Moments After

I came here to tell you that I'm signed up for the Hectic to Harmonious Free Holiday Challenge that starts tomorrow!  Last year, it was THE thing that made me feel calmer and more appreciative of this time of year. I had a ton of fun checking the daily instagram pics of all the other Mamas slowing down, taking time, and loving their family up in meaningful ways.

 Because as my son decided, it is all antlers all the time from now until Christmas!

But I also wanted to tell you about a very hectic way to start a holiday. And to remind myself that I am still focusing on gratitude every Monday. I started my little gratitude practice, Giving Mondays on the first Monday after daylight's savings to take a minute to appreciate and give back to something wonderful in my life. Now it's week 5 of 16 weeks of darkness (and I may have skipped a few weeks but here goes!)

Today all my giving was offered to this ridiculously raucous and sweet dog of ours.

You see, moments after this photo was taken when I had just explained to her that we would be leaving for a flight that night which would take us away for a week, she began to get sick. Very, very sick, out of both ends and it was not good. It was a bloody mess. When we rushed her to the vet, they said our pooch needed to stay the night in urgent care hooked up to I.V's. We needed to catch a flight.

So began quite a stressful departure. My husband and I made a call we hoped we would not regret. We knew we would not cancel our trip and we would not spend the fortune it would cost to do surgery if she had ingested something that needed to be removed.  We would have to say good bye in that very moment. The kids had tears streaming down their faces as my husband and I tried not to cry.  It was likely that she would be just fine, but if she wasn't, we hugged her extra tight and told her how much we loved her.

The traffic started to get so bad that every street between our house and the airport was jammed. We finally arrived and waited nervously for the results of her x-rays while going through security. 

They were clear. She was going to be fine. Our pet sitter picked her and she started to recuperate quickly.  We relished our Florida vacation and returned home to our happy, healthy, bouncing, barking doggie.

  

So today, I soaked up the sun and gave this dog so much love and gratitude for staying with us (while images of another wonderful family vacation filled my heart, especially giant sloths, a manatee refuge and cousin salons.)