Barli Bear: An Update

Our baby bear is back home! We picked her up yesterday morning. She was so excited to see us! I had a little bit of a hard time looking at her at first, but I got over myself and it wasn't so bad. She was a little scared on the ride home. Tom sat in the back seat and held her on the way home. Once we got home, she realized where she was and became her happy self. She has done so well. She hasn't really acknowledged that her leg is gone.She is running and jumping and even "boxing" again! I am in awe of how well she adapted in just 3 short days! God is so amazing and I know that He is why we have our precious Barli Bear! Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday.

Life Lately

Hi y'all! Sorry that I haven't written in what feels like 100 years! Did you know that having a full time job is not easy? I didn't know. I was definitely surprised. I honestly did not think it would be this hard. I hate feeling unprepared, but honestly, that's all I feel lately. I have such a great support system, though. I have really had to learn to rely on them and on God who is enough for me.  This morning while I was doing my Bible Study Fellowship lesson one question really stood out to me. It asked "What positive and/or negative thoughts does the word 'saved' bring to you? Why?" Here's my answer: "Rescue - I am completely helpless without God's gift of salvation. I NEED to be saved, rescued. It's not a matter of need versus want... It's not up for debate. I NEED a Savior." That's what I have realized over the past 4 weeks of school. I cannot do this without Him. I tried. Ask me how that went. The past 2 days where I've started my day with God, meeting Him in my kitchen before school, have been INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT than the other days I've been at school. I have had more patience, more empathy, the students have been better behaved. I know that it's God.  A little update on Barli: She had her leg amputated today. This was an extremely difficult decision to make. I posted my thoughts on it here. My super awesome, loving, caring, stud muffin husband dropped her off at the vet this morning. I am so thankful that he was able to do it so that I didn't have to. I am having a really hard time with this. I feel so silly for crying about it, but it literally makes me cry. We will pick her up either Friday evening or Saturday morning. What I keep thinking is that I'll never see my dog with all her limbs again. Please pray for me that I'll have peace with our decision and for Barli's recovery! 

Barli Bear

In case you don't know Barli's story, here you go: In February, my sister-in-law who volunteers at the humane society in Bryan texted Tom and told him about a brindle Boxer puppy at the shelter. She told us that the puppy had a broken leg. Tom told me about her and I was convinced that we had to save her. Tom was the first approved applicant, so the puppy was ours. 
We named her Barli (little bear) and she stole our hearts. Tom took her to a vet down here to have her leg looked at and the vet gave us two options: amputate or try to save the leg. We chose to try to save the leg, even though it was more expensive and not guaranteed to work. Barli had surgery to put pins in her leg. These pins were in there for about a month and a half. She couldn't be a normal puppy during this time. She couldn't run or jump. She cried a lot and was on constant medications. When her pins came out it was such a good day. We had a "normal" puppy. 
Fast forward to May. We had noticed that Barli isn't walking right. This has caused her to put pressure on her paw and the pads on the bottom of her paw were wearing away. We took her to the vet in Mansfield and he gave us some medicine to put on the pads. By June the problem hadn't gotten any better. We had an x-ray of her leg done and it seemed like the bone didn't heal correctly. This is what was (possibly) causing her to walk wrong. Dr. K told us we might have to amputate a toe. 
Fast forward to yesterday. The pads were STILL gone (think bloody paw prints everywhere) and an abscess had formed on the side of her foot, too. I took her to the vet in College Station today and he did an x-ray. He said that he thinks everything healed correctly, but that there has been nerve damage in her paw and that's why she walks wrong, twisting her foot with every step. He suggested we amputate the whole leg. He said that there's not going to be a way to save the foot. Of course, we are going to get a second opinion from Dr. K, but how do you look at your puppy that you've come to love so much and try to picture her with one less leg? 
How do you decide whether or not your dog gets to keep all her legs? How do you know if you're making the right decision? How do you make that decision knowing that you can't go back? I feel like this is so insignificant when compared to other people's problems, but she's my fur baby. She's the closest thing I have to a child and I want to protect her. I want to take the pain from her. I want to make it all go away. I want to have a "normal" 7 month old Boxer, who doesn't lay on the couch all day, not eating, not playing, because she's hurting. 
Please pray for us that we will have wisdom making this decision. My heart is hurting. 

Our Home

Remember this post? I spent the last month or so trying to find a place for me and Tom to live. I knew I wanted it to be close enough to family, but far enough away that we could be on our own. It's hard to find somewhere to live when you're searching from 3 hours away! I am so thankful that we have a real estate friend who was awesome enough to help us by sending daily emails with info on rent houses. 
That's how I found this super cute house in Mansfield. I knew it would go fast because it was such a good price, allowed pets, and was in a good area. I messaged my friend and set up a showing to see that house and a few others. When she was setting up the showings, she couldn't get the information for any of the other houses I had requested to see, except for the Mansfield house. God totally had His hand on the situation! I did get to look at 2 other houses when I drove up to see the Mansfield house, but they absolutely didn't compare! 
The house was everything we were looking for. It has a huge garage, a beautiful back porch, large backyard, and a skylight in the master bathroom! I knew that I wanted to apply for it, but I was in DFW and Tom was in College Station (and in class all day away from his phone). My real estate friend, my sister, and I went to the property management place and got to talk to the managers about what we needed to do to be in this house. They said that in order to be considered for this house, you had to fill out the application and pay the application fee and security deposit by cashiers check. That afternoon was so hectic. We drove all around Arlington getting everything needed to apply for the house. The company was nice enough to take just my application since Tom wasn't there to sign anything. They said we could email it in. So that's what we did! When I came back to College Station the next day, we filled out Tom's application, scanned it in, and emailed it to the property management company.   We got a call yesterday afternoon from the company saying that we had been approved and that we could move in August 1! We were ecstatic!! So now we are trying to figure out how we will move all of our stuff from College Station to Mansfield while Tom is in class. HAHAH I know that it will all work out in the end, though. I might just be sleeping on a blowup mattress for a little bit ;) Even if I am, I will be praising God for giving us this amazing opportunity to be in the town we love, near the people we care so much about! 
 I am so excited to be moving in to our home in just 11 days! 

Choosing to Laugh

I'm a mess, y'all... I have lost [and found] our marriage license TWICE in the past week... I can't make this up. I think that I have really bad wedding brain still. I also think that it has something to do with getting a job and filling out SO many papers. I usually don't mind paperwork, but it was a beat down for sure! I am really ready for the school year to start and for things to get back to normal. We don't know where we will be living in August which is really scary for me. I know that God will make sure that we have somewhere to stay [probably with one of our families for a month] and that I shouldn't worry about it, but I am SUCH a worrier. I keep this verse close to my heart at all times

I am a woman of God and I don't need to worry about the days to come!! I can focus on being a good homemaker and wifey right now! I don't need to let the worry of tomorrow overshadow today. This doesn't mean that we won't be working to save money [and maybe make a little money] these next 6 weeks, but that I won't be consumed by that worry. God has so much in store for us and I can't wait to see what happens in the coming months. I am thankful to have God's Word to comfort me when I worry. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to laugh at the days to come!