More on Chien

Thank you for everyone that told me my previous post was not showing the final pictures. I fixed it, but for some reason could not get all the pictures to load properly, so I am finishing that post with this one. But be sure to scroll down to see the rest of the pictures that are now working properly in the old post too.

I just love this one of Ben and Chien...best friends!

And Chien playing in the snow.

A great shot of his favorite past time...

A lot of people have been asking about how we are doing without Chien now and how the kids are taking it. The kids took it surprisingly well. Ben was a little upset the day he died, but I am not sure how much he truly understood or how much he was reacting to how upset Paul and I were. I was so worried about how they would take it, but they seem just fine. With that in mind, I began to realize just how young they are and how much Chien was really Paul and my dog. It breaks my heart to think that some day when the kids are older, Abbey and Juliette likely won't even remember Chien and Ben may remember, but just barely. If/when we get another dog, that will be their childhood dog that they grow up with and remember. Chien was my dog. He was Paul's dog. He was our first "baby" and was with us through the amazing growth of our family. So it has been the hardest on us. The kids are fine, but Paul and I are still missing him a lot, every day.

One final picture...I love this one because it shows Chien "smiling" the way he always did when we showed him any sort of attention or love. And I love the way the sun is shining on him - looks like Heaven shining down on him and he is happy. This was taken right before we found out he had cancer and I think it is my favorite picture of all because it shows his joyful spirit and total love and dedication to his family. Boy, our next dog sure has a lot to live up to!

As a side note, I know I am very behind in posts. We had a fabulous trip to TN for Christmas and I promise to post all of that soon - I still need to download all those pictures. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well!