🎼 Here’s the mail it never fails
It makes me want to wag my tail
When it comes I want to wail
MAIL!!!!!

For the uninitiated, the verse above is from a children’s show—Blue’s Clues. Oh, the memories! My kid might be grown, but there’s a new puppy in house that likes my singing. :)

On Sunday evening, my husband and I were kicked back on the deck having a beer when our son got home from work. Henrietta was taking a nap. Our man-child came through the sliding door carrying a cardboard box sealed with blue packing tape.

“Looks like Amazon made a Sunday delivery for Henrietta,” he said.

Sunday delivery again!? Well…if it’s for Henrietta…I hopped up to get a scissors. Who is this from? I wondered.

The box contained a bag of mini dog biscuits and one of the cutest dog toys I’ve ever seen. The plush hollow log is stuffed with three removable, squeaky, plush squirrels. The official name….Outward Hound Hide a Squirrel Fun Hide & Seek Interactive Puzzle Plush Dog Toy, 4 Piece, Small——a mouthful!

The enclosed note read:

Welcome to the family Henrietta! We hope you love treats and squirrels as much as we do! Love your cousins, Maggie and Millie

My thoughtful, dog loving niece from Texas sent Henrietta her first piece of mail—from her two pups. My heart bloomed like a flower receiving a shot of fertilizer.

Does that happen to you, too? When somebody unexpectedly reaches out and feeds your soul?

There is something about my niece that I’m in a position to understand because of similar experience. She and her husband, despite years of trying, remain childless. In my case, for reasons I’ll never know, I eventually received my Gift from God.

While my niece and her husband wait, they are filled with hope and faith. Pouring their love into rescue dogs, they continue to update their human adoption site, and structure their life so that if and when a child comes, they’ll be ready.

Sometimes life’s challenges come without explanation.

I’m inspired by my niece who asks…

What can we do? instead of Why me?