Week Two: A Baby in the House

Just in case you were worried about the title, no, I’m not pregnant. But I do have a puppy! Her name is Sydney, named after Jennifer Garner’s character on Alias...I have all of the seasons on dvd and Jairo and I are hooked. Turns out they have it dubbed in Spanish! Anyway...She’s about 6 weeks old, brown, very cute. I have no idea what breed she is, but I’m guessing full-blooded mutt.

The thing about Sydney is she’s like a human. It’s weird. She’s moody, nervous, and super attached to me and Jairo, after only a few days. She gets mad at us if we don’t pay attention to her constantly, and she will not go to sleep if she’s not touching one of us. On the plus side, in just about 4 days that we’ve had her, we’ve gotten her almost completely house-trained! She’s very smart.

It’s been interesting to see the way Jairo interacts with her. He’s very loving and tender with her, but also gets extremely annoyed with her if she goes to the bathroom in the house. It’s been interesting to watch.

I think she’s a fully-integrated part of our new family, and her antics always help to lighten the mood. But she is also an enormous test of patience and a huge confirmation that we are not ready for kids! Although the good thing about kids is that they don’t wake you up at 5am to go outside by biting your face!!

Pets are interesting because they can bring out the best or worst in you, depending on what they’re doing. They can bring out loving emotions and actions, or they can provoke you to lose your temper in an instant with some naughty thing they’ve done. Your true self is revealed much more quickly in front of a pet than in front of a friend or love interest who you generally try to impress with the best side of you. But pets also accept you like you are, whether you yell at them or hug them.

If more people took on that kind of attitude about their spouses, I think there would be a lot less divorce. What I mean is, no matter what I do to my dog, as long as I’m not just downright evil to her, she’s going to love me, and she won’t run away. As a married person it’s important to remember that your spouse is a person, and sometimes they will bore you, drive you crazy, make you angry, make choices you disagree with, etc. But when you get married, you make a promise to never give up on that person, until death. A lot of people go into marriage with the idea that divorce is a last resort. For me, it’s not even an option. There is no room for divorce when I made a promise to stick it out until death. We have to accept that a spouse is an imperfect person, just like we are, and will not always meet our needs. What a blessing that we have a perfect God who can do just that!!