miss patches

One of my best friends is in town and I’m really stoked about it. Haven’t seen her in over a year. I made this skirt for her daughter’s birthday. She’s turning three. I remember living with Liz for a couple months in Colorado. It was like three years ago. Her husband was deployed and I thought it would be cool to just come help out Liz wherever she needed. She would always make me the most delicious meals with ground turkey. And she always thought I was weird for drinking chocolate milk with all my meals. Living on base with her really grew both of us and our faith in Christ. Since then, we always talk and encourage each other with the books we are reading and what God is teaching us. She recently had another baby, named David. I can’t wait to meet him tonight. I wish Liz could live closer. I feel like I would make clothes for her kids all the time. 

Thankyou everyone for your prayers! Ollie is pulling through this horrible virus. God is so good! The vet told Justin and I on my birthday that we can stop giving him his fluid injections because he stopped throwing up and having diarrhea. Such a good birthday present to not have to stick my dog in the back with an IV! We now have him on a strict diet- boiled chicken and rice, as he can’t have dry food yet. He did have a slight cough the last couple days, so the vet gave me some antibiotics to help the cough not turn into something more severe. So stoked to see him acting like a puppy again though. I never thought I would be excited to see him trying to chew on anything he could get a hold of. We are continuing with training, and he is learning a lot. He is turning into such a wonderful dog. I can’t wait for the day when we can take him places, but unfortunately he is still contagious from Parvo. Justin and I have learned a lot about God’s grace through all of this, and His love for His creation. We know God has a plan for everything. We are thankful that God gave us this opportunity to take care of Ollie no matter how hard and exhausting it was. Will keep your guys updated! Thankyou again for your continued prayers!

Parvovirus is a viral disease of dogs. It affects puppies much more frequently than it affects adult dogs. The virus likes to grow in rapidly dividing cells. The intestinal lining has the biggest concentration of rapidly dividing cells in a puppy’s body. The virus attacks and kills these cells, causing diarrhea (often bloody), depression and suppression of white blood cells — which come from another group of rapidly dividing cells. In very young puppies it can infect the heart muscle and lead to “sudden” death.

This is what the vet revealed to us about our new puppy. We were faced with three options.

1. Hospitalization (we don’t have the money for)
2. In-Home Treatment (basically doing all the work that the vets do, but on our own)
3. Putting Him Down (taking him back to the Humane Society that we got him from and just letting them kill him)

We decided to try In-Home Treatment. We wanted to give our first puppy together a chance to fight this. Justin and I are injecting him with an IV between his shoulder blades and allowing fluid to flow into him. We have to do this twice a day. This fluid is meant to rehydrate him and help stop the nausea and allow him to eat and drink again. The treatment is mostly that of supporting the different systems in the body during the course of the disease. There is NO cure. We are praying that Ollie will make it through this. I’ve talked with many friends who have also had their dogs die from this deadly virus. But have also heard some stories that bring us hope of his survival. Please pray with Justin and I through this hard time. We pray for mercy, wisdom, and peace. We know that God is in control. We know that God causes and allows all things for His glory alone. So for now, we are putting up a fight, knowing Ollie is doing the same.

Justin and I have had a puppy for three days now. His name is Ollie, and brings us much joy. I was up with him all last night because he hasn’t been feeling to good. I am super sad because you can see how shitty he feels in the way he moves and in his face. We are going to try to take him into the vet today. Please pray that he will be okay!

This is a blog by a close friend of ours. It’s one of the blogs I very much enjoy reading, not only because she wrote a blog about Justin and I but because she blogs on God, family, adoption, and her three beautiful daughters. Such a blessing to have the Johnson family near us and living life with us. They are in the process of adopting another child, and it’s so wonderful to see God working it all out. This family has an amazing compassion for people and relationships. So thankful for them, and praying for them. Take a look at: gatheredfromafar.com!

Homemade Chai with my sister Lauren. <3