A Hard Lesson Learned

I know I have really been missing in action. A lot has been going on around here and I really haven't had time to blog. But I wanted to take a minute and update everyone on a few things that have been happening.

As many of you know, we got a dog on Saturday, March 10th. Jake and I have never been interested in getting a dog but after our date night dinner we got talking about it and just felt like we should go look. We looked at a few places but didn't really find anything. I looked on KSL.com at the classifieds just to see what they had available and saw an ad for a black lab/golden retriever mix. She was 7 months old, already house and crate trained and came with all of her stuff. AND she was in South Jordan where we just happened to be.

We went to see her and really loved her. She was so sweet and affectionate. I was a little worried about how my allergies would handle her but after spending time with her I developed no hives and my asthma didn't act up. We talked a bit to the owners and then ran to the store so that we could talk about it privately. We prayed about it and we felt really good about going ahead and buying this dog and making her a part of our family. We picked up Persia that night and brought her home.

Just a few days after that I wasn't doing very well. My fingers were cracked and bleeding in 7 different places from washing my hands so many times and I was having to use my inhaler up to five times a day. Normally I only use my inhaler, at most, once a week and so this was a huge deal. I was faithfully taking Allerclear every night and finally gave in one night and took the maximum dosage of Benadryl that you can safely take - I still woke up in the middle of the night and had to use my inhaler because I couldn't breathe.

I cried and worried a lot about what we were going to do. I looked into allergy shots but I felt really worried about the cost, length of the course and how long it would take to see results. Even though the hives were getting better, my asthma didn't seem to be responding to the allergy medication. We tried everything we knew how to make things better and it just wasn't getting better. Every day I became grumpier and more emotional because my asthma was keeping me from sleeping well.

Early in the week I asked Jake to give me a blessing. In the blessing he stated that this dog would be a challenge for me, but that I should remain strong and faithful and know that the Lord had a plan in mind.

As things continued to not improve and Jake and I continued to counsel together we decided that we needed to put Persia back on KSL. She wasn't getting the attention and affection she deserved and needed because we were all so afraid of triggering my allergies. We prayed and I cried and we counseled together and decided to list her and pray really really hard that things would work out.

The ad got over 120 views on it but I only got one call. This wonderful lady in Herriman came to see Persia and spent over 2 hours at my house. She was very thorough in examining Persia and how she acted and interacted. She brought over her rat terrier and one of her cats to see how Persia would deal with them. She definitely knew what she was doing. She has had labs before and lives on an acre plus of land. She has a fully fenced in area that is really spacious and nice. The more and more that I talked to her the stronger I felt that this was were Persia was meant to be.

We let Abrielle say goodbye to her and she really wasn't heartbroken about it. Mostly she has just enjoyed bossing her around. Abrielle has struggled with having Persia here with the extra division of attention away from her. Her behavior and attitude have definitely declined. Despite that, we have been trying to weather the storm anyways. But... I need to be able to breathe. In the end, giving Persia away was the best thing that we could've done for her and for our family.

I feel at great peace. I know that we were meant to be tools to help Persia get to this new family. I know that this is where she was meant to be. And I am very grateful for the lessons that we learned from having Persia for a week. We had no anticipation that my allergies would be so bad from having an animal in the house. I am so grateful that we found that out now while our children are still young. That way, this will never happen again when our children would be greatly affected by the new pet leaving after just one week.

Having Persia taught us many great lessons and I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord and the knowledge that he even cares about the life of one dog. I am so grateful that she has gone to live somewhere where she will be a million times happier than she would ever be here. It really is the most perfect situation that we could've hoped for.

I want to send out words of thanks to friends and family who have been such an incredible support through this. We love you and are so grateful for everything that you have done and helped us with.

We hope that everyone is happy and healthy and that life continues to bless you with bright skies, a warm sun and a lot of instances of happiness and joy.

Love Always, Shayla