Once upon a time, a family contemplated what to bring to their family for Christmas. After nights and nights of talking, the mom and dad decided to bring a dog to their family. And bring a dog they did.
We found Maximus on KSL classifieds. He is a great dog. He is cute and exactly what I had researched for a long time. So Santa came early for our girls… We thought that this year would be the best option for our family because our girls are a bit older and we haven’t been able to add to our family, so it seemed like the right move. Our girls were thrilled.
There is a however to this story. Dan and I chatted night after night about Max. Something wasn’t right. We just didn’t connect with Max as much as we wanted to. Dan and I tried so much but we realized it just wasn’t the right time and fit for our family. Even the girls didn’t seem to connect like we expected them to. So after prayers and discussion with the girls, and only three weeks, we posted him back on KSL. It must have been the right time because after an hour, we had found a new home for him. When the new owners came to pick him up, Max took them quickly. He was a much better fit… and it was sad for all of us. B really didn’t know what was going on but Abi handled herself well until he went out the door. Then she lost it. Dan was our strength but it was painful for him. I think I have had the hardest time with it. I was really the one who pushed it and he was “my” dog. I felt like I had caused my family pain. When the event was final, I just held Abi in my arms while we both cried.
So needless to say, our Christmas season had a little hiccup in it. We have all moved on, but once in a while he will cross our minds and there are still emotions there. I have felt a huge burden lifted, so I know we did the right thing. We want our girls to know that a dog is still in our future. Just under different seasons. We want them to know that we are family of changing our circumstances for the better, not just becoming stagnant with circumstances we aren’t happy in. We are a family of change and that is okay. It is okay to change and it is okay to feel emotions and pain.
And that Santa still has some good gifts in store
1 comment:
Haha, oh dear, we've done this exact scenario with our kids, too. Except ours was with a cat. We found this adorable little black stray and gave it a trial run for a week....we were sooo close to keeping her, but shw was having little accidents in her sleep, and I couldn't feel OK about investing time/money/etc. into an animal that might have issues. We took her to the shelter, and that was so hard. I'm telling ya', you and me are par for par this year with our lives, eh?
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