The Dirty Tennis Ball

Good morning! I just woke up from my early morning nap....do you take naps? I highly recommend them!

And if you can't decide which pillow to sleep on.....sleep on both! 

Now what was I talking about? ......oh yeah! I remembered something very important that I wanted to tell you all! My humans told me that they weren't going to buy me anymore tasty Costa Rican dog food!!!

But I'm not worried! I know my humans love me and take good care of me, they wouldn't want me to starve! Maybe they're finally going to let me eat tasty human food!!

There's something else I want to tell you about! One day I was outside playing fetch with my human and she accidentally threw my ball through the gate and it went into the road. She went out there and looked and looked, but she couldn't find it. It was ok though, I went back inside and brought her another ball (I have 3 of them!). 

Sometimes when my human throws my ball it lands in places that get it dirty, so my human has to wash it (and she washes all the good flavor out of it too!). After she washes it, she puts it outside to dry, which makes me so very sad because I want to play with my ball.

But then a day or two later I finally get my ball back and I'm so excited and happy! I want to play with it all day long and even bring it to bed with me!

A first I was really upset because I felt like my human was punishing my ball and my ball didn't do anything wrong! It wasn't my ball's fault that it got dirty! 

But then I remembered Jesus, because He didn't do anything wrong either. It's not His fault that we mess up and do bad things, but because we do bad things, He had to die for us. Jesus took all of our bad things, all of our dirt, into Himself. And because He died for us, we can be washed clean from all our bad things (but not with soap like my ball). After we get washed clean then we get to have a relationship with Him. We can talk to Him whenever we want, He goes everywhere with us, and He loves us sooooo much! I hope you know how much He loves you! 

All you have to do is tell Him how sorry you are for all the bad things you've done, ask Him to wash you clean, and then ask Him to come live in your heart! And He will! Just ask my humans!

I think it's time for another nap! All this story telling is making me tired! Just know that Jesus loves you and wants to wash you clean from all your dirt! And while I know that the dirt outside in the grass can be fun and tasty, this kind of dirt will only make you sad.....so please let Him wash you! love, Lucy

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Hey guys! Guess what?! This month is my birthday month. Now I'm 5 in human years! And I had my very first birthday party! It was great and now I know why all humans celebrate birthdays.....because it's so much fun!! On my actual birthday, my humans played ball with me all day long and we went for a run and I got to eat treats. One of the treats, my human made herself and it had peanut butter and apple pieces in it. It was soooo yummy!

Then a few days later, I was resting on my big comfy bed with my human and I heard little human niños calling my name! I got up and ran out the door! 5 of my little human friends were standing at our gate and I was pretty sure they wanted to play. But my human didn't let them in and then they left.
A little while later my humans and I left the house for our afternoon walk, but instead of turning right when we left the house (which is what we always do), we turned left! At first I wasn't sure, but after a while I realized where we were going.....we were going to the house where my human niño friends lived! I was so excited!!
When we got to the house I saw that all of my human friends that had stopped by our gate were there. I knew what I needed to do! I got my tennis ball out and we were ready to play!

Then I heard it! A squeak! One of the little humans had brought a squeaky toy!! And I figured out if I stepped on it with my paw I could make it squeak too!

So of course we had to play with the new toy too! We all had so much fun! 

But after a while I needed a break! So I took a "petting break" hehehe so the boys could pet me and I could cool off on the nice cold floors! I like petting breaks and scratchin breaks!

Then the boys needed a break too and ate some tasty looking human food!

I helped clean up some of the popcorn that was on the floor. I like tasty popcorn. My humans also said there was this thing called "dirt cake". I've never heard of humans eating dirt before and now I get in trouble when I try to eat it.......but the humans seemed to like this type of dirt. 

This was the BEST birthday ever! Thank you to all my human friends that came and played with me, and for my squeaky present! (I tried to bring it to bed that night, but my humans don't allow toys in bed at bedtime.) 

Someone was pretty worn out after my exciting birthday party! But I still got some scratchin out of it!

I was pretty tired too! But I had so much fun! We should have birthdays every day!! 

But we will have to plan the parties later because right now it is time for my Sunday morning nap! I'll talk to you later!! love, Lucy

Colorfully Created

Hey guys! So I just realized that I've been living in Costa Rica for forever!! And I still haven't shown you all the really neat animals that live here! So I thought we'd start with my roommate.....no, not my humans! haha! This is my friend gecko, I call him Fernando. He lives here in the house with me and eats insects and sometimes cockroaches. But fortunately, since we moved to our new house, we haven't had very many of those!

One thing about Costa Rica, it is very colorful! Just check out these birds!

My humans say this one is called a humming bird (or in Spanish "colibrí"). 

These are Macaws. And guess what? They mate for life! That means they find the one they love, they get married and stay together for always. How beautiful is that! These macaws are eating mangoes. What a tasty treat!

This bird should look familiar......especially if you eat Fruit Loops! As baby birds, both their parents take care of them as they grow up, and their beaks grow as they get bigger.

Look at this beautiful blue butterfly! 

This is a Poison Dart Frog so.....don't eat him! He is pretty, isn't he? 

What about this frog? He has some pretty good camouflage, doesn't he? (That means he's hard to find because he's the same color as everything around him.) And this one isn't poisonous. Can you see his bright red eyes? How unique! These little guys usually sleep during the day and use their bright colors to scare off anyone that wants to try to eat them!  

Do you see all those bats? There's a line of them down the tree. They also sleep during the day, and like to fly around at night eating all kinds of bugs! And it doesn't matter that it's dark at night, because bats can't see anyway.

Check out this pretty kitty. That's a BIG kitty. I don't even weigh 10 pounds! My humans say this kitty is called a jaguar and that I'm not allowed to play with it.....it must be in trouble and sitting in time out. Poor kitty. 

This furry little guy is an ant eater (but he also eats termites). He's pretty cute isn't he?  

We have a lot of these all over Costa Rica. They're called Iguanas. They come in different sizes and colors, but they all are pretty good at hiding in plain sight! 

I do not like crocodiles! They are big and scary and love to eat! They are very strong, but because their eyes are on either side of their head, they can't rely on what they see to help them capture their meal. They like to hunt in the water, where they can feel the waves the other animal makes. This makes it easier for them to catch them! I try to tell my humans that I don't want go swimming! But they said there aren't any crocodiles in any of the places we swim! Whew! 

Aww, isn't he cute? His Spanish name is "Carita Blanca" (that just means "little white face").

I've shown you a lot of really neat, colorful animals that live here in Costa Rica. Now for something a little different....

Did you see all the colors in this tree? This tree is called a Rainbow Eucalyptus, because eventually it is covered in all the colors of the rainbow! How beautiful!

And our God created all of it! I think He created these things to remind us of Him. Like the iguanas, you may not always see them, but they are there. We may not see God, but we can know that He is always there with us. Or the crocodile that can't see his dinner because of where his eyes are, but trusts that it's in front of him because he can feel the waves his dinner is making, and so he follows. God doesn't always clearly, with a loud voice say "GO BE A MISSIONARY IN HONDURAS", but He may tug at our hearts, or use the wise words of a friend or the words in His Book to show us where He wants us to go. And we should follow.

The Rainbow Eucalyptus tree is so pretty and I've never seen another tree that looks like it. So let's be like the Eucalyptus tree and be different, and follow our God. He created some pretty amazing stuff, I can't wait to see what He's going to do with our lives!

And now guys, I'm pretty sure it's bedtime! Goodnight! love, Lucy

Goodbye and Hello

Hey guys! How are you doing? I am soooo much better! Thank you for your prayers! (My humans told me that you have been praying for me!) Right now my humans are on break from language school. The very first day of break we played fetch ALL day and I got to go for TWO walks! I love break! And I love my humans! I was so tired after such a fun first day of break!

It was pretty much the best day ever!!

But then something muy triste happened! My humans told me that my very first human friends I made here in Costa Rica were leaving! I was so sad. But then my humans explained to me that they were done with the language school and were moving to the country God had called them to. I hope I get to see my friends again, but I'm glad they are doing what God has asked them. I know that more humans will hear about the love of Jesus through them, and that is the best thing.

It's so hard to say goodbye to humans that I love, but I know this is what they are suppose to do. And I think after a good game of fetch I will feel better too!

This week I also had to say goodbye to another one of my human friends, she was also my neighbor (vecino or vecina, in Spanish). She was a very sweet neighbor and always called me "honey". She also prayed for me, that I wouldn't be so scared of baths.

The good thing is that some of my friends are still here! And I've made some new friends too!

C'mon guys! Enough sitting around. Let's go play fetch!! Everyone should have awesome human friends like mine. I had sooooo much fun playing with them this week! I had to come home and take another nap! 

Mostly I like break because I get to spend more time with my humans and my human friends, and I get to make new friends! My humans told me we have about 3 and half months left here and then it will be our turn to say goodbye.

I know I'll be sad, but I'll be excited too, because that means I get to make more human friends in a new place! But more importantly, we will be where God has told my humans to go so they can tell more humans about Jesus and His love. I have had to tell a lot of goodbyes in my four years (almost 5!), but I have learned that my human friends will always be my human friends. And that sharing the love of Jesus is the most important thing. Right?......ooo my human is eating a muffin.....I gotta go! love, Lucy

The Terrible Horrible...

Guys I'm so glad I get to write you another one of these!! 3 weeks ago I thought I had written my last blog! (and I'm pretty sure my humans were thinking that too.) What happened to make me think that, you ask? Well, my human and I were out for a walk in the park Sunday afternoon and a big, mean, scary dog came and bit me! It hurt so bad and I cried. But my humans, they took care of me and took me to a doctor and I got stitches. 10 of them! Have you ever had stitches before? They weren't too bad, because they gave me medicine to make all the hurt go away. That was nice. 

But I started thinking about what I said in my last blog.

About how next to my human is the safest place to be (just like being next to God is the safest place to be). But when that mean dog bit me, I was next to my human. That doesn't sound like a safe place anymore, does it? But you know what? When that dog bit me, my human didn't run away and leave me, and when I was hurting, my human held me, she stayed right by my side. She let me sit in her lap, warm and safe, for as long as I wanted.

She rubbed my belly, softened my food and brought my water to me so I didn't have to get up (which was a good thing because I didn't feel good enough to get up)! She cried with me, and gave me everything I needed. And she still called me her "pretty girl", and told me I was beautiful. 

Guys, I looked in the mirror, and what I saw was a puppy with a bad haircut and some crazy looking stitches.....I didn't think I looked all that "pretty". But you know what? When something horrible happens in our lives, God is still right there. He doesn't leave us. He gives us everything we need. He lets us sit in His warm, safe lap as long as we like. He cries with us, and He still calls us beautiful (even when its been a rough day!).

I had a lot of healing to do (still do) and it can be exhausting! But because of the horrible thing that happened, I found out I had gotten a very bad infection in my tummy from eating all the tasty grass here in Costa Rica (so if you ever come to Costa Rica, don't eat the grass!). If that dog hadn't bitten me, then my humans and I might never have found out about my infection and that would have been bad. So I guess something good did come from me being bitten by that dog,

My human says her favorite verse from the Bible is John 16:33 and she says Jesus knows that bad things are going to happen to us, but it's gonna be ok because He loves us and what He did for us. 

And after all that has happened, I really enjoy just sitting in my human's lap, falling asleep in my human's lap, and just being near my humans.

So when something bad happens to you, does it make you want to spend more time with Jesus?

I am Venga!

I can't believe it! My humans say that tomorrow makes 6 months that we've been living here in Costa Rica! That's a whole half a year!! I really miss all my human family and friends back in the States, but I have had fun making lots of new human friends here in Costa Rica!
Just a little doggie thought for the day:
When we first moved here I noticed something very strange. I already told you how there are dogs everywhere down here! (some have humans and some don't.....pobrecitos) But I discovered that every dog here has the same name! How strange is that?! Every time a human would call their dog, they said "Venga!" and the dog would come. It didn't matter if it was a boy dog or a girl dog. Now where I'm from in Tennessee, every dog has their own name, and boy dogs and girls dogs have very different names. So I found this very curious. Then one day while we were at a park, I realized that even some of the human niños answered to "Venga" too! I was so very confused!
But my humans (they are so very smart), they taught me that "venga" means "come" in Spanish! I was so relieved! This means those dogs and human niños each have their own special name. Whew!
But then I started to think about it, and I want to be known as the dog that comes when my humans call my name. I love my humans so much, they give me everything I need and more, and I want to do whatever they ask. When they call my name, when they say "Lucy come!" I come running!

I also love walking with my humans, right next to them, there is no safer place! 

Wherever my humans go, I go too.....(except school of course, that's my siesta time!). 

It's the same with God, I know He gives us everything we need and more. And by His side is the safest place in the whole world! He called my humans and said "venga". He told them to go to Honduras to rescue human niños and teach them about Him. So my humans came running to Him, because they love Him and He loves us, and said yes to His call.

Where He tells us to go and what He tells us to do, we do. Because when He calls, we come. All because of love. I want to be known as the little dog that comes to her humans because they love me and I love them. I want to be known as "Venga".

What about you?