The Story of Glory and Shima

We don’t really know their full story. We only met them 2 years ago. Elijah and I had just finished a work-out at ETBU and I hadn’t quite made it to the car before 4 pairs of adorable eyes, 4 wagging tails and 16 big puppy feet paraded themselves right into my heart. Elijah caught us together after I’d shared my water bottle down to the last drop and no questions were to be asked at that point; they were coming home for a proper dinner. It wasn’t long before 2 of the 4 sisters joined another family as people ogled over them every time they passed by our house. The new puppies brought the neighborhood alive for us which had been all too distant since our move to Marshall 2 months prior. The Lord had brought them at just the right season.

As a small tribute to Africa, we decided to use Swahili to name one of the dogs. I called her ‘Honor’, thus Heshima, or Shima for short, joined the family. Her sister Glory, called Gloria by our neighbors to this day, tied the bow on our home at 902 North Franklin Street. Though not in the sort we might have originally imagined, the Lord had given us twins who made us wonder those first couple of weeks if we were sane to think we could raise children. While the girls don’t, in all honesty, embody their names' potential, it wasn’t a month before we could legitimately call them our Comfort and our Joy!

There is a time for everything… a time to gather… a time to scatter. The seasons change.

Perhaps ironically as Elijah and I look forward to moving ourselves onto ETBU’s campus for the Faculty in Residence program, it is now time to part with some of our earliest ETBU gifts.

I wanted to introduce them to you, for you see, our girls still need a home and just like we don’t know the beginning of their story, as the Lord moves His pieces around, yes even dogs, I can embrace that He cared for them before us and will after us… Perhaps you’ll be part of the story.

Smiling on the Left: Glory, 61 lbs; Right: Shima, 49 lbs
Birthdays: ~ May 2009
Both spayed and up to date on vaccines and preventative meds