Lessons from Lexi

 

I realized the other day that it’s been just over four years since Ryan and I made the decision to add to our family in the form of a sweet puppy.

                We had talked about getting a dog earlier in our marriage, but during our commuter years, it just wasn’t practical. Then we met sweet Phoebe…remember her? She was our part-time dog, and that was a great setup for us. She would come to stay when her people were gone, and it was fun to have a puppy, even for a little while.

                We lived at WillowBridge when we decided to get a puppy of our own. We wanted the experience of raising a dog from the first days of its sweet little life, and when we found out friends of ours would have puppies, we jumped at the chance.

                We hoped having a dog in WillowBridge would unify our tenants…and though we didn’t end up living there long after Lexi came to be our girl, she did bring a lot of joy to that building while we were there together.

                She’ll turn four in November, and we talk often about how she has changed our life in every way.

                We never knew a dog could have such personality. Her funny faces, her little quirks, her predictable ways…we’re always laughing.

                She has forced us to slow down and savor, which has been a good thing for us. We still haven’t found our “Ryan and Bekah” sitters, which means we have to be careful about being gone. We don’t like to board her unless we absolutely have to. We miss day-long adventures, but we appreciate the push to slow down.

                She loves hard, and we love that. Her hugs are the absolute sweetest.

                She is stubborn beyond belief. I seriously had no idea dogs could be that headstrong. I remind myself often that I prayed over her little personality every single day before she was born, so the stubborn in her is meant to foster growth in me…in us.

                She is the biggest cheerleader for almost every single person in this world. (Except the crew that worked on our house recently. For reasons unknown to us, she didn’t like a couple of them.) When she walks past her favorite friends’ houses around the lake, she jumps and looks for them. She can’t hug our guests fast enough when they walk in.

                She’s food-motivated more than anyone I’ve ever met in my life – including myself! All that stubbornness melts if she sees one shred of cheese or hears the peanut butter jar open. She will sit so fast. I get it, little girl. I get it.

                We are a family. I know that dog-people get that and non-dog people don’t, but the three of us are a real team. We can’t imagine life without her. No one makes us laugh and smile like that sweet little face. We’ve grown and learned so much because of her. I’m so glad we said yes to that adorable little peanut.