Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all...

This year has been the hardest year of my life so far. Those of you close to my family know the hardships we are enduring each day. In August, we lost one of our family members the week before school started.

We miss Toby fiercely! In October, Zoe was not acting like herself and after a day of running errands, we came home to find her in her favorite spot, the backyard in the sun. She too, had left her earthly home to join Toby in heaven.

The same day that Zoe left us, we decided that we needed to look earnestly for another dog to join our family. We found a beautiful rescue dog. At the time, we thought she was a labradoodle. After taking her to the vet and groomer, we came to the realization that we had a two year old standard poodle. Bella came home with us and when we took her to the vet to get fixed, we had to bring her home immediately because she had kennel cough.

After being with us for two weeks, I mentioned to Jason that I thought Bella might be pregnant. We disagreed, he thought she was packing on the pounds because she had plenty of good food to eat. The next week, he quickly changed his tune since we could feel the puppies moving in her tummy. On November 19th, seven "littles" joined our family. I will add pictures of the puddle of puppies later. Last week, we noticed Mia was not herself and Jason took her to the vet. He discovered a heart murmur and put her one daily medication. However, she was not returning to her normal self. After a couple of days of Mia not moving unless we carried her outside, put her on the bed, etc. we took her back to the vet. The vet looked her over and said that the hardest decision is the last kind thing that I could do for Mia in her declining state of health. This has been the hardest decision I have made in a while . . . Mia was a great friend. She was a constant in my life for the past 12 years and will be forever missed. The events of today have solidified that this has been the hardest year of my life. I am thankful that God is a loving God and that He carries me.