DellaBella

Our funny little Della is gone. She died the day after we got here. We thought it was probably a combination of stress on her heart (a known defect in her breed) and the humid heat. Since then we've been told it was likely a spider bite (we've had the exterminators come and re-spray for Black Widows.)

It's sad. But it's been a good lesson on life and death for the girls. We've been stressing Psalm 24:1- "The earth is the Lord's...and all who live in it." We've talked about how it's ok to be sad, but we don't need to be too sad. The Lord knew Della- He knew she was sick and He knew how to fix her. We just have to trust that He loved her enough to do what was best for her. And we don't know if dogs go to heaven, but we do know that WE can go to heaven when we die (And we will die. All living things do.) if we love the Lord and show that we love Him by obeying what He's said.

As sad as I am about Della, I think it's good for kids to have some experience with death before it's a person. Before it's really hard.

Halle has had some good questions and comments. I think my favorite one has been:
Halle: "Mommy, God COULD make Della come back. He CAN make dogs alive again, right?"
Me: "Sure, He CAN. But He probably won't."
Halle: "Yeah. He's probably kinda busy forgiving and stuff."
Me: "Well... yeah. Maybe." :)