Some days, you get up and just wade til you go to bed. Nothing exciting happens, nothing good or bad stands out. It’s a day like any other. As my Ben would say, nothing to twinge at. Today was almost one of those days.

The funny thing is the conversation Ben and I had on the way home from school. As usual, I asked him about his day. As usual, he said nothing exciting happened. He went on to say that he just endured another day of nothing important. I told him we do that a lot, waste days that seem to have no purpose. I asked him if it wouldn’t be better to find purpose in every day. I think he grunted in reply and moved to another subject. Gotta love the boy.

I didn’t think much about our conversation after that. We went home, ate some dinner, and I went in the backyard with Baby-G like I normally do. Today she thought it would be fun to have me crawl in and out of her playhouse repeatedly. My back thought otherwise so I suggested we go ‘around the block’. A walk is a great distraction from most things.

When we went out front, we found ‘friends’ as G calls the kids next door, riding bikes. We love hanging out with these friends. They are all right around G’s age, but a bit more street savvy and bike riding. Two of them decided to go ’round the block’ with us and Fantine, our dog.

Fantine is like the dog in the old Disney movie Peter Pan. She is amazing. She watched over Ben for years when he was little and is super obedient. Because of that, I usually don’t even put her on a leash. She just walks right next to us, no problem. At one point in our little caravan of a walk, a new dog came up and made friends with Fantine. I was a bit nervous at first, but they did the mighty sniff-down and all seemed well. We continued on our walk with the added canine. I thought it was funny how I seemed to be attracting kids and animals as I walked around the block.

When we got back home, I left all the kids out front and put Fantine in the house. The new dog followed me right up to the door and invited himself inside. “Sorry buddy, you’re not coming in.” He came back over by the kids with me and the neighbor and I located his tags. I called his owner and he said he would be right over.

Not more than a minute later, this nice new friend of a dog, ran across the street and attacked another dog. They were locked together and making all those growling noises that aren’t fun to hear from dogs. Two neighbor men ran over and started kicking the dog as hard as they could to try and get them apart. The man that had been walking the newest dog hit the ground. It. Was. Scary.

I grabbed the two littlest kids and retreated. A nearby neighbor called 911 and I called the owner again to tell him he needed to get there NOW. When I told him his dog had just attacked, he told me I was wrong. (Insert incredulous face here)

Long story short, the only blood that flowed was from the attack dog. The man who hit the ground and the victim dog are fine. Paramedics, Firemen(super cute), and Police were all on the scene, as well as half my neighborhood I think. The kids were not traumatized. I know this because they felt bad for the nice dog that just attacked another dog and wanted to go pet him…..

The owner finally showed up to get his dog, 2 hours later. Side note, he lived…One. Street. Over.

The story can’t convey how crazy it all was. When I finally came inside with Baby-G, I sat on my couch and I cried. I didn’t cry because I was sad or scared. I cried because I was grateful beyond my ability to contain. My heart was and still is, overflowing with gratitude to my Heavenly Father. Why didn’t the dog attack MY dog when we met it? Why didn’t it attack me? Why didn’t it attack one of the sweet children in my care on our walk? All I could think of was, my mom and dad pray for me. I pray for my children. My neighbor prays for her kids.

Today, more than most days I can remember, I know for certain that my Heavenly Father knows and watches over me. He is mindful of me. He hears my prayers and the prayers of others. He is ever mindful of me and mine and what we need. He protects and guides us.

Today may have started out as any old ordinary day, but today I felt my Heavenly Father’s love for me in abundance. I know He lives and loves me and I am so very grateful.

Cause I said so.

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