Graduation Day

Well, I never thought I would be proud of a dog, but I am. My daughter too, of course.! Our guide dog puppy Sential graduated in early Feb and is a full fledged seeing eye dog now. We met his new owner, a retired Middle School math teacher who has slowly gone blind. He was quite touched that two middle schoolers raised this dog and it was a pleasure to get to know him. He obviously loves the dog and has called us from his home in Arizona to let us know that Sentinal is doing just fine.

It was especially fun to see Sentinal reunited with his "first" family. When he came around the corner and saw my daughter and smelled her, he started jumping and dancing and wagging his entire body, as labs do! He eventually made his way around to all of us and it was like greeting an old friend. I personally got a near backflip of excitement as he found me and licked my face with joy!

Later we heard stories of gratitude from the twelve or so graduates for these wonderful animals, now valued at $50,000 each! Everything is funded by donations, so these folks really are blessed.

It was a great day, and,we hope, one that truly taught our girls the value of hard work and giving to others. Almost all the blind folks were in tears as they accepted their new companions. Those mornings in the snow at 5 AM "relieving" that little puppy now seemed worth it.

One older man,as he thanked the raisers of his dog, really said it all. He ended his comments with"...and thank you to my Lord Jesus, who makes all things possible."

Amen to that.