An Important Lesson

Never...

...ever...

...ever send a couple with a heart for orphans into a pet store during National Adopt-a-Pet Week.

On Friday night Mr. Beaver and I went in for a bag of dog food

and came out with bag of dog food and a DOG!

And we didn't even come home with one of the passive, well-behaved canines that calmly beckoned perspective owners from a reclining position in the bank of cages. No! Our hearts were captured by the hyper mutt that was frantically shredding the newspaper that lined her cage. We left the store marveling that this seemed to us like a stranger twist to our 26-year marriage than adopting three more children!

No one could have been more surprised at this turn of events than Mr. Beaver and me--except perhaps our kids. After all, for years they've heard their dad say over and over that we'd never have more than one dog at a time.

Mr. Beaver sent the kids a series of mysterious text messages as he was finalizing the sale at the cash register. Meanwhile I was racing up and down the parking lot trying to wear out the three-month-old short-haired Border Collie mix. When we reached home, Mr. Beaver went in ahead and had all nine of our kids sit in our great room with their eyes closed. Then I entered and lowered the puppy into the lap of dog-loving Lissie who happened to be sitting cross legged on the floor. With her happy squeal, all the kids opened their eyes and delighted pandemonium ensued. We don't even have any photos or videos of the glee because of surprising the kids (and ourselves, I might add!).

We have, however, taken quite a few photos since then. The weekend went surprisingly well, and ten-year-old Poochita is slowly adjusting to the new normal in HER home.

Our new addition even helped to Skype some friends to tell them of her arrival.

And as we returned to homeschooling this morning, she demonstrated how eager she is to be part of the educational process in our home!

Sunshine (Joe's description of her character has stuck as her name) has quickly wormed her wiggly way into our hearts. We look forward to sharing her winsome ways with our three new children.

~Mrs. Beaver