From Ashes to Beauty

God can truly turn bad situations into good - and have a purpose in it all. It's usually rare that I get to see a glimpse of the why, but when I do, it's amazing. Here is such a moment.

Somehow, this puppy of ours grew up in what seems to have been a Puppy Mill - living her entire 7 months in a cage with little human contact. And then, these abusive people dumped her and her sister and brother out on the streets. I can't imagine.

But this horrid act was the beginning of a Divine Encounter that God was setting up.

Flash forward to the sidelines of a 2nd grade soccer game. In our excitement of getting to get our Humane Society Beauty, we were overheard talking by one of our fellow teammate's dad of our Pooch to Be and her not-yet adopted black lab sister. After the game, we were surprised to see this father and his son at the Humane Society. We had never met the dad, but knew the son so it instantly caused us to start talking.

They ended up adopting the sister. Bad start.
Happy ending.

We all then went off to the end-of-the-year soccer party and due to the brief meeting at the Humane Society, found each other in the crowd and began talking.

As it turns out, this dad was needing to talk. He was nearly in tears as he shared how this dog was going to be a part of his healing as he was just served divorce papers while sitting at his mom's bedside in her last days.

It instantly began an hour long discussion where I listened and shared what I hoped were encouraging words while the soccer party happened around us. We talked about God and His Healing Hand on broken hearts.

As all this unfolded, I realized that if it weren't for that senseless act 2 weeks earlier of a dog breeder dumping 3 puppies, StudHusband and I would have merrily attended the Soccer Party and been oblivious to this hurting man.

And now we have our boys and our dogs to get together for play dates to hopefully continue an encouraging relationship for this family that is currently being torn apart.

God is good.

All the time.

Period.