Doing Better -- Thankful for What We Have

Thanks so much, all, for your expressions of support, care, and encouragement. As many of you reminded me, there is still much for us to celebrate and be thankful for.

So, despite losing a pup this morning, I'm doing far better (Elsie is, too). I'm still a little sad, especially since he was a healthy, thriving pup, but, I'm focusing now more on what we have left (and not as much on what we lost).

Number one on the list is that we have a perfectly fine, healthy Elsie. I took this photo this morning. Doesn't she look great?!

Number two is that Elsie has turned out to be a terrific mom to her pups -- ideal, in fact. We couldn't have asked for better. So I'm tickled for her (and us).

We also have eight wiggly, healthy, beautiful, thriving pups -- and that's one more than we expected as it is. We have much to treasure.

So I'm giggling over their antics again. I'm letting my heart be warmed by the pups' grunts and vocalizations (how like human infants they sound sometimes!). I'm still awed by the beauty of birth and life-giving. And I'm humbled by our inability to control it all.

As a friend put it, too, on the phone today (when I apologized for crying over a puppy), I needed to realize my broken heart is a sign that I have a heart - a caring, tender heart, and that's a good thing (I haven't become hardened and stoic in my 47 years). And the reality is, though having a tender heart brings pain, it also brings deeper joy and far greater ability to experience life's beauty and graces.

So that's what I'm trying to do now: treasure the graces and rejoice over our beautiful "grandbabies." :o)

We are, of course, going to the vet tomorrow to have Elsie and the pups all checked out and to have the pups dew claws removed. And I'll feel more secure then.

And yes, I've been counting pups all day and making sure no one is under her. I can't help myself. But that will pass as they get a little bigger and better move themselves around.

In any case, I'm back to being able to celebrate the gift we have in our eight pups and our healthy Elsie.

And, of course, our gifts in Baxter, Ridge, and Kenya to boot.

Thanks for walking this road with us (f0r good and bad). It's helped a bunch to know so many of you have gone through the very same thing. Your encouragements have meant more than you know.

'Til next time,
Joan