We got a dog. It was a huge surprise for our kids because I was pretty firm on not ever getting one.

We travel a lot. Dogs aren’t really in our budget. They’re a lot of work. They destroy stuff.

But I really didn’t want a bearded dragon. My friend’s kid has a bearded dragon which she offered me really quickly when I told her my son wanted one. That’s a sign, I think. She told me how people let their dragons roam their house and perch on their shoulder.

Didn’t really warm my heart, gotta say.

Bearded dragons have huge cages and warming lights. We live in Texas. It’s already hot. Maybe if we lived somewhere cold that would seem more appealing?

I walked away from this conversation thinking we needed to back away from a lizard. But I couldn’t deny that my kids really longed for a pet to cuddle and take care of. They’d asked many times and I was for sure the bad guy standing in the way of them and puppy bliss.

My husband and I talked about it all summer in hushed whispers because we were living in a dorm. Yep, all 5 of us in 2 rooms with one toilet and one shower. Kids came in and out of our room all summer and I got real good at shutting down web pages fast. If they ever found out we were even thinking about it and didn’t do it, I wasn’t sure they would be able to forgive me!

When we returned home, I convinced my husband to come with me to check out a potential dog and “just get information”. We ended up coming home with a puppy.

Lily is our dog’s name and we adopted her from an animal shelter. Wait…we rescued her from an animal shelter. I am figuring out that people don’t call it the pound anymore. There’s so much to learn about America and dog culture!

She’s white with brown spots, soulful eyes, a long tail, and needle sharp puppy teeth that I’m terrified of having no real experience with puppies.

The first few days I about had some panic attacks about what we had taken on. A neighbor commented that their dog that had looked just like ours lived for 18 years. 18 years! That did not help my anxiety.

But, we’ve settled in to life with a doggie. I’m enjoying it more than I anticipated. She makes us all laugh, gets us out on walks together, provides a warm welcome anytime one of us comes home, and loves pretty unconditionally.

And that’s probably my favorite thing about her, the sweet welcomes and love she gives when my kids come home from school. She’s always happy to see us and in this day and age, that’s pretty awesome!

Such a demonstration of God’s grace, that wagging tale that’s always happy to see us no matter what we’ve done.