Life is Weird

Last night, our Stephen Ministry group hosted a presentation on the heroin epidemic. I've been working on this for a while...but my job was to provide the place, introduce the speaker after Pastor said a prayer, and then watch while the most amazing public meeting unfolded in front of me.

I'm still processing. It's overwhelming. I live ten minutes south of Dayton, Ohio, the epicenter of the heroin epidemic. Last night I learned things...but mostly I learned how little I know, how little anyone knows, and how many pieces to this 3-D puzzle there are. Complex doesn't begin to describe it. Now we need to figure out how our church will respond to what we learned last night and how to fight the culture of shame and silence that surrounds heroin addiction that pervades our community.

I'm terribly sleep deprived. Which explains why I drove off this morning to take my son to the hospital for an appointment...without my son. My husband had to call to tell me I left the boy at home. Fortunately, I hadn't left the neighborhood, but this pathetic parenting moment is brought to you courtesy of several nights of poor sleep and utter distractedness.

In the midst of all this huge, scary, overwhelming stuff, however, there is a fuzzy spot of joy in my life. We have chosen a puppy from the litter of three...my favorite. YAY!!!!

The pup is too young to leave his mother yet, but his breeder shares photos and videos daily.

We've almost decided on a name, but for now he's Red because the breeder puts a different color ribbon around each puppy's neck to distinguish them. Our choice wears red.

But clearly that name doesn't apply to the puppy himself.

Red is on the left. He's the largest of the three by half a pound.
This was his first time on the grass!

Red on the left again. That pink tongue makes me want
to smell his puppy breath! This picture
shows just how much bigger he is than
his brother and sister.

He knew just what to do with the crate, waddling
into it and crashing immediately.
Sleeping puppy!!!!

It's been awhile since I tried uploading a video in Blogger. PTSD from the last time, I suspect. But we'll see if this works. Red was the last of the three pups to walk because he got too fat. As you can see, he's coming along nicely. *waddle, waddle, stagger, waddle*

My apologies if the video doesn't work. I'm going straight to bed and will try to fix any glitches in the morning.

Can you tell my faith in Blogger is a bit shaky?

And here's a picture of Red's big sister, our beautiful Daisy. She has no idea how her life will change Labor Day weekend!

Seven-year-old Daisy.
If reincarnation is a thing, I want to come back
as a dog owned by a family like ours. 

So there you have it. I live in the epicenter of the biggest health crisis of the 21st century, and I'm getting a blonde furball of epic cuteness.

Life is weird.

Please feel free to share your weird life in the comments. The good. The bad. And if you're the praying kind, please pray for those who are caught up in heroin addiction. They are victims. So are their loved ones.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan