Lost & Found

Baby happy to be home

Maddy with Baby

Puppy kisses!

Last Wednesday night, on our way out the door to church, I asked Maddy to go put her dog away. Our dog Baby had been tied up on the front porch eating her dinner. Maddy came running back inside screaming the dog was gone! Of course we all ran out and sure enough Baby wasn't there. We all got in the van and went around our neighborhood looking for her. We knew she couldn't have been gone long since we'd only put her out an hour ago. Maddy is beside herself screaming "Baby" out the window as we're driving. We stopped at some fields and Rod got out to see if he could see her. Nothing. We kept telling Maddy to pray that God would keep her safe. Through her crackly crying voice she mustered a sincere prayer that God would keep her dog safe and bring her back to us. We drove until it was dark and then we went home and made some posters. We went back out and posted our posters all around. That night was hard. Maddy was crying, Josh was crying, Rod's heart was breaking, here I was trying to keep everyone calm, ha! I promised we would go out on a walk 1st thing the next day to look for her again. We got up early and went looking and hanging more posters, but nothing. Back at the house Maddy came to me upset because she was sure God would've brought her back to us, she told me, "Mom I prayed and God didn't bring her back?" Ok....how am I going to explain this? So, I did my best and said, "It is all in God's timing and for right now let's just thank Him for keeping her safe." I was convinced we would never see our dog again. Now I'm supposed to teach my child to have faith, Ha! (pause) God knows what He is doing at all times. I didn't have faith. Not just in this situation but I was losing all faith.

That night we had chorale practice at the church. Right before it started my phone rang. The voice on the other end said, "I think I might have your dog." NO WAY!!!! I called my husband, gave him the details and he and the kids headed over to see if this was our dog. He called me back to say that Yes indeed it was our dog! He also said Maddy was dancing in the street praising God! That'll teach me! As I reflected on this later I knew that this was an answered prayer my kids will never forget. And as for me, it was a lesson in childlike faith.

Thank you Jesus for bringing our dog back to us and for answering prayers!