The other day, I was reading to Rori and Liam, from the Jesus Storybook Bible--if you have kids, get it! We were reading about Jesus dying on the cross because Liam was struggling to understand what a cross was and how someone could die on one. We got to the part where God turns His back on Jesus and the book says, "'Papa?' Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky.'Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!'" And I could tell that Rori could feel that. She started to cry and asked me why God left Him there on the cross and didn't answer Him. I started to weep. My sweet daughter's sensitivity and fear for Jesus gave me a clearer understanding of the magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father and God the Son made on that day. For me, sweet Rori. He turned His back on His Son for me and for you.

Igor

Most of you that know me, know that we used to have the world's best dog. Her name was Leia, and she died suddenly when Rori was just about to turn one year old. We looked into getting another dog soon after, but she was irreplaceable. We had talked about it here and there for the last 5 years and occasionally browsed adoptable dogs online. I told Bill that we could get a dog when everyone in the house could use the potty. I wasn't going to housebreak a dog while changing diapers. That's just too much poop for one person. Well, Brendan is nowhere near potty-trained...but...I am clearly not a woman of my word.

Bill is on an email list from a pet photography place that takes pictures of adoptable animals. Bill showed me one named Igor. I laughed at the name, but then started to read about him. He was smallish--35 pounds, he was sweet, got along with other dogs (which is important because of Sarge--my parent's dog especially because they bring him with when they visit), and he was housebroken. We emailed about him to see if he had been cat tested because we had tried to adopt a dog a few years ago (I think I wrote about it then) and she was not cat friendly and tried to eat our cats. I'm ok if the dog wants to eat the neighborhood feral cats, in fact, I encourage it. However, I'm not wanting that for my personal cats.

Cortney, the person fostering him, emailed us back and said he hadn't been cat tested but would be happy to bring him out to see how he did. So that evening she and her husband came over with Igor. Cortney, if you're reading this, I apologize about the state of my house--Bill gave me about 45 minutes notice that you were coming and we had been busy all day so the house was a disaster. Who am I kidding, the house usually looks like that by 4:30 on a Friday ;-) Anyway, they brought Igor in and he seemed a bit nervous. I had instructed the kids not to get all up in his face and scare him, so they hung back until I told them it was ok. Rori, I could tell, immediately fell in love with him. So, we brought him to meet Scout, our cat. He pretty much ignored the cat and he listened really well. I was starting to think this was our dog! They left and Rori immediately asked when Igor could come over again. That night Bill and I talked about it and decided that if they wanted to let us adopt Igor, we would love to do it!

The next morning, I had an email that they thought we were a perfect family for Igor! We were all excited and couldn't wait to officially adopt him. Even Liam, who does NOT give his love freely (which if you've met him, you know that) asked when Igor was coming back. Cortney dropped him off that evening and he was ours!

I was sure that he was going to become "my" dog since I would be spending the most time with him. However, I learned tonight that I was wrong. I had to speak rather sternly (i.e. yell) at miss Rori Rose this evening at bedtime because she was not wanting to go to bed. Igor leaned against my leg real hard and when I left the room, he laid down by her bed. I called him to come out but he stayed there. I took a shower and peaked in and he was still there with no desire to follow me. He has found his true love. And she has given him her heart as well.  I am pretty sure if she wasn't in the top bunk, the picture below would be a nightly occurrence! (For the record, he has won my heart too, but I don't think he cares nearly as much about that as he does about the children)!