ENCOURAGED IN HEART

After a hurried morning of getting the boys off to school; I slid into my new pleather (plastic + fake leather = pleather)  desk chair to write.  One problem, my coffee was in the kitchen…and that is a rather serious problem.  But, that was not my worst problem of the morning.

I grabbed my coffee, did an about face and stopped to greet the frogs.  I screeched to a halt.  Sonic was belly up. I tapped the tank numerous times.  Mr. Frog was still slowly swimming around as normal.  But not Sonic.

What about the boys? Their hearts are going to be broken. What am I going to do???

I stopped to breath for a second.  I had a choice to make:

A. Take the next 2 hours and haul to Sterling and get a replacement Sonic.

B. Write (cause this is going to be my only time to write all week with the holiday).

C. Get a dog, the boys wanted a dog anyway and the dog would distract some of their grief process.

I called Dave.

We choose “A.”

I’m not advocating the kind of parenting where you lie or protect kids from all pain.  But some pain, yes.  And, this pain we chose to protect them from.  Getting a pet after losing Romeo and Juliet was a long time coming.  Though Sonic and Mr. Frog were in the family only nine days, we’ve all gotten quite attached.

I scurried like a mouse in a cheese puzzle, back and forth and all around  from tank to tank, looking for a dark spotted, spunky, spastic, Sonic look-alike.  Too long, too fat, too light, not enough spots, not enough dark spots, too chill…

It was in the middle of my Sonic quest that I realized a most important truth.  God made each and every creature on this earth special and unique.  Trying to find an exact Sonic would be like saying there are two exactly alike snowflakes or people.

While I didn’t abort the mission, I did lose some hope after seeing Dave’s face after he examined the tank.  He whispered, “It doesn’t look like Sonic.”

“It was the closest one they had honey…” was all I could muster.

The boys noticed nothing. And that’s just fine with Dave and me.

Rest in peace Sonic.

This is just TWO much…

TWO love birds with TWO sons on earth that now have TWO African frogs that need TWO pellets of food each TWO times a week!  If only our kids could thrive on that feeding schedule!

I proudly introduce “Mr. Frog” (Cal’s) and “Sonic” (Jake’s)…

Ever since our dogs Romeo and Juliet died one year apart, the four of us have grieved and longed for a new pet.  The boys bounced back quicker than Dave and me.  We promised at the end of this summer, we’d talk again.  Don’t you know on the first day of school, Cal inquired, “Can we get a pet now?”  The boy regularly puts his pants on backwards,

but can archive the “get a pet in three months” memo? And for the record, he’s been taught many times which way is the correct way. I only let him go out this way thinking it would bother him enough to put them on the correct way…but, guess who it bothered more?!?!? One hint…not Cal!

Dave and I lamented for months, “Should we get a new pet? Are we ready for a new pet? What kind of pet would we get?”  It seemed the common denominator for both the Finkster and me was “the poop factor”…and you know we already have issues with that one.

Dog? Too much poop.

Snake? Not in my house…ever!

Rabbit?  Pellet poop…no way.

Hamster? Tiny poop and far too much of it.

Cat?  Too much attitude…and poop.

Frogs? PERFECT MATCH!

Sonic appears to be a cosmic spazz while Mr. Frog…well, that webbed fingered friend appears to need an intravenous line of espresso.  Our amphibian’s street name is Mr. Chillaxin’.

(Guess which one is which?!)

I panic stricken-ly tapped the tank three times last night thinking, “AH…I needed to do a late night Mr. Frog look-alike replacement run!”  On the third tap..he got on with his leaping/swimming self and I breathed a large sigh of relief!

As for the poop thing (why does my computer offer this graphic?!?)…the snail inside has maid duty, not this Jersey girl and that is a very good thing!

Seeing the boys delight when they woke and found their new frogs Sunday morning well, it just made me feel so hoppy (GONG!) and think of the verse, Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

Wondering, what kind of pets do you have/had and what did you like/not like about them? (You can add or omit the poop factor if you like!)