We said goodbye to our dog, Lucy, yesterday. It was harder than I thought it would be, considering she's only going to Aunt Becky's house and possibly not forever. Lucy is a tiny little dog, a chihuaua / yorkie mix, and she has never liked little kids. We hoped when we found out that we were going to have you that Lucy would just overlook the fact that you're a baby, but as you've started to get better at getting around, it's been rough around here. We're concerned that she might bite you if you do your normal kid stuff around her...fall too close, pull on her tail, stick your hands in her face. Last weekend we had a party celebrating your dedication at church, and Lucy had enough with all the people and kids. She started pooping and peeing all over our house. Your Daddy and I decided it was time to say goodbye.
It's much quieter here now, and that's sad, even though I think it's best. I keep expecting to see her roaming around or having to keep you away from her crate. Every time you go over to where she used to live, I feel really sorry that we didn't train her better before you were born. We did the best we could, though, and that's all you can ever do.
I wanted to tell you about this because it reminds me of something that is true about life. Sometimes you have to choose between two things that you want, two things that both seem good.... or sometimes, between two options that both seem bad. It's hard to know what to do in situations like that. It's tempting to choose not to decide at all, to just sit and ponder things or pray that God will show you the right thing to do. For a while, that's not a bad idea.
Eventually, though, you have to make a hard choice. Allegra, everyone goes through this. It helps to figure out your priorities first to give you some direction. So you sit down and decide first what's most important to you, and what's second most important, and so on. Make sure most of your decisions reflect your priorities accurately and you'll never get too far off base. And then you just gather the best information you have, and you do it. You decide, and you let yourself be sad that you can't always have everything you want at the same time.
In the end, baby girl, I believe you will always have what you need, even if it's not always what you want. So be brave when you need to be. The world is big and full of possibilities you haven't even thought of yet. We will miss Lucy. Maybe someday, when you're a little bigger, she can come home. For now, we're trying to focus on what's more important: you.
