Day 2 - Counting our Blessings

This was our DON day – a Day of Nothingness. I’m so thankful that we built this day into our schedule, especially considering what happened yesterday. It was so nice to have this day to just relax, let the kids relax and have free time, and swim! My children have especially been looking forward to the swimming! They swam before lunch. They swam after lunch. They swam after dinner, right up to the closing of the pool.

Since nothing much happened today other than swimming, I wanted to share another blessing that God brought our way to take care of a need that we had on Day 1. It did not occur to me that the place where we made reservations for our first two nights would not allow our dogs to stay with us. Because I wasn’t planning to board the dogs anywhere, I didn’t bother to bring shot records along with us. Now, we had a problem. We really needed to find a place for our dogs to stay for a day and two nights. So, I began calling around.

            I called at least 6 different kennels and veterinarians within a 4- mile range of us. No one could take our dogs on such short notice. Finally, one of the vets called back and said she could take our dogs but only if we had shot records faxed over. Quickly, I called our vet back home to ask that the records be faxed over right away. Then, the clinic told me that both of our dogs were due for shots so would not be able to kennel with any other dogs. Oh, my, this situation was getting worse. This, on top of the car problems!

            As we were thinking, I remembered that we have close friends whose family lives near Denver (about 2 hours away). So, on a chance, I texted my friend and asked if her sister was still living there and would they be willing to keep our dogs for a couple of nights. To my surprise, less than a minute later she texted back to tell me that they are camping near there and that they could keep our dogs for us. What a surprise and a wonderful answer to our doggie dilemma. We were able to drive the dogs over to them. The car managed all right, and our problem was solved.

            As I pondered on this whole experience of Day one, I am amazed and humbled that God cares for even little things in our lives. He provided water to keep our car running to reach our destination. He knew we needed a place for our dogs to stay even before we did and managed to have our very close friends camping nearby on the exact day that we would need their help. All of this causes me to feel extremely loved and cared for by an all-mighty, all-powerful God who orchestrates our lives when we don’t even know it. He is at work all around us. We just need to be looking for Him, acknowledge Him, and He is there, working all things out for our good. He is ordering our steps even when we think we have made all the plans. Thank you, God, for your deep love and affection for us!