We recently adopted another dog. We were going to adopt two dogs seven years ago, but I lost my job and we didn’t know if we should go ahead with adopting the second dog or not. We prayed for God’s wisdom and He very clearly told both my huband and myself separately to “wait.”
Fast forward to December 2020. I received a monetary gift from one of my bosses for Christmas and I felt God was telling me to use it for a dog fund. I thought it would be the beginning of a dog fund, because adopting a dog can be quite pricey. Either way, I shared with my husband about the gift and how I was keeping it set aside for another dog.
We casually have been looking throughout the year for another addition to our family, but none of them seemed right. Either too expensive, not the right breed, etc. The last Friday in September I was browsing Facebook and came across some “aussiedoodle” puppies for sale at the local shelter. They were adorable, our current dog is an Aussiedoodle and so we applied. We prayed immediately for God’s will to be done. Either open the door to adoption or close it tight because we only wanted to add to our family if He approved, if now was the time,and if the “wait” was over.
The following Thursday we received notice we were “conditionally approved.” We had an appointment for our current dog for the vet but they wanted to wait until he was up to date on heartworm before allowing the meet and greet to take place, and we needed to make sure our current dog got along with the new puppy. We were looking at a male but they were encouraging us to adopt a female. We fell in love with Bella, one of the three sisters in the litter.
During the two weeks we had to wait for the meet and greet to occur, God reminded me of how He had handpicked our current dog for us, and also handpicked the bearded dragon whom we’ve called family for the past six years. If this dog was also handpicked by God, then nothing (or no one) would stop us from adopting her.
The brothers were all adopted within the first week. I was disappointed, I’ll admit it, because we had fallen in love with Barry. However, Bella was pulling on our heartstrings too so we were excited to meet her.
Finally that day came and she was even better than we had hoped. We don’t think she’s a full bred Aussiedoodle. She looks like she has Bernese Mountain Dog in her along with poodle because she doesn’t shed at all!
That, my friends, is the icing on the cake! My husband and I, for the past seven years, have wanted a bernedoodle but they were too expensive for our budget. We were able to get what we think is a bernedoodle, maybe mixed with some Australian shepherd, for the price of a stray. The monetary Christmas gift I received? It covered the whole price of the adoption with a little left over.
God showed me once again how much He loves us, and how personal He is. We were willing to wait for His timing, and He rewarded that obedience and faithfulness by not only giving us a submissive, sweet personality puppy, but one that is (we think) the breed we truly desired but never thought we could afford.
*** We are awaiting the results of a DNA test. She might not be a bernedoodle, but she sure has stolen our hearts. And she doesn’t shed, which for this family is truly the icing on the cake!
What is one area in your life you’re trusting God for? We waited seven years, trusting God’s timing was better than ours. There are other desires/dreams in our lives we’ve been waiting for at least seven years, if not longer. We’re still waiting.
Having Him handpick a puppy for our family builds my faith that when it’s His timing to fulfill the dreams and desires we’ve been praying about that will be life-changers in our family, it will be even better than the new addition to our house.
Because that’s God!
© Cheri Swalwell 2021