmed by the love and the joy people had for us. There were people hubs had not seen since he was a little boy that would come up and hug us and congratulate us, saying they had prayed for us for so long and couldn't wait to meet our little one.

We didn't realize how much hubs' great grandmother knew about the past few months, but she knew it all. Hubs' grandmother told us she had cried and mourned deeply when we lost Espe. She prayed daily for us and was overjoyed when they told her we were expecting again. She made quick work to inform the whole family and instructed them all to pray for this tiny little person.

The drive to the funeral home and the church was an hour and a half from the in laws' house, so by the end of the funeral on Saturday, everyone was exhausted. In fact, Friday night on the way back from the visitation, I cried the entire way home. There were so many people, we had been going on very little sleep, I was hungry, and exhausted, and all I could do was cry. I worried hubs a bit at first, but I assured him I was just overwhelmed and tired.

Sunday morning we slept in and then hubs' dad decided to cook breakfast. I love his breakfast! While eating, my brother called. We had split the pups up, leaving our older dog Zina with my grandmother and Parker with my brother at my parents' house. Parker had slipped out that morning and my brother was frantic. He couldn't find him anywhere. I surprisingly didn't panic. I told him just to keep calling him and he would come back and to call us when he did. I didn't start to worry that much until later that afternoon when I woke from a two hour nap and still had not gotten a phone call.

Mom and Dad had been out of town and got back earlier than we did, so a search party ensued. My brother's girlfriend went through the wooded areas behind their house and they all drove around calling and searching. When we got there around midnight, there was still no sign of him. Parker was my first Christmas present from hubs and he has never wandered away that long. When he still didn't pop up Monday morning, I was certain we had lost him for good.

I called animal control and left a message early that morning with my number just in case they got any calls and mom and I left to run some errands. Around lunch time I got a phone call. The man that runs our tiny animal control center started asking me questions about when and where he was lost. Then he said "Does he happen to be a small, furry, apricot colored, pup?" Tears instantly poured down my face. He told me they had gotten a call about a small dog under a car in a field that was very scared and wouldn't come out. It happened to be across the street from my parents' home. I called hubs and he rushed down to scoop up a very dirty and very traumatized Parker.

This morning I woke up with all of my furry babies surrounding me in the bed and this amazing feeling of being loved and cared about. I feel so blessed. Hubs family put aside their feelings for a while this weekend to show us how much they cared for our little one while my family spent hours searching for our pup back home.

God answered many prayers this week for us, some tiny and some rather large, but everyone just as meaningful and wonderful to me.