Our First Pet!

We also had a very exciting addition to our family this summer!  A fish.  For those of you who know me...I love animals, just not in my home. :)  I think Dave and the girls have different feelings, but up until a few months ago, we have not had any pets in the McCurdy home.  That is, until our sweet neighbors across the street found out they were moving to New York and their fish, Sparkle, was not going to be able to make the trip with them.  So sad, I know.  So here's how it all went down.  

I'm cooking dinner one evening and have eggs on the stove (it was breakfast-for-dinner night), pancakes on the griddle, and bacon in the oven, and I hear a knock on the door.  Katelyn runs to the door and sees that its the little girl from across the street.  Katelyn says, "Mom, Valeria has a question for you!"  I'm really hoping its a quick, easy, yes or no question because, at my age, it's hard for me to keep up with lots of stuff going on at the same time, and I'm confident that my pancakes are going to burn if I turn my attention elsewhere, even for a second.  So she says, in the sweetest voice ever, "I was wondering if you would like to take care of my fish when we move because we can't take her with us.  Her name is Sparkle."  I took a deep breath and said, "I think we could do that, but can I come over after dinner and talk to you a little more about it?"  She agreed, and then I asked an even more important question, "how often do you have to feed her?"  She told me how she only has to eat once a day (six super tiny fish food pellets=cheap to feed), and she also has these special pellets that you can put in her tank when you go out of town which allow her to eat on her own and not have to be dependent on someone else feeding her. SOLD.  We went over to her house after dinner and got some general instructions, and I'm happy to report that Sparkle is still living (and thriving!) in our home today.  But I would be amiss if I didn't tell you the absolute sweetest part of this story....when we went to get Sparkle and bring her to our house, Valeria's mom told us that her daughter thought very carefully through her list of friends who she could ask to take care of Sparkle.  She said that when she thought about Katelyn, she told her mom that she knew she could trust Katelyn to take good care of Sparkle, more so, than any of her other friends.  Thank you, Jesus, I thought. This is just a small picture of a greater characteristic that I pray the Lord develops in Katelyn.  May she be a trustworthy friend who walks in Jesus' example of trustworthiness.

Meet Sparkle.  She's cute, I know.