A Holy Pursuit

About a month ago, Bryan and I weren't sure how we were going to make ends meet. We had a variety of bills coming up, all due around the same time, and we felt like we were pinching pennies just to make it happen. A lot of it came from just moving to a new area, new bills, and me being without a job. Somehow we made it work with some very careful budgeting. A couple weeks ago we were blessed to find out that after thinking we were going to owe a hefty sum of taxes, we are actually getting back significantly more than we owed. We almost jumped up and ran around that desk to hug our tax preparer!  Beyond that, we were finally able to reach an agreement with our moving truck company to help pay for some damages done to some of our belongings on the trip to Columbus. That was a blessing to hear, as well.  So you all know that my beloved dog, Murphy, passed away last Sunday (on Bryan's birthday, nonetheless). That brought a whole new wave of emotions and memories and f...

Before I even got into showing dogs in 4-H I knew I was going to love it and I couldn't wait to start. However, my first dog, Buddy, was getting old and I knew he wasn't going to last as long as I wanted. So I started praying and looking for another dog. After a lot of research I decided on a golden retriever. I knew they were really expensive so I prayed more. I considered many different options and got a little discouraged, but one evening after one of my high school volleyball games my dad took a detour. I was really confused where we were going but soon we had stopped at a house and out of the garage came running three or four golden retrievers. I was beyond excited! Then my dad and the dog's owner (who happened to be a truck driver who delivered to my dad's work) started telling me about Murphy. He was a little over a year old and his owner said he had terrible behavior and chewing problems. He didn't know what else to do with Murphy and his wife had told him ...