A life lesson...

So sorry for the overly excited post earlier today. Aaron and I have learned so much in this one day it is amazing. It has been so emotional, sad, frustrating, and harder than we ever expected.

Here is the story...

We have been looking for a dog for a long time. We have been searching pound websites, shelter websites and rescue websites, all for the perfect dog. When we found Manny, we thought we had found just that. We were not 100% about getting a dog. We did have some doubts, such as 'what will we do with the dog when we want to go somewhere?', 'how will he react to us', 'how will his heart surgery affect him', and 'who will take care of him if we can't for a weekend or longer?' All of these things were lingering in our minds as we decided to go ahead and begin fostering Manny.

So we did it. We began fostering Manny last night. He was the sweetest dog, and as good as can be. We probably couldn't ask for a better dog. Our only complaint was timing in our lives.

Very quickly, as we were realizing all of the requirements for a dog, even in such a short time, we realized that it was not the time for use to have a dog. We are very much in a growing phase of our marriage, and still learning how to be married, honestly. We also would have problems seeing family, who we are very close with, because pets are not allowed in their homes. We knew that it would be a struggle to find places for him to stay if we ever wanted to leave again. We love Manny too much to leave him in a cage or a garage.

Needless to say, we became very attached to the little guy in the first 20 hours we had him. It has been an EXTREMELY hard day and an EXTREMELY hard decision for us to make, but we have returned Manny to his previous foster mom.

We were blessed to spend the time with him that we did, and had it been a few years down the road we would have been his permanent home without a doubt. (Aaron hopes we still will...who knows!) A positive for the day is that Manny was extremely happy to be back at the foster mom's home with his three dog pals. He took off running for them as soon as Aaron got him out of the car. We will miss him, but know that there is a family out there who will give him so much love.

Thank you, Lord for all of the lessons we have learned today. We really did love that little guy, but know that it is in everyone's best interest for us to not have a dog right now. We pray that you will give him a loving home in which he will get all the attention he needs, and will not be neglected. We praise you in every situation. In Christ's Name, Amen

We love you Manny!
Aaron & Nikki