The Horse Shouter

A few days ago my husband and I were listening to Dennis Miller. He mentioned that he was the "horse shouter." This was particularly funny because we had watched the "dog whisperer" only the night before. The dog whisperer was encouraging the dog owner to assert its authority as master over the pet. We both felt empowered and began to walk Lily with more authority. She is lighter on her paws and nipping less. We felt even more empowered after a bit of comedy by Dennis. His honest rant about "horse shouting" rather than "whispering" was a riot. Later the same day we were hanging out as a family. Lily was entertaining all of us. My husband looked at Jael, our 3 year old, and said: "I'm the kid shouter." No more whispering, talking... I'm moving right to shouting!

Lily is doing well. Growing leaps and bounds. And had her first successful play date with a 13 month old baby with only gentle touching. Yah!

Puppy Prayers

Well, it's been quite a while since I last wrote. Our days have been very full! And our nights have been even more eventful. Lily doesn't like to be alone. She cries. Our first night I listened to Lily howl, bark, cry, whine, and wimper. She wanted nothing more than to sleep close to us. We listened for hours as she howled. I really love to sleep and during sleepless nights I try to pray. I figure if I am up anyway there is someone I could pray for. While Lily kept us awake I imagined her sounds as a prayer language. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit understands our spirit groans. As I listened I heard sharp barks of frustration, horrendous howls of loneliness, manipulative whines and weak wimpers. I felt like I could understand what she was saying. It brought me comfort recognizing her sounds. If I can recognize the different barks of my puppy... how much more can God hear me.

What genius of God to hear our cries, moans, groans and even breaths and hear something beautiful. He truly hears me... even when I can't find words to express what I feel.