What?!!

 This is the face one makes when they find out they are pregnant with baby #6 

after making New Years resolutions like this more than once:

After giving away all things Baby...more than once.

After dedicating a year to getting back in shape to be "Fit by 40"

Be like "Puppy"

 

Some of you may know that Joshua has a speech delay.  Around 1.5 years old we started to notice something wasn’t right.  He is my 5th child so I knew by that age he should be at least attempting words.  We took him to specialists and enrolled in Speech therapy once he turned 3 years old.  At 3 years old he could say maybe 10 words. ( and only I understood what they were)  

This has it’s Pros and Cons for sure.

Pros: I didn’t have to answer 1000 questions a day from a 3 year old.  

He didn’t beg or whine for things

He’s quiet on my long walks

Cons:

I don’t know what his first day of school was like.

He has never said I Love you mom.

I don’t have cute 3 year old conversations with him.

One thing we did know about him was he loved dogs!  Every time he saw a dog he would light up and bark.  It was so cute to see him see a dog.  Jace dug up a stuffed animal dog we had and gave it to him and it became his best friend.  He has slept with it every night since.  Puppy, He would later name it became his source of comfort.  

He always knows where puppy is.

Puppy is a site to see.  He is missing his nose, lost his shape and most the time smells like a wet rag.

Last month I took pity on Puppy.  He needed a pick me up.  I decided I would buy a new one and surprise Joshua with it.  When the new one arrived there was a problem.  A big problem.  Even though they were the exact same puppy they were NOT the same.  This wasn’t going to go as easily as planned.  I decided I would need to be extra tricky to pull this off.

I told Joshua we needed to wash puppy.  He seemed to be ok with the idea.  He understands the concept of clean.  SO I gathered a load of laundry and I told him to go get puppy.  Happily he did and I told him to put puppy in the washer.  

My plan was to have him involved in the magic.  If HE put puppy in the washer I would swap the old puppy with the new puppy and have him pull it out with the clean load and I’d discretely discard of the old puppy.  

He’d see the magic the washing machine did on puppy and the new and improved puppy would take over.

  The problem was he refused to put his beloved puppy in the washer!  He looked at me with disgust when I told him to put puppy inside.  There was no way he would do that to puppy.  He knew that the washer filled up with water and tumbled and turned. 

Instead, he ran away from me and threw puppy over the banister to the downstairs to get him far away from me.

His loyalty and love to puppy was admirable.  I truly felt sorry for attempting to replace his little buddy.

He doesn’t want a perfect fluffy, clean, puppy.  He wants his deeply loved rag dog.  It is worn out in all the perfect ways for Joshua

Heavenly Father is asking for us to be “Puppy”.   A puppy who will be there for someone when they need comfort.  Someone who isn’t afraid to get dirty and change shape while serving others.

When we return to Heavenly Father which puppy do you think He will be most pleased with?

The perfect one that looks exactly the same as the day he was purchased or the one that lost himself in love and service?

He is looking for helpers who will CHANGE for him.  

I have had to learn to watch Joshuas actions to learn what he needs/wants.  He has never said I LOVE you mom, but I know I am his favorite because he lights up when I’ve been away from him for 2 seconds 

I know he loves going to school because he jumps up and down when the school bus pulls up.

Its been almost 4 years that Ive had to learn to communicate with him by watching his actions.  

Growing up my favorite quote was “People may doubt what you say but they will always believe what you do.”

We can say we are Latter Day-Saints but stay hidden away safely in our homes and keep to ourselves or we can be “puppy” and give every part of us that we can to bring others to Christ.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven.”  Matt 5:16