We are still fostering Sadie Mae and have added sweet Sage as a foster as well. She loves us, but is still learning what life if like to be an inside dog, with a bed, and regular meals. Our sweet vet won over her heart with food, and now expects it (cough, cough, y'all started it)...and we took that cue and have showered her in what she would like since then. She was found roaming the streets with who believed to be her sister, Ivy. These girls spent their first weeks in rescue fighting infections...both inside and out. Now, we are putting on weight and getting strong to fight the yucky heart-worms. Once she has been treated, she will be available through Houston Collie Rescue.
This school year has been nothing short of keeping me on my toes all of the time!This year, I have 14 students, 10 of which are boys. The girls and I must rally together to make it through the day. This group has come a long way from where we began our year. I love my kids, and I miss the daily routine that school brings while on break. I am still teaching fourth grade & still pinching myself that I get to work at the best school ever! I could not be more blessed in that regard.
Jared is still working at the helpful hardware store. He enjoys his work. He is also itching to begin a reno project at our house. He has been working on lighting while I have been gone...who knows what he will do next.
This fall was characterized by so much more than our work and our fosters though. These were the last months that we had with Jared's beloved Uncle John.
Over the past 2 & a half years, Uncle John fought the good fight against mesothelioma.
Cancer is a horrid disease. There is no way around it. It picks its victims and then it shows no mercy. If you not receiving a treatment, you're getting a scan. If you're not sitting around waiting for a day full of appointments, you are getting news that you may or may not want to hear in appointments. If you are not having some kind of surgery, you are fighting some kind of complication. There never seems to be any rest for the weary...none of the weary in the village. Yes, I said village. No, we were not raising a kid (although some may beg to differ here?). It was a village of his family and friends that surrounded him and carried him through, and then those that rallied around his friends and family and carried them down the long and bumpy path.
Uncle John was our monthly house guest over the past 2 and a half years. He would stay with us whenever he had something going on down here. He always sent a text asking if his room was available; I guess he thought of us as a hotel. Maybe we should have cut back with the mint on the pillow and the homemade meals? I was responsible for replying to the text, to which he then always called Jared to make sure that he could really stay. Uncle John, I am the final say so, I think he was just being nice to Jared. The pups of course LOVED when we had a visitor; someone else to love them because mom and dad are just not enough. Did John love the pups, probably not. But that did not stop him from sitting on the couch with Shelby glued to his side, Micky resting next to her, and Bella on his lap. He also learned the hard way what happens when you do not close your door all the way in our house. Shelby & Bella become your roommates. Y'all, even when he did close his door, that is where they slept. I think this is where you can credit the dog's 6th sense and knowing that something more was going on...especially before he got his lovely machine that helps with snoring. Man, Micky would lose his mind when Uncle John stopped snoring...and wake us up!
My fridge always had more than 2 things of juice in it because he preferred something different every time that he came. I would swing by the store and buy some juice for him...then he would go get something else; every single time.
Uncle John was our baseball buddy....even if he rooted for the Red Sox. If they were in town playing our Astros, he would call us up with tickets & off we would go! There were a few select times that he rooted for Astros, but he could have talked baseball with us for hours. None the less, knew that you do not have to talk the entire baseball game, just being there with each other was enough. Maybe, as much as it may hurt, we just might have to root for the Red Sox once. But, only once.
This fall, was his big surgery, and after that, things were just never the same. My gut told me that we were coming towards the end of the battle. His days of staying with us sadly came to an end, and he was able to stay with his brother. We soaked up hospital visits, family dinners, and time with him whenever he was in town.
Shorty after Thanksgiving, he lost his battle. He is now resting easy...using every dish & not worried about the dishes as he cooks wonderful meals; enjoying the best seat in the house for his teams.
Sadly, death is something that is all to familiar, but every time it happens it shocks you. That someone you love and were talking to a few short days ago passes away.
Death seems to trap you in those few moments when someone has just passed and your mind is trying to process what is happening. You are stuck in a moment of time and cannot seem to keep moving.
What I have noticed is that death looks different for everyone who experiences it. It could probably be a whole post in and of itself.
So, what did Jared & I do? You keep on living, and you live your life to the fullest. John lived, and lived well. He believed in living life to the fullest. SO live. That is exactly what we will do.
We will love unconditionally.
We will foster.
Jared will work on house projects.
I will bake. Bake all the things with all the dishes.
We will take the puppies on play-dates.
We will visit friends.
We will throw showers for friends.
We will spend time with our families.
We will have family dinners.
We will take vacations.
We will enjoy our jobs.
We will wait, wait patiently.
Death does not mean that life is over, and we stop in our tracks. We often let death put a pause button on our lives, when in reality, that is the last thing that our loved one would want us to do. John would not want us to stop living. Cancer certainly did not stop him from living, so death will have no hold over us.
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