Growing...

There's an old saying, "life is what happens when you were expecting something else". I think most everyone can see the truth in that. We sure can. For better or worse (and it's certainly not all of the latter) our dreams rarely play out exactly as we imagine them. Take moving to an island in the Caribbean for instance...

When we first visited, and fell in love with St. John, we could only dream of moving to and living on this lovely rock. And dream we did. We spoke of and shared our personal versions of this dream from time to time. I have to be honest - I rarely if ever included having Champ with us in those scenarios - probably because he had never been with us on any of our visits. Not that we could even remotely consider not bringing him along once the decision had been made to make the move. And, despite some of the logistical obstacles of getting him here, and the tweaking of our day to day routine to accommodate his presence here with us, we wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm pretty sure that none of my daydreams included having other people living with us either. But when it seemed to work out the best for all involved to include Shane in our "island family", the reality of our dream once more underwent some changes. And despite some of the day to day challenges of having one of our grown children living full time (at least for now) back under our roof, we enjoy our life here in Paradise.

I suppose by now I should have been made aware that change isn't the outlier, it is the constant - perhaps the only constant! And so, less than a full week into 2014 (Oh - yeah - Happy New Year everyone!) we found our "situation" taking another new turn.

This one was probably less of a surprise to a lot of folks than it was to me...

Remember Patches? She's the loveable pit bull mix from the ACC (St. John Animal Care Center) that Leslie fostered from time to time before any of the rest of us had made the move down here. We'd had her over for "sleepovers" on a few occasions and had gone to the ACC and taken her for walks a few times as well. And, as was noted in our last blog entry, she was what Leslie had hoped would be her Christmas present.

Maybe I'm paranoid, or have an over active imagination, but there certainly seemed to be a "campaign", waged on multiple fronts, to convince me that we should adopt Patches permanently. I couldn't log onto Facebook without seeing comments directed "to Leslie" along the lines of "keep her already", or "you two are meant to be together", etc. On more than one occasion when we were meeting up with friends that were visiting the island, the question was posed point blank, "so, when are you adopting Patches?"

I had a litany of reasons (NOT excuses, as I often told myself - and others) as to why this wasn't practical for us at the present time. Having two dogs would certainly limit our housing options going forward. How would Champ deal with not being the "only child" - after all, wasn't he still adjusting to the move? How would a dog that had been living in a kennel environment adjust to living full time in a house? Would she tear things up? Given enough time, I could build a compelling case against bringing her home to stay.

One our trip back to Florida for Jason's graduation, I had mentioned to our friend Michael, once the subject had inevitably came up, that as sweet as a dog as she is, and as sorry as I felt that she didn't have a "forever home",  I couldn't save all of the dogs in the world. I figured as an engineer, that he would surely see the list I'd compiled and agree that it made the most sense. Instead, he told me a story about a guy walking along a beach that was covered with starfish that had been washed ashore by the tide and were left high and dry. As he walked along, he picked up one starfish after another and threw them into the water. When a little boy questioned his actions by remarking that he couldn't possibly save all of them, the man held up a starfish and said "you're right, but I can save this one". Thanks a lot Michael...

So...over dinner on a Sunday night with another friend that was visiting, the question was tendered yet once again. I was ready. I calmly laid out my objections/reasons/excuses, emphasizing that it had nothing to do with Patches herself, whom I thought was a sweet and wonderful dog. Surprisingly, the response was, "that makes a lot of sense".

Exoneration. A third party, someone else that wanted to see Patches in a good place, had acknowledged that my reservations were legitimate. Back to finishing dinner and moving on to other subjects.

But, as I ate and drank, my thoughts drifted to Patches sitting in her kennel in the dark, and..."but I can save this one".

I can save this one.

I can save this one.

I can save this one.

During the dessert/no dessert deliberations I suddenly blurted out to Leslie, "if you want to, we can bring Patches home tonight".

"For good?"

"For good."

"You better not be teasing me".

"Nope, if you want to we can go and get her right now."

There's another old saying. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it. We already knew that our life here is and was going to be different than the fantasy world version. Sometimes going with your heart has to take precedence over going strictly with your head. We had been operating on that premise ever since we took the leap of faith to chase our dream, so why stop now?

So...without further ado...welcome to our newest family member, Patches "Starfish" McKibben!