Goodbye Snappy

This picture was taken during our vacation in Turkey. The boys had mentioned on our last day of vacation that they hoped Snappy was not missing them and while we were walking on the beach we spotted a little cat print. We all laughed and talked about how snappy escaped the apartment and followed us to Turkey and had been lounging on the beach the whole time. We made a heart and wrote his name and pretended Snappy was with us and laughed. It's appropriate now to look at and remember the little paw print he made especially on the heart of my once hurting son, Micah.

"I don't know how to do this" I cried out to the Lord in broken sobs as I learned that our cat would not survive his fall from our 5th story apartment balcony and we would be left to explain to two little boys the next morning that their beloved cat, Snappy had died. If there is one thing that has been consistent in our lives here in Bulgaria, it would be God's faithfulness and my desperate pleas of "I don't know how to do this." With every single declaration of that statement, God has shown up in our lives in amazing ways. I am not trying to be overly dramatic, I know people lose their pets all of the time and parents have to watch their children's hearts break when a beloved cat, dog, mouse, rabbit ect dies, I mean I lost my first cat at 7 years old too. So in no way am I trying to elevate our loss, I'm just grieving. I'm grieving over the fact that Snappy didn't need to know bulgarian to be Micah's first friend. Snappy loved Micah and let Micah love him without needing to understand cultural differences. Micah saved Snappy by pulling him from the cold winter snow, and Snappy pulled Micah out of a very sad and difficult time that he unfortunately was having to deal with. The fact that Snappy was even allowed in our car was a miracle in itself. Cameron being very allergic to cats has repeatedly said no! But when Micah approached with a orange skinny cat, who he was holding upside down like a possum Cameron surprisingly said yes. More surprising was that Cameron was not allergic to Snappy and we felt he was a God given gift to help Micah smile and feel like he had a consistent buddy. Ben hated Snappy as first because he would wait for Ben to make his nightly potty break and then stalk and pounce on him, his half asleep 3 year old victim. I am pretty convinced that this is why we still have to wake Ben up to go potty at night now. I think Snappy scared him from leaving his bed in the middle of the night. Over time Ben and Snappy found a sweet love for one another and you could find Snappy every night curled up at Ben's feet.

We woke this morning, very tired (Cameron came home from the animal hospital at 3:30am and we finally laid down around 4:40) to two very happy friday morning boys. How do you know when to ruin somebody's day? Micah had looked around the house and finally asked "Hey guys have you seen Snappy?" We pulled the boys onto our beds and broke the news and watched them cry. Each boy took a moment to say their goodbyes to a blanket covered peacefully sleeping Snappy.

God will be faithful to heal their hearts and replace Micah's smiles not with a cat but with His own peace and love. It has been good to see Micah pray to God and talk to Him about how he is feeling and to know that Micah is on his own journey with God. Snappy gave us many gifts of joy in a time of very hard transition and we will be grateful for how he helped my sweet Micah find a consistent joy in his new country of Bulgaria. Thank you for praying for us last night and even though some may not have understood the need to pray for a cat, I thank you for praying anyways.