Comments!!!

This middle aged person in my just figured out how to make comments easy.  You don't have to sign up to anything, don't have to have an account anywhere.  Now you can just comment.  So I look forward to messages -- just be sure to let me know if you choose "anonymous" just so I can answer you intelligently!

OK, Well, We're Not Expecting Miracles

And she's not always this reticent.  But this is a good marker for today, and in 3 months and then again in six months, we'll chart our progress.  Bless her heart, she's trying so hard.  You can see it in her -- she wants to do everthing that every other dog wants to do.  She just can't bring herself to do it.  We're going to start some basic obedience training as soon as she recovers from her spaying procedure.  She's very smart, and a quick learn, despite her fears.  We're going to work on the back door bells for going out, among other things.  At any rate, I give you our dearest, our little Miss Elsa McGee....

Great Expectations

How to live up to the title in just one post.  Impossible.  Suffice it to say that Stiva and I (and Elsa and Tuffy) enjoyed the 1946 version of Dickens' "Great Expectations" as a family tonight.  Stiva has since gone to bed, but not without the significant nods of the head when the phrase was uttered throughout the movie.

If you haven't read the book, there is no excuse.  It's available here, free of charge, to all who are interested:  http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/1400/1400.txt  You don't need to sign up, you don't need to have an email address.  All you need to do is read.

It made me think about what the poor kids being brought up today are going through.  They are denied the real life experiences and hardships of the hero "Pip" and yet, they have the label of "Great Expectations" etched on their foreheads.  What can we expect of these children?  Ultimate failure, I'm afraid.

We shall not harangue, we shall just observe.  And exempt our little canines from "great expectations".  We shall only love them, and encourage them to be the best they can be.  In this way, they cannot ever let us down.  They can only ever belong.  To us.

Dickens is believed by many in today's literary circles as shallow -- as a writer who wrote in installments for monthly journals -- as a "recipe" author.  So you can also accuse Harriet Beecher Stowe or Louisa May Alcott.  Judge if you wish to, that's perfectly ok.

Dickens was a hater of social evils -- an early civil rights proponent.  He hated and exposed social evils, injustice, and hypocrisy. While yet a child, he came to understand the concept of oppression.  He was not allowed to finish his own education; rather, he went to work in a factory.  He had plenty of characters from his personal experience on which to base the characters of his books.

If you ask me in person, I could tell you about a lot of characters I have met:  Larry, Newman, Christine, and others.  Good grief, but a life of gainful employment does give one characters to work with!!!

So I'm not sure what the conclusion of this post it.  Just an acknowledgement that folks need to be loved, even dogs, and great expectations are usually a setup to great failure, sad to say.

Here's to letting kids be kids!!!  And growing up with the burden of the knowledge of (REAL) fair play and justice.  Not just the ubiquitous "It's not your turn yet" of shallow parents to even more shallow chidren, but real self-sacrifice and social justice from parents who have done some serious self-examination to children for whom the prayer is to be real, grounded people with a real life and a real God.  The real important stuff.  Because how to get ahead and always hold your head up as a "respectable person" is pretty shallow stuff, for sure.  Great expecations -- of the parents/benefactors.  It's a real mess!

Friends!

Tuffy and Elsa would appear to be dear friends already.

If you are a "dog" person, you will understand that two dogs who have known each other fewer than 72 hours, who can share a blankie face to face like that, with a chewey thing between them, with no aggression, no stress -- this is a very good match indeed.

I haven't had too many friends as close as this in my life.  I have been blessed with a few, but these types of friends are few and far between.

I'm so thankful that Elsa is with us, and I'm so thankful that it's all working out the way it is.  She is a dear, sweet girl, and a comfortable companion not only to us, but to Tuffy.

I feel bad that she doesn't have a winter coat, having come from "the south" (Georgia?).  It's really cold outside, and I can see her shivering.  I know we'll all feel a lot better when the temperature rises in the (hopefully) near future.

At any rate, our little family is complete again, and I can say it is complete in a sweet, comfortable way.

All is Well

Elsa arrived this evening.  She certainly is loaded with fears, but she had a wonderful arrival here.  She seems to really like "Big Steve" and has initiated contact with us several times.

Right now, though, they are all worn out.  Look closely.  Does it look much different from in the past, I mean, other than the fact that Elsa is where Theo used to be?

At any rate, the dear ones are resting comfortably, and all is well.

We have WORD! Part Last

We received word yesterday that Elsa is ours, barring any freakish circumstance.  I know she will be blessed by her new friend and companion, Tuffy.  He was a gentle companion first to Nikki, our dear friend Anna's dog, and then to our own beloved Theo.  Tuffy has a servant's heart and a healing manner.



Keep those prayers coming.  Elsa has a long way to go before she isn't haunted by fears perpetually.  She needs to find out that being a dog is a VERY GOOD thing!

Sister Agnes

As I run around this place on the Lord's Day, trying to bring peace to all who enter here -- I feel a bit disheveled more often than not.  Things aren't what they ought to be, and sometimes, quite frankly, I don't even care.

It brings to mind a dear sister in the Lord, Sister Agnes, who ran her home in much the same way.  I'm pretty sure she was spread way thinner than I am now.  Her home was, oftentimes, in disarray.  But if you visited there, you felt the hospitality of the Lord, and you were welcomed and never judged.  Especially if you were a raggedy, dirty little child.  Dear Agnes never saw that dirty child.  She only saw that dear creation of her Lord, made for a purpose.  She really was blessed.

I remember thinking, in my foolish youthful mind, that I wouldn't want to run my home in such a way.  So, when we judge, the dear Lord gives us a measure of understanding. 

He judges us by who we are, by our faith, by how we love him, by our service, not how others judge us.  So I'm taking comfort in the fact that I know that folks are blessed when they come here.  They keep coming back in droves.  And friends, that's not me.  It's not my home.  It's nothing here.  I strongly suspect my dear Sister Agnes had some of the same thoughts running through her head as well.

It's God's love.  It's peace.  It's real joy.

I'll leave you with this...because it's what I'm listening to right now...

A Very Good Day

Whilst roaming through the images on dear Stiva's cell phone, I came across this image.  It was the picture of a very, very good day, enjoyed by all.  I don't remember the circumstance of the celebration, but I do remember the enjoyment of these kids (our foster kids at the time).  As I stated in a previous post, a picture paints a thousand words.  The looks on these kids faces says it all -- as does the look on Stiva's face!!!