Her name is Kiah Grace.
Her verse is:
Revelation 22:21
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.
She is SWEET and KIND and AMAZING with the crazy Kastner children. This is the story of how she came to be with us.
We have ALWAYS wanted a dog. We are MUCH more dog people than cat people. However, fate (and a country home that needed a GOOD mouser...) brought us a cat first. In a story quite akin to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, we got the first Mercy. However, we soon saw she had simply been looking for a loving place to die. After reading the tearful account of Mercy's final days, our generous landlord offered us the new Mercie, who promptly taught us that even kittens of a VERY young age can get preggos. Along came Job, (full name: Absalom Job), who until today I did not realize had not been given a proper verse or introduction to my blogging community so:
Absalom Job
Job 1:1
In the land of Uz there lived a man (or a cat) whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
As most of my Facebook friends know, Mercie ran away about two months ago. We have pretty much given up hope of her return, but still look for her now and again. There have been a couple of possible Mercie sightings, but they are as of yet still unconfirmed. They do make us feel a little better though that possibly she isn't road kill as we have feared for the past eight weeks.
Job has been doing a great job of taking over his mother's responsibilities. Taking down at least one mouse per week and policing things as he should. Yet still something was missing.
A short while ago we found a dog available through Freecycle. We got approval from our landlord to have a dog; however, she was a BUST! When we went to meet her she bit John and then me. Nopes... no biters around these children! We kept on looking and hoping that the right dog would find us some how.
On Tuesday night we had our new neighbors over for dinner. That night I chronicled our search for a dog to them, and I closed with, "I believe with all of my heart, it will happen when it is meant to be."
The next morning I awoke bleary eyed and started scrolling through the latest e-mail digest from Freecycle. My eyes came wide open upon finding, Offer: 4 year old Lab/Hound Mix. What!?!?!? I forwarded the description to John and upon receiving the thumbs up, I e-mailed the poster. We set up a meeting for that day. I nearly instantly got the feeling that the current owners of Kiah were believers. Upon meeting Kim, I quickly confirmed my suspicions when she told me the reason they were getting rid of Kiah. Their adult son was leaving soon for Bible college and the mission field. Without his help with lawn care and snow removal, they would not be able to stay in a house. They were moving to a condo.
It feels just like Kiah was handpicked by God for this family! Her former owners are Christians who homeschooled their children. She is well-trained and gentle as can be. She is SOOOOOOOO patient and good with children. She is an AMAZING dog, and she is just one more proof that "His ways are ALWAYS higher than our ways."
Soooooo because we needed a little more insanity in this household, we are now in the process of "dog-training" our children. It is HARD and not without tears. (The first night Hannah opened the back door WIDE and Kiah dashed out it! Noah sobbed while I scoured the neighborhood for her. Then due to the tenacity of my oldest, very sensitive boy, she returned to figure out who that dog baying from our porch was... Noah making his dog sound.) But we are plodding on in the training: Hannah NO hugging Kiah only petting. Elijah STAY away from Kiah when she goes to her Kennel, that means she wants some alone time. (Momma wishes she had a kennel too!) No you may NOT feed Kiah cookies!
As in all things Kastner, there is a firm and solid lesson from God... This one is found clearly in every single e-mail I send. It's our life verse, and our God proved it to us once again this week:
For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
He had plans to bring us a dog at the right time, and His plans turned out to be an AMAZING dog who was JUST right for this family. I'm so glad that's how our God is. Always KNOWING the plans He has for us. Always prospering us and not harming us. Always giving us hope and a future.
So now as Noah said when we were on the way home with Kiah the first night: "Now we have EVERYTHING a family needs to live in the county: a cat, a dog and family to love."
God bless and have a great day!
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