October 14, 2014 ~ A New Journey

So tonight my heart is so full. Full of happiness because I know God has sent us a huge blessing today. Full of peace because I am once again reminded that God answers prayers. Most of all I am full of love for our new addition that will be joining our family very soon. Many, many months ago someone mentioned a seizure dog to us. It was not something you can take lightly so it really required a lot of prayer and patience. After searching for the right company for a while, we were thrilled to finally find an amazing place so close to home. Autism Assistance Dogs which is part of Highland Canine has been such a blessing to our family! We knew very early on in our talks with them that they were the company for our family. It was amazing to find a place so close to home when we were looking at companies in many different states. We were also very HUMBLED by the fact that we were able to raise the money needed in just 7 days using the website GO FUND ME. I can't even begin to tell you what every single donation has meant to us! We have been waiting for a dog that they felt would be a good match for Sam. Tonight we had the extreme pleasure of meeting our new family member Moose Bode! Sam LOVES him so much! She played with him for about an hour and got pretty tired at the end of our time. She was a little grumpy but when we actually left and went to the car she kept saying, "Moose! Find him!" She didn't want to leave him behind. He is an amazing dog and I really feel like this is all such a blessing from God. I have not had a good night sleep in the longest time because of the fear of not waking up if Sam has a seizure. Knowing that in just a few months we will have a dog who will be trained to do many things, one of which is to alert us when Sam is seizing. Within 5 minutes of her seizing, Sam requires suction to clean out her mouth of very thick saliva. If we slept through that she would definitely be at risk for choking and other harmful issues that come with prolonged seizures. We have seen firsthand the setbacks that come from long seizures and we will do anything possible to minimize those effects for our Sam. Gwen has been extremely excited about our new edition. I actually found a card she made Highland thanking them for finding us a dog. We never leave Sam alone and it is a constant stress on Gwen to watch her sister while we are cooking or cleaning. She is so worried Sam will start seizing while she is with her and it upsets Gwen greatly. She wants the best for her sister. She geared up a little on the way home  because she knows what a blessing Moose will be for our family. Knowing that we will have a new member of our family that will go EVERYWHERE with us does give us a little bit of relief. Knowing that Moose will be specifically trained to help Sam in those emergent situations take a huge weight off of all of us! Travis who is not a huge dog person even loved Moose. He was so happy when we left today and I think Moose will make him a dog person. :) Tonight we were told that it will take about 6 months to train Moose. We are very excited at the prospect of having him join us in the Spring of 2015! Thanks for staying with us on our journey. Your love and support is nothing short of amazing! We will be visiting Moose once a month until he becomes officially ours. I hope to keep you updated with pictures though this next step of Samantha's Journey!