Julie Gumm - Author

Missing Them

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It is difficult to explain, but sometimes I am overcome with waves of emotion when it comes to our new kids. Sunday morning we went off to church, got the kids checked in to their classes and came in to the service as worship was starting. I think the song we were singing was “Happy Day” and as I stood there singing and clapping I was suddenly overwhelmed with just the strongest wave of missing my kids and wanting them there for that moment.

It was a family day, they are our family and yet they are not here with us and at times it seems unbearable. My comfort comes in knowing that they are being well cared for and are with their grandmother and that our time will come soon enough.

Price-cutting

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So I told you how we got our hotel on Priceline.com for $45/ night.

Now I know how they can afford the low price…

Don’t spend money on one of those fancy key envelope holders when a sticky note with the room number will do.

Hey, at least we’re not right by the ice machine. That’s were we usually are 🙂

The Box

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Daddy is finally home from Africa and boy are we glad! He’s really wiped out and went to bed at 6:30 tonight – but hey, we made it to church this morning which I wasn’t sure about.

The question of the day around our house is “When do we get the box?”

This would be the box with the ashes of our dog who died on Friday.

When I told the kids that Snickers had died, one of their first questions is what happens to her next. Noah wanted to bury her in the backyard so I had to explain that it was against the law to do that.

“So what do they do with her?” he asked.

(And yes, I know there are pet cemeteries but I’m not about to pay upwards of $500 on a burial for a dog…as much as I loved her.)

So, in my “honesty is the best policy” mode I said “They cremate her.”

“What’s that mean?”

How exactly do you explain cremation to an 8 year old and 5 year old that doesn’t make it sound horrific? Because really “They stick her in a big fire and it burns until she turns to ashes” is just awful sounding. Somehow I managed to make it sound slightly better than that but they were still horrified by the idea.

It was then that I took a deep breath, pushed aside my “financial peace angel” (you know the one that sits on my shoulder and tells me not to overnight my adoption papers), and said “We can have them put Snickers ashes in a box and then we can bury the box underneath the big tree in Pa and MeeMaw’s backyard.”

That seemed to console them somewhat.

It was an extra $130 to have the remains returned to us in a simple box, but if it gives the kids some sort of closure than I think it’s worth it. I thought we could make a little memorial stone to mark the spot where we bury the box.

So the vet’s office will call us when THE BOX is ready for pickup. Not sure when that will be.

…here’s a picture from the vault – this is about 10 years old…in her spry days.