Just an update.

Winston continues to eat ( this is a good thing) and mostly sleep. He still appears to be in no pain, with only a slight discomfort in the afternoon when he seems to have a fever. We continue to ask God to heal or make it clear when it is time to give him relief. Ben's birthday is next week, followed by Christmas. I know God is sovereign in all his ways, so were trusting Him to work even in the details of how all this impacts celebrations. Everyone, for now, seems to be getting used to Winston's diagnosis, while he is enjoying our concoctions to keep him nourished (steak, hamburgers, PBJ sandwiches, etc).

We did not get to meet Lou Lou the golden mix puppy last evening. There was a last minute emergency at the rescue agency that delayed that. We will meet him on Friday.

This afternoon we met Buster and shy adorable Cocker Spaniel who is 9 months old. In our visit he seemed very similar to Winston in temperament, A few of us fell in love with Buster.

We must make a decision on the spot when we meet Lou Lou because there are others interested in him.

We continue to pray for God's wisdom and clarity in this. A unanimous decision as too which one we choose would be wonderful.

Thank you for all the kind words and emails from each of you. We are so grateful for such great friends, and while our family feels the immediacy of this personal time of sorrow, we are reminded of how small this is compared to some of the huge things others are facing and we feel challenged to not forget the larger needs of so many around us so we continue to lift those up in our prayers daily, knowing that the effectual feverent prayers of righteous people avail much.

The Wachtels

The Kindness of God

"There is no end to grace because there is no bottom to the well from which it comes." John Piper

We shed a bath tub full of tears last night and hugged a lot. And Winston true to form had lots of kisses and licks for each of us as he sensed our sadness.

Throughout the day, I was reminded that God knew we would face this on this day, and that He also would supply us with all we needed to make it through. I was so grateful to hear both Ben and Olivia quietly sleeping shortly after they went to bed.

Thank you God for that gift.

Thank you for caring for me in such numerous ways. I know Winston was a gift that you sent to us. You created dogs (and yes cats). you didn't have to, it's a small blip in the radar of creation. Not only did you create them, you made all kinds of different breads with different temperaments and personalities, all to bring us joy and delight and companionship and comfort. SELAH.

God your kindness and extravegant love is beyond my comprehension.


I was reminded again this morning of God's kindness as I read John Piper's Future Grace.

God made us alive and secured us in Christ so that he could make us the beneficiaries of everlasting kindness from infinite riches of grace. This is not because we are worthy. Quite the contrary, it is to show the infinite measure of HIS worth.

Tonight

Winston has been loosing weight. Something we've been working on for sometime. The problem is he is loosing too fast. Last August Dr. Wendy was concerned. (Wendy walked through cancer with us when our sweet Eliot had lymphoma at 2.) Last week Winston went 4 days without touching his food, and so today we went to see Dr. Wendy again.

And again we heard the C word. Winston, at 10 has cancer in his stomach/splene (?) area. It's a blur right now. Wendy said the longest she's seen any dog live with this is three weeks.

So tonight we will begin to tell the kids.

I know God is extravagant in his love, because he made dogs for us to love and share companionship with, and because he brought us Winston at a time when we thought we could never love another dog. And we have for 8 glorious years!

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