This year was a little rough for the Easter Bunny.  He’s magical and all, but it’s hard to compete with eleven little Labrador puppies.

Judging by the smile (or lack thereof) on our son’s face, chocolate labs bring much more joy than chocolate eggs:

 

One of these little pups will be coming home with us on May 19, and the anticipation is already killing the kids.

I must admit, Clark and I are ready as well.  It’s been a few years since we lost Bailey and Kodi, and the memories of their final days still bring us to tears.  But we both grew up with special childhood pets, and can’t deny that experience for our children.  Clark had a beloved cat named Baby who truly had seven lives and was in his life from kindergarten through college.  I had a dog named Sheba, and the day my dad brought her home from the woods is one of my earliest childhood memories.  Our farm cats adored her and I spent many summer days whispering secrets into her ears.

As parents we can already tell this new puppy is destined to be our children’s Baby and Sheba. She will be present in nearly all of their childhood memories.  They will smuggle her into their beds, wrestle with her in the backyard, and hug her tightly when they are sad.  When the kids head to college, they just might miss this dog more than us.

And someday this dog will break their hearts.  It’s jaded to think that way, but it happened to us with Baby and Sheba and Bailey and Kodi.  So we know.

What’s not jaded is our faith that all the years between May 19 and the heartbreak will be worth it. The joyous moments we are given with those we love eventually outweigh the pain of their passing.  So here we go again, a bit wiser about what’s to come but with fully open hearts none the less.

And what better time to find a new family member than on Easter weekend, a time that is ripe with new life and hope and faith?

Finding a puppy on Saturday overshadowed the Easter Sunday excitement, but we still had a magical holiday.  The kids made homemade cascarones – empty egg shells filled with birdseed and glitter.  (Three families saved egg shells for a month, and we still smashed them all within 15 minutes!)  It was warm enough outside to hunt for eggs in the park without a coat, and Easter dinner was incredible.