She needed a friend. One she could confide in. One she could share her hopes and dreams with. One she could trust to not tell anyone her deepest secrets. Yes, she has friends, but they are thousands of miles away. She misses them dreadfully. She will reconnect with them when she goes home....but until then she needed a friend by her side. A friend who understands her, trusts her, is devoted to her. She has her Dad & Mom but they are, well, a little old fashioned. Even a slight bit embarrassing in the public, she has to admit. Sooo, well, 1970's.
There are very few girls her age in LaBorie. Actually, none that I know of. She is the only girl in a class of boys and the closest girl her age at church is 10 years old.
She has her sister, but, as she told her yesterday, she is NOT going to like her till they are grown up.
I guess my constant reminding her, that
one day your sister will be your best friend, is slowly sinking in. Yes, it brings back so many memories of me and my sister at home. Of her being so annoying, wanting to follow me everywhere, wearing my clothes and other high crime things like that. After warning her if I catch her wearing my clothes one more time, I am going to dump all her clothes out the window onto the adjoining roof, I did just that. My poor mother. I pity her now. So, yes, she has her sister but it will be awhile till she
likes her.
Meet Diamond...her shadow, her confident, her soul mate...
Diamond, I, at first, didn't really like you. With your scrawny legs, gaunt body and flea infested belly, it was not love at first sight. But, as I saw the change that came over my daughter as she fell head over heels in love with you, I grudgingly accepted your position in the family. You took advantage of that little flame of love and worked it to your benefit. You made me weigh the consequences of breaking my vow of NEVER having a dog in MY house with the fact that you do add a lot of character to this house hold. When you look up at me with those big black eyes and wag your scrawny little tail, I can't help but like you a little bit. Added to that, is the fact that my floor has never been cleaner, with your razor sharp eyes noticing every crumb that falls. If I were to write a book on you, this is how it would go....
Chapter 1
We were a happy family of 6. We thought it was really pretty near perfect....2 girls and 2 boys. But then there came some changes in our lives. A few scares to be exact....and we started thinking. Wouldn't it be nice to add another member to the family? One that would stay alert when we are deep in sleep? One that we could count on to protect us? We weren't looking for a viscous beast that would leave its marks on any intruder. Just a yip and a yap would be fine. With those thoughts in mind, we began thinking about ways to extend our family. But where do we begin?
Yes, there were lots of canines roaming the neighborhood. Some short, some tall, some fat, some scrawnier than scrawny. Ugly ones, cute ones. Friendly ones, viscous ones. But, which one is the one for us? Most of these dogs, even if they roam for miles, have a home and someone who cares for them, so we couldn't just pluck one off the street and say, "Ok, this one is ours now."
Well, soon after we began our search we noticed a litter of puppies at a random house. Hmmm...could one of these be for us? After finding out that, yes, they are for sale, Chris asked how much he wants for one. "Well, how much do you want to pay?" the guy asked. (That should have been our first clue) Now we bought and sold more than one dog back home, but those were pure bred, registered, de-wormed, vaccinated dogs and we had no clue what the going rate was for a flea infested, worm bellied little pup. "How about $100ec" asked the guy. (That should have been our 2nd clue) "Yea, she's a good mom...she drops 12 or 13 each time," he added. (3rd clue, this guy probably would have paid us to take one, but we are naive foreigners) My husband, striving to get the best deal, said, "Well, how about $60ec." With some quick figuring in his head, he figured out that would only be around $25 American money for the dog. A real deal, if you consider back home we'd pay around $500 for one. The deal was finalized and he walked away with 4 thrilled children and one lucky mutt. After I shared this story with Alana, one of my Grenadian friends, she looked at me incredulously and said,"You WHAT? You PAID for a dog!??" So now, instead of gloating over our deal, we feel we paid $25 too much. At least we made someone's day.
Chapter 2
It was her 2nd evening with us. Kaylah and I were gone for most of the evening and returned home to find furrowed brows and anxious eyes. "We've looked EVERYWHERE for Diamond and we can't find her!" In milliseconds Kaylah's mood went from delighted to distressed. We began OUR search, calling her name, (which she didn't even know yet) and looking in all the nooks and crannys on our small property with flashlights. We looked long after the rest of the family retired for the night. We prayed and strained our ears in hopes of hearing any distant whimpering. All was quiet. Finally, after admitting defeat, she crawled in bed, with tears in her eyes and a prayer on her lips. Sometime after midnight, I was aroused out of a deep sleep. Am I dreaming? No, I'm not! It's a yip and a yap, and it sounds familiar! I crawled out of bed, unlocked the padlock on the gate and began a circle around the house. I softly called out Diamond's name, wishing by now, I would have grabbed a flashlight. After a few circles around the house and not hearing or seeing anything, I gave up my fruitless search. I locked the gate on the porch behind me and headed into the house...when, what to my wondering eyes did appear...A girl! Laughing! Crying! Holding her beloved pup! What rejoicing...the lost had been found! Or was she ever really lost at all? Not really. She had been sleeping under Kaylah's bed the whole time, hiding behind a stack of suitcases.
Chapter 3
She has been with us now for a few weeks. After some more scary instances, we realized she fails miserably at being a watch dog. However, she loves us and we love her. Instead of, Mary had a little lamb, it's Kaylah has a little dog...and it follows her everywhere! Almost. After being very distracting at an outdoor cottage meeting, we banned her from any more worship services. Or so we tried. On Sunday evening, we were headed down the road to church. Chris had taken the bus to pick up church members from a distance so it was just me and 3 of the children walking to church. It was a joint song service with all 3 churches and I was looking forward to it. We first realized we were being followed a few yards down the road, when we saw a stealthy, black and white, 4 legged little creature slyly trying to follow in our footsteps. This should be an easy fix I thought and send Christi back with
her in her arms. After waiting impatiently a few minutes I headed back through to see what is taking so long. After all, we are late enough and have no minutes to spare! "She won't stay back!" Christi wailed. "Well, she will for me!" I thought, defiantly. "STAY!" I told her, in no uncertain terms. She tucked her scrawny little tail between her scrawny little legs and crept out behind the house and I walked smugly out the drive. We half walked, half ran, trying to make up for lost time. We were about halfway to church, when, what do you know! Here comes the little mutt, trailing a few yards back, half walking, half running, trying to catch up to us. Now, we're in a real predicament. Either we take her back and be late for church for real, or we admit defeat, pick her up and make haste to church and then try to decide what to do with her. Before I really decided, Christi had her scooped up in her arms, whispering endearing words to her, like how
she has to be careful on the road, because we all really love her, and we don't want anything to happen to her. Although I didn't have one loving thought towards her at the moment, I decided we are late enough...we really need to keep walking. Almost everyone was already seated till we got there, except my husband standing at the doorway, wondering where in the world the rest of his family was. Little did he know, he now had a dog he had to deal with yet. After a quick search he found some string and tied her up outside of the church. All was well now and we walked in and unfortunately had to parade almost the whole way to the front for seats. No sneaking in late for us! The singing was beautiful and I was singing my heart out when, to my dismay, I heard a familiar
hoooooooowl coming from outside the church. I tried to act oblivious, hoping everyone was just thinking it was just a neighbor dog howling at the moon but when her howl reached an octave higher than the high tenor singers, I gave up, and send Kaylah out see what's up. After a long time she came back in, anxious and worried because there were some older boys out with Diamond and she was so afraid they are going to steal her. At that point, I would have been glad if they would have. Unfortunately, they didn't.
And so she's still with us. Cleaning up my floor, dragging my wash all over the yard, scaring the wits out of me by silently entering a room and staring at me with her big black eyes and slowly, ever so slowly, stealing her way into my heart.
A scared little puppy & a very happy girl
A scared little puppy and a very sad boy (he was upset
because Collin got to go with Chris on the bike instead of him)
Rub a dub dub, Diamond's in the tub....
She's bathed and powdered...can she pleeeease be in the house now?
Inseparable
Whither thou goest, I will go....her first truck ride...
Trying to hold the dog with one hand and pack his lunch with the other..
This is where I draw the line...dogs & food prep do NOT go together!
She acts so goofy sometimes...she thinks she's part human
You well earned your nick name, "flea infested rat". We try hard
to stay ahead of those little critters but I still don't condone using half a
bottle of flea & tick powder at one shot...
Smile and say, "Doggy bone!!"
Carter claims he has her trained to take off his socks
so he doesn't have to bend over & do it himself....
and then I wonder why half their socks are missing?
When the going gets tough, I will carry you...
One hot dog!
Since I don't want this whole post to center around a dog, I'll add
some pics of our "new" church & some church activities....
Mt Gay, a psychiatric hospital we sang at one Sunday afternoon...
Seeing all these people behind locked doors just made me really
wonder what their life story is...
Another view of the hospital
A high High....
After a busy week of tying up loose ends, we deemed the
church close enough finished to hold our first service in it...
Was so lovely to worship in bright sunlight & a nice breeze
through the windows instead of underneath a house, where
we had previously been. Now instead of one Sunday School
class in the kitchen, one in the living room & one right
outside on the porch, we could each have our own space.
Ah, twas lovely indeed....
This lady gets credit for lots of the church cleaning!
She is one hard working Grandma!
Finishing touches on the painting
Trying to get the last layer of filth off
of everything. It was very dirty!
Pastor John sharing a message at our
first service back in the church
This young man almost seems like part of our family these last few
days...Chris & James have been kept busy making furniture for
the school and since the shop (shed) is at our place, he is here
most of the day. We aren't complaining! He has been a tremendous
help and Chris is glad for a "right hand man".
And this picture leaves us with some decisions to make...after
Collin had his cast removed we were very disappointed to see it
was not properly set and "healed" crooked. He has very limited
range of motion and can't raise his hand up at all and can only
put it down a little bit. The way it's looking is he'll probably
need surgery to correct it and that leaves us with the question,
where? We want to make sure it's done right since we want to
make sure he regains full use of his hand again. If you think
about it, pray that we would know what steps to take next.
And again, many thanks for all the prayers on our behalf.
We appreciate and we feel them...it's
hard to believe we've already been here almost 3 months.
While there have been challenges, there
has been a lot to be thankful for!
