In Loving Memory of our Favourite Aloe Cat

This week Andee and I lost a member of our family.  Our sweet little Aloe Cat went to be with his Creator, as God was and is faithful in reconciling His creation back to Himself.  I truly believe that Aloe’s purpose on this earth was to love us, his human parents, and for us to have a little fur baby to love.  And he indeed fulfilled his purpose by providing us with so much joy, laughter, happiness, snuggles, and friendship.  He must have known he only had a few years with us so he made the most of it by being the most amazing kitty we could have ever asked for.  He was perfect – perfect for us.

We will miss so many things about our sweet boy.  So many in fact, that I compiled a list of just a few of all the many qualities we will miss in our Aloe Kitty:

• -          His adorable squeeks and his inability to meow
• -          His passive nature; never biting or scratching anyone
• -          His loving spirit
• -          His daily requirement of pets that we did our best to fulfill
• -          Having him sit on our laps and beside us on the couch
• -          My favourite Aloe Kitty – kneeding on the bed
• -          ‘Turkey’ Cat
• -          He smelled amazing all the time
• -          Sitting on the center console of the car during long car rides home
• -          How beautiful and handsome he always looked
• -          How he greeted us at the door with so much love and affection
• -          Roll-Polls and snuggles
• -          His love for ‘mouse-mouse’
• -          Sooo predictable Aloe Kitty
• -          Just made it Aloe Kitty
• -          Allocate the Aloe Cat
• -          Singing every song with lyrics about how much we love him
• -          Our Choop Face
• -          How he hated Tard the Grumpy Cat
• -          Sky Pets
• -          His high pitched soprano voice
• -          How he would lie under the Christmas tree
• -          Always lying on top of the clean laundry
• -          His sweet little face
• -          How much we loved him and he loved us
• -          Everything 

It is so fitting that this weekend we celebrated Easter.  But before we could celebrate, we remember Good Friday and mourn the loss of innocence – the Lamb that was slain – our Saviour, Jesus.  This week we are able to taste just a glimpse of the suffering that took place on this day as our little form of furry innocence was ripped from us.  But God is good and only he is able to redeem.  We refuse to waste this oppourtunity to share both in Christ’s suffering and in His Glory. 

This is a season of refinement for Andee and I, and I feel as if we have been thrown into the fire and can only hope and pray that we come out purified and filled with Faith and Joy in response to his goodness that is still ever present in our lives.  Though He gives and takes away from us, I will still sing with gladness to the one who is all that I need.  

‘In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.’ – 1 Peter 1:6-9

‘Not only are our afflictions are momentary, not only are they light in comparison to eternity, but they are totally meaningful.  Every second of our pain from the fallen nature of this world, our misery here, in the path of obedience, is producing a glory that will come because of that suffering.  It wasn’t meaningless.  It’s doing something – of course we can’t see what God is doing!  It’s working for us an eternal weight of glory!  Therefore do not lose heart, but take these truths and focus on them.  Preach them to yourself every morning until your heart sings with confidence that you are cared for by the Most High.’ – ‘Though You Slay Me’ – Audio Excerpt – John Piper

Our little Aloe Kitty will be missed with an ache that rivals nothing I have ever experienced in my own short time on this earth.  But he will never be forgotten as our first love, our good boy, and our special little guy.  Goodbye my sweet sweet treasure – until we see you again, you will always be in our hearts.

Farewell 2015!

As this year comes to a close, it is important to reflect on what God has been doing this year.  To be perfectly honest, this year has been challenging for me in both new and predictable ways.  With all the craziness that was Medical School and all of the hurdles and obstacles we faced being 'Canadians in America' during that whole process, this year has felt, well, a little...safe.  It has seemed like we have been coasting through this year like regular folk - with Andee and I both working (one of us more than the other, haha), and living in the same place and even same apartment as the year before.  Minimal cross-country paperwork has been completed this year, and real money makes its way into our bank account every month. With a year and a half left of Andee's Residency Program, we have settled in quite nicely to our home and responsibilities in Iowa, but haven't yet focused in on making post-Residency plans.  It's strange, dare I say it, to feel normal.  Everything I wanted from the beginning, all the familiarity of what I knew before this journey has now started to feel unfamiliar and scary, and the fragile nature of my fear of change has started to emerge once again.  I don't want the complacent Christianity I had before this journey, but am once again reluctant to make a change.  I am however, determined to have my life marked less with anxiety and more with Joy.  And for this I need to let God take back control of all the things I have been holding on to, and to not allow myself to be discouraged or disappointed by the normal imperfections of life.  I, like many, strongly dislike seasons of refinement, but I love their necessity.  So, for this New Year, my resolution is to constantly choose joy, and be open to what God has in store for this year and the years to come.  If you would like to pray along with me, I would so appreciate this!  To 2016!!

Well, enough melodramatic monologues, let's talk about Christmas!  December is a great month, and was made especially great with the mild winter we have had thus far!  (Okay, so we currently have 8 inches of snow from last night, but up until now it was great!)  Andee and I were able to attend a few Christmas celebrations here in Iowa, celebrating with Andee's Residency crew, our Small Group, and with Prairie Lakes Church!  I truly love our family away from home, and getting to spend some time with these wonderful people really made this season special!  I was also very happy to lead one of my favourite Christmas songs with the Worship Team at PLC, 'O Come O Come Emmanuel'.  I love Christmas time so much!

We were also able to head back home to Canada for the holidays!  After hitting intense traffic due to the slick roads during a snow storm in both Michigan and West of Toronto, we were happy to arrive home after almost 16 hours of straight driving.  For those of you who were wishing for a White Christmas because 'it's just so pretty' or 'it just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow', well, you got your wish!  And the dozens of people on our route who spun out on the highways (one directly in front of us that we almost hit) and the thousands of people stuck in traffic appreciate these well wishes.  If you are traveling less than half an hour for your Christmas celebrations, please do all us travelers a favor and quit your wishing!  And boy were we missing the 'heavy traffic' on our daily 'commute' to work each day in Iowa!  Let's compare, shall we?  First we have one of the major highways in Waterloo/Cedar Falls described as 'heavy traffic' at 8:00am.  Second we have the major highway of Toronto described to have 'light volume' at 11:00pm.  I think Iowa has won this round!

 

A bit of a rough start to our vacation, but we were hoping it was on the up swing.  It wasn't.  The next day our little Aloe Cat was acting especially lethargic, and so we visited the local vet to see what was wrong.  Turns out all the stress of the car ride and being in a new environment led him to having a fever and a limp.  Two vet visits later, he ended up with an antibiotic, fluids, and pain medication.  He then refused to come downstairs for the next few days, but after a little while wandered downstairs to join us for some family time.  He was back to his old happy self soon after!  And the rest of the vacation much improved with this crazy cat family back on track!

The remainder of our vacation included visits with lots of friends and family, gift exchanges, Christmas cookies, and lots of delicious food!  We even watched Elf and It's A Wonderful Life to keep up with traditions and get into the Christmas spirit!  The weather was unusually warm for this time of year, making our excursions quite enjoyable with just our Spring/Fall jackets!  We gave some standard American gifts to our families, as well as received some wonderful Canadian gifts such as Tim Hortons mugs, Roots hot water bottle and sweaters, Canadian chocolate and candy, and Auntie Anne's famous nanaimo bars and Grandma's famous date squares!  Yum!  Andee and Trevor received some really neat Blue Jays themed gifts, including a hilarious ugly Christmas sweater featuring Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista.  Awesome.  A wonderful Christmas was had by all!

All in all, despite some of the early on crazy, our vacation was a success.  That being said, we are also quite content to be back to our warm apartment, normal sized bed, and regular routine in Iowa.  Merry Christmas everyone, and have a wonderful New Year!