The Miracle of Abbie Renee
My dad was really not wanting to get another dog. He had been the one to take care of our other dog and he knew how much work it was. He thought that us kids would get lazy and he would be stuck with caring for the dog again. That did not sound good to him. My mom and us kids were begging and praying constantly, but we were not hopeful. Everytime we brought up the subject my dad would list all the hard things about having a dog but that did not change our minds one bit. We had the name, gender and breed all picked out for years. We just kept praying and asking God to change our dad's mind. When we were offered 3 dogs in a year, we considered just taking an older dog because Dad said we could have one, but if we got an older dog we would never get a puppy. We held out for a puppy even though we knew Dad might never say yes and then we would have no dog at all. I kinda gave up after a while, thinking that we would never get the desire of our hearts. BUT God did an amazing thing, after two years Dad gave in.
Right after school started my freshman year, my parents said we were doing something special for family time that day. We had no idea that our activity would change life as we knew it. As we headed downstairs for a family meeting Allie said to me "What if we are gonna get a puppy?" and I was like "Ya right! I wish!" When we got downstairs my parents were sitting there and they took forever saying what they wanted to say. My sister asked "Are we getting a puppy?" half-joking but my mom was like "Well we are gonna go look at a litter." Immediately we were jumping around screaming and hugging each other and hugging my dad. We all asked if we could call a friend to tell them the good news before we left. We drove to a farm an hour away and looked at the last 2 puppies left. There was only one girl and we wanted a girl so we each held her and tried to determine if her personality was right. We took a video of her walking so we could ask a physical therapist if her hips were ok, and then saw the therapist that day. She had terrible hips and her mom was extremely skinny and ugly so we decided to wait.
A few weeks later, I was going to have a volleyball game in a city 2 1/2 hours away. My family found a litter in that city so they decided to go up a day early to check out the litter. My mom, dad, grandma and brother checked the litter out on Friday night and told me about them on Saturday. They had made their decision but I told them not to tell me and have it be a surprise when I got home on the bus with my teammates. I had a stomach ache the whole way home because I knew if they had a dog when I got there, it would change my life in a really good way. I asked them to pick me up and bring the dog if they had gotten one. When my mom drove up I opened the door and saw:
my first time meeting her
I was so excited to show her to one of my teammates who had been hoping my family would get a puppy! When we got home, all the neighbor kids wanted to see her and hold her- she has always been the center of attention! I was so thankful that God had answered our prayers. The days that followed were so wonderful but also hard because it was like having a newborn baby that got up every 2 hours in the middle of the night. We took turns sleeping with her in the basement and she would come put her paws up on our pillow and yip until we pet her while she fell back asleep. Sometimes she would be up for an hour which made it really hard to get up for school the next morning. She also peed on the floor and couldn't be left alone if she wasn't in her kennel. It was a lot of work but it was so worth it. 
one of her favorite positions :)
it should be illegal to be that cute!
she loves snow!
photogenic as always
We thank God so much for Abbie, she has changed our lives forever! We love you baby girl!