Consider It Pure Joy

James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

It was an exciting day and a sad one all at the same time for the kids. After much thought and discussion, we decided that we were not going to be able to keep our dog, Nacho. Many people thought we kept him longer than we should have but it was not an easy decision. You see, Nacho decided quite some time ago that Erin was the lowest in the pack and he would try to bite here to let her know that. Many times he succeeded but we would work with him and it would stop for a while. In the past few weeks it was getting more frequent and he would constantly jump up on her. When Nacho stands up, he is taller than Erin so she didn’t have much leverage against him. We finally decided we just couldn’t keep him because of this. The reason we let it go on for so long and it was such a tough decision was because we knew this would be the last dog we would ever have. Nacho isn’t a bad dog, he just needs a lot of training which we are not equipped to give nor do we have the time which isn’t fair to him. He is very trainable; he sits, shakes hands, and lies down all on command but nips and bites when he wants attention and when he wants his way. With everything considered, we decided that giving Nacho away was the best decision and so as of yesterday, we are no longer dog owners.

We have decided that we just are not dog people. However, we are cat people. We have had cats as far back as I can remember. Our first cats we bought shortly after Jim and I were married. So, about a month ago we bought a cat, Mandy, and we thoroughly enjoy her. We had told the kids that if we had to give Nacho away, we would buy another cat. We have always found that cats do well in pairs. So, we bought another cat two days ago. We had him neutered that same day which is what we did with Mandy also. The cat and the neutering cost only 100 pesos which is equal to about $7.50. They do things differently here. You have the cat spayed or neutered and you pick them up right afterwards. Well, we picked up our new kitten about 12:30 PM and he seemed to be taking a long time to come out of the anesthetic. He was looking worse and worse by the hour. As the night progressed, we knew he was not going to make it. At about 11:00 that night, our new little kitten died. Erin was heartbroken.

We have faced many trials while we have been here and God is walking us through each one. The morning after our kitten died, God brought James 1 to my mind. He put it on my heart for us to memorize this portion of Scripture for school during this year. There is so much in it that pertains to our lives right now; having joy in trials, asking for wisdom, counting all of our many good and perfect gifts from God, learning to be quick to listen and slow to speak (that’s always been a hard one), learning to do what we learn from the Word and not just hear it, and lastly to look after the orphans which is why we are here. God is good and he gets us through each trial and with each one, He teaches us new things.

For Erin, she loves animals so much and to see any of them suffer is very hard for her. So far since we came, she has had her bunny die in her hands. She has also had a bird die in her hands that fell from its nest and now she has watch her kitten die. Jim pointed out to her that she has such a heart of compassion and God is working more compassion in her with each of these trials. These have been teaching moments even though they are hard. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to learn all that God has for us here. He is good and faithful and will never let us go. We will never be alone even though at times it feels that way. Those are the times we need to redirect our eyes onto our loving Father and allow Him to hug us and comfort us. Overall, things are good. We thank you for your prayers and support. Blessings to all of you.

Oh, and by the way, we will be getting another kitten in the near future.