Volunteering

The kids and I volunteer at the animal shelter 3-4 days a week.  It started out just walking the dogs, but each day we get more responsibilities.  I really think that our time here has helped make the transition easier for all of us.  Having something to do each day, and interacting with these animals who are so happy for the attention, time out of their cages and of course dinner, which comes after their walks.  There are also several other kids who volunteer quite regularly, so the kids are making friends as well.

 As I see the many strays out on the reservation, I can't help but feel so concerned for their health and safety.  The animal shelter is bursting at the seams, and yet there are dogs EVERYWHERE searching for a scrap of food on the pavement and as the nights become cold, a warm place to sleep.  There is a mom at the shelter who gave birth to 5 puppies of her own, but is nursing 13, as a box of abandoned 4 day old puppies were found just before she gave birth.  Everyone must do their part for survival...

 The dogs are so sweet.  I was surprised because they are essentially wild dogs, and yet most of them are very submissive and great with kids.  At this point the shelter has not used Petfinder, but they are working to get connected and I am searching for specific dog rescues to partner with us and find these dogs loving homes, so that more dogs can be helped soon.

Foxy, the new pomeranian mix

If you are in the market for a dog or cat, let me know.  I can find you a friend for life!

Gone to the dogs....

My step mom texted me the other day, and asked if I had felt we had gone to the dogs.....

Rocky

We found this puppy in the grocery store parking lot this week.  We had seen him before and tried to catch him for the shelter, but when we returned to find him, he was gone...This time, we did find him, and he happily came over to me.  He was very sweet, wagging his tail in the car, and making a nervous cry.

We brought him to the shelter and he's been there for the last two days.  He's still in isolation, while they make sure he doesn't have any serious conditions, but he seems so sad.  He just lays in his kennel, and didn't even want to come out for a walk. He's on my mind so often, it's very likely we'll take him in as a foster, and my step mom might be right...

Anyone looking for a sweet male puppy to love?

They will know we are christians by our love..

JJ signed us up for www.couchsurfing.org/. Of course, while our house was still filled with boxes and with a new dog, he received a request for a place to stay from this guy.  Sunim, (which we learned is the name for monk), has been traveling on his bicycle since April.  He has already ridden from the west coast of Canada, just above the US border, to Prince Edward Island, down to Ohio, taken a train to Chicago, and then again down to Flagstaff.  From there, he rode to Kayenta, and continues on through Monument Valley to California and down through Central America to the tip of Argentina. When we asked what inspired the trip, through his broken English, we got that he felt he needed to do something, or something was missing.  He tried to push the thoughts away, but finally had to give in to do something big and he chose to sort of "circumnavigate" the America's.  

It was interesting to learn through conversing with Sunim, that in Seoul, Korea, once you are a monk, you are a monk for life. He has been a monk for the last 24 years, since he was 19.  As a monk, from what I understood from his explanation, the goal is to empty yourself of all human emotion, everything.  So he has had no contact with his family since he was 19.  I asked him if his family was buddhist, and he said yes, and that he had known he would be a monk since he was young.  He said his mother said "No, no monk!" which I can completely understand. How could you say good-bye to your  loved ones forever?

I try not to be so full of judgement.  It is a weakness of mine.  But two thoughts have come to my mind since his visit.  One, he's on a search.  Obviously. But in the search, he's left his monastery for 2 years, and he's given up some of his monk ways that are linked to his beliefs.  For one, he's eating meat and they believe in reincarnation.  So, my first thought(s) is, what is he missing?  What will he find through this journey? And how will he be changed

I cannot help but think of his situation, from the perspective of a christian.  In no way did we try to convert him, but he was very aware of our beliefs.  We prayed as a family before dinner. When he came in for breakfast (he stayed in the guest house..aka the rv), the kids and I were reading the Bible-always the beginning of our school day.  He was very curious about our curriculum and I showed him Sonlight, and the books we would study throughout the year, as well as the curriculum we would study in the future. He made several comments about the kids throughout his stay-observations about how they were different from other children he encountered-and how our parenting seemed very different from the parenting he knew in Korea.  

My other thought, again a thought, and not a judgement, I couldn't help but wonder what other christians thought about us hosting a Buddhist monk.  I know many of our friends and family would have done the same, but especially in this time of election, where everyone is fired up about their beliefs and divided over issues and candidates, passionately posting on Facebook where they stand, I get another feeling from people who I know love God-

christians do not always emulate love.  

As I was washing dishes last night, considering this thought, I remembered a song we used to sing at camp, one I remember my Mom singing with her guitar:

"They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they'll know we are christians by our love"

But is that true? This made me think of Jesus, and how many of the stories we see in the New Testament tell about the people he chose to spend time with-Zaccheus, the tax collector who everyone hated; The woman at the well, a known prostitute; his disciples who were fisherman and not Rabbi's.  
I'm not in anyway, comparing our guest to these people, however, Jesus did not limit his time with religious leaders-in fact he was often rebuking them as a result of their judgements.  I believe through love, his message is most clear.  

Sunim's goal is to make it to the tip of Argentina, however, while his English is slightly broken, his Spanish is nearly non-existent.  He is trying to learn, however he probably has less than 10 Spanish words in his vocabulary and he'll be in Mexico in just a few weeks.  

To tie this together, what might his journey look like if he has many Christians hosting him.  What if through hospitality, not evangelism, questions are raised.   I know from my own experience, the posting of the opposing political beliefs on facebook actually makes me want to block my friends news feeds.  What effect does preaching an opposing faith have?  Sometimes the gentle example speaks louder than words. 

If you have any connections in Central or South America who might consider hosting Sunim on his journey, you can contact his team through this link. JJ and I are concerned for his safety as he continues his "journey of spirit" through some areas that are full of unrest.  Please consider what you can do to help.

Lady

Oscar

I love the Shar pei.  When I was in Junior High, I gathered all of my money (somewhere around $30), and purchased about 20 posters of puppies and some kittens, out of an educational motivation catalogue one of my teachers had.  Most of them were of shar pei's, as they tend to be such adorable puppies, and the wrinkles seem to inspire so many quotes pertaining to overcoming things and growing up.

I plastered the walls of my room with these posters, literally acting like removable wallpaper.

Sella

Admiral

The first Christmas we were married, JJ surprised me with my first live Shar pei.  We named him Oscar, and though he gave us many challenges-I was hooked.  There is no other breed that compliments my personality so well.  After he passed, we soon found Sella, our second Shar pei, and days after her passing, we found Admiral.

Sella had been bred for personality, and she was exceptionally sweet. I had forgotten the difference in personality between the male and female, especially when the breeder had intended to breed a sweet dog, so Admiral has been a reminder of the finicky male.

Our youngest daughter has an unquenchable love for animals.  She would probably spend her entire day, doting and petting and hugging a dog, if the dog would allow.  The problem is, the shar pei likes a little attention and a lot of space.  Admiral is no exception, and so Mykah often ignores his attempts to communicate his need for this space until he nips her-not an acceptable action in a family.  After the move to Kayenta we began to discuss the possibility of getting a more tolerant dog for her to dote on-perhaps a goldendoodle, or pug.

Enter Lady.

Kayenta has many stray dogs animals.  There are packs of horses running free through the town and our neighborhood.  Cows mosey through the streets and dogs roam the parking lots, gas stations, neighborhoods and streets.  When we arrived to our home there were cats in our fenced in yard and that night we were awakened to a cow using our RV as a backscratcher.

A week ago, we were unpacking from our weekend away in Moab and a stray dog approached me.  She scared me at first, as it was dark and you never know if a stray will be friendly or not.  She immediately came up to me, wagging her tail and sat.  I cautiously pet her and she continued to wag her entire body, and nudge my hand with her nose when I stopped.  Admiral of course was going nuts, barking in our yard and trying to eat through the fence as he observed what was happening.  I pet her for a moment and tried to shake the guilt away as I said goodbye to the stray and went inside.

The thought of the stray stayed in the back of my mind for the following days.  JJ would inform me if he saw her, and I continued to keep my eyes out for her, although I never saw her.  We had mentioned her to the kids, very briefly, but I had doubts if we really wanted to take in a long haired stray, especially one of her size as our house is small and our RV is smaller. Two medium sized dogs would seem huge in both places.

Finally on Thursday, she walked past our house and from the sounds of Admiral's barking, I had a feeling it was her.  The kids were ecstatic.  They ran out to see her, but the sight of 4 humans intimidated the stray and although she wagged her tail, she stayed on the opposite side of the street.  The kids backed off and I stayed out, beckoning her to come over.  Finally, she cautiously came over, eager for some attention but retreating once the kids came forward.  After awhile, I went back inside and left it to Annika, who quickly gained her trust as well.  We spent a good portion of the morning trying to lure her into our yard and after a few failures, we finally "trapped" her in the yard, with all points of escape closed.

Days before, we had learned of the IHS/neighborhood rule that "if you feed it, it's yours," and so we knew this dog was now our responsibility.

At first we worried, as she was trapped within our fence, that she was missing her freedom.  She was being offered food, shelter and safety, but she still seemed sad.  She preferred to be outside, even at night and she laid around, wagging her tail in greeting, but not acting like a 1 year old dog would be expected to.

Finally, after a few days and one night indoors, we started to see signs that she liked it here-she didn't want to go outside in the morning!  In the days following, we have seen her personality grow.  She is beginning to reciprocate offers to play with Admiral and this morning, she made her first noise.  Admiral was busy guarding his yard from roaming dogs and from the safety of her fenced in yard, she bounded across the yard and joined in Admiral's barking.  It was such a surprise, the kids all ran outside to see that it was her, making the noise.

While I don't expect we'll follow suit of the other "foreign" employees in our neighborhood and adopt more dogs, I do feel glad that we've helped one furry friend.

As a side note, the kids and I spend several days a week, volunteering at our local shelter.  I hope to be able to put these shelter pets on Petfinder, or some other site to help find homes for these animals, and make room for the hundreds of animals still on the street.  I'll admit, I was skeptical that these street smart dogs would be good pets, but Lady has proved me wrong.

I hadn't intended to start a new blog. I however, have forgotten my password to The Lewis Ramblings, and I felt anxious to begin to write about this chapter in our lives.  I hope to be able to gain access to the old blog-at least to be able to have it printed before "turning the page" and focusing on this new one. 

To summarize our current life, JJ was given an unexpected offer to PCS to Kayenta, Arizona to serve in the health clinic here in mid-July.  We had only recently announced that we would be staying in Portsmouth, VA for another 3-4 years and I had begun settling in-changing my mindset to a more permanent view of our location.  

The change of plans was heartbreaking, as we had, for the first time in 4 years, started to feel at home. We were enjoying wonderful friendships in our neighborhood and beyond. I had a place in the Portsmouth Farmers Market, which was growing, and we were finally involved in a co-op for homeschool group that we were all very excited about. Isaak was excelling in karate and piano, the girls were enjoying dance, and a routine was falling into place...

The trouble was that JJ's career path was leading too quickly to a job he couldn't see himself enjoying for the next 17 years.  His heart was in therapy and he was already entering the world of administration-it's difficult to backtrack after that.  We also felt that God was opening a door we were supposed to enter-a difficult and scary door, but He wasn't closing it and so we entered it.  Within 2 months we were on our way, driving cross country to a place we had never seen, with faith that this was where we were supposed to go, and it would be ok.

We went from this...

....to this.

I'm not going to lie.  It's hard to cut your space in half.  Especially when you have more than enough stuff to fill a house twice this size.

(Yes, that's the moving truck...parked in front of our house...filled with our stuff)

I am learning to overlook the crowded house, as there are more opportunities to enjoy wide open spaces like this....

and this.

It really is beautiful out here.  I had no idea.  I have always vowed never to live in the southwest.  I suppose I should be concerned about what else I may have vowed never to do...