When Atticus asked for a dog

On March 18^th a terrible storm came through Rainbow City/Gadsden and caused significant damage to our home (along with many of our neighbors). In fact, our home is still being repaired. We are hoping to move back around the beginning of September. I can’t begin to tell you the amount of love and support we received during that very difficult time. Our world was flipped up on end, but we knew that God was in control. It still amazes us to look back at the events from that afternoon. Justin was safe in Huntsville teaching a training class. On a normal Monday afternoon, Atticus and I would be doing school work. However, I had a wild hair to go get the oil changed in the car so we took a quick break from school and drove 3 minutes down the road to Express Oil. Five minutes after our arrival the storm materialized from almost nothing and we were rushed into the oil pits. As we were walking down the stairs, I could see the wrath through the small rectangular garage window. I watched as the tin roof of Zippy’s Car Wash was being peeled off piece by piece and I could hear it slamming into the building we were in. Long story short, we were safe in the oil pits while the balcony and roof were ripped from our home and 4 large pine trees landed on it. I thank God every day for putting that bee in my bonnet to go get the oil changed. I shudder to think of what could have occurred otherwise.

 

Let’s fast forward to 3 weeks after the storm. We had received help from our insurance company and found a nice rental home in a very nice neighborhood in Rainbow City. Thanks to help from friends and family, we were able to get all of our things out of the damaged home and into either a storage facility or the rental house. Atticus and I were in the back yard at the rental house playing one day (there is a very nice pear tree in the back yard that Atticus loves to climb) before he started climbing, he looked me right in the eye and said “I need a dog.” For those that know our child, he is somewhat verbal but mostly for his immediate wants and needs (bathroom, food, etc.). He is a very intelligent child, but his expressive language is limited. So this was a very significant moment for Atticus and I was speechless. At this point a dog was the furthest thing from our minds. In fact, we hadn’t even talked about a dog for months. And later that day, when Justin got home from work, Atticus let Justin know as well that he wanted a dog. After a lot of discussion (and more prayer) we decided that despite everything that had just occurred, maybe now was the time to pursue a service dog for Atticus.