January 13, 2011

• Introducing: Bella Davis

  I have a great dislike for dogs.  A joke in my family is to tell me I’m getting a dog for Christmas, or my birthday. Since having children the joke has changed to, “I got the kids a dog for Christmas.” Blake and I have had more than a few “discussions” about why we are or are not going to get a dog. My list of why not has always been much longer that his list of why we should, so I have been lucky so far. My daughter Hope loves dogs. LOVES dogs. I don’t think I’ve ever met a child that likes dogs so much. She has wanted one very badly. Part of me started feeling a tiny bit guilty for not being willing to even consider getting one. Well this past Saturday we came home from our getaway trip to find that a stray dog and her five puppies had decided to take up residence under our storage building. The puppies were absolutely the cutest things! I knew we had to keep one. We brought all five puppies in and bathed them and sprayed them to get rid of their fleas. In the past four days we have gotten rid of all but the puppy we chose to be ours. So without further delay we would like to introduce:  
  

                       Bella Davis
  

  I love her. I honestly cannot figure out why. I mean yeah she is so stinkin cute, but so are all puppies and I’ve never wanted to take one home before. I had this thought that maybe its because she is mine. Or maybe because I just have this feeling that God meant Bella to be a Davis. I cannot believe that I am saying that about a dog… 

  Here she is taking a  nap on me. so sweet.

  

  Today we took the last of the other puppies to the animal shelter. I left one puppy with the mama dog to keep her happy, but Mama was finally picked up today so I was free to drop the last one off. Once we left him at the front, we decided to go to the back and see all the rest of the dogs in the shelter. I had no idea how sad that would be. I do not want to ever go back, that is for sure. Cage after cage of sad dogs. Many of them were shaking and whimpering looking up at us with hauntingly pitiful expressions. They had a bed and water and food, but they were so very sad looking. By the time we had looked at each one, I honestly wanted to cry. My stomach was aching. We got back into the car, and I just had to sit there for a minute and process. As the kids were getting our Bella out of her carrier and hugging her with relief that she would not be shaking in one of those cages, I heard God speak to my heart.

  “Christina, think how I feel as I ‘walk’ the halls of the orphanages all over this world every day.”

  And my breath stopped for a minute. Baby after baby, child after child, preteens and teenagers. They have food, water, and a bed. But they are scared, sad, heart broken. If a dog could become shaken and sad enough to sit and cry, because it has no one to love him, how much more devastated must a child feel? A child with a soul and a spirit.

  So we will love our Bella, but more importantly, we will keep praying and raising money to bring home our Ethiopian baby Davis, and when he gets here we will hug and kiss and nurture and play and love the sadness right out of him because he is so very precious.

          
  

  • 7:09 pm
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