Gracie (5)
We adopted Gracie 2 months after Darren and I had been married. Before Gracie our life was pretty much an ordinary life. Darren was working a lot as a student pastor and I would sit at home bored out of my mind and lonely. The first time I saw Gracie I fell in love with her. She was only 4 weeks old and could barely walk on the floor because her legs were so tiny. She was originally named Macy by the breeders, but we renamed her. We chose Gracie because on the day we got her, Darren sang a song for church called, "Your Grace Amazes Me." So we took grace and made it Gracie. That night she spent her first day with us at church. My sister, Beth, held her in Darren's office during the whole service because we didn't have time to buy her a kennel and we had no idea what to do with a puppy. She has been such a blessing to our family. She has survived our first experiences of "puppy parenting." She swallowed rat poison twice which resulted in us having to pour peroxide down her throat to get her to spit all of it up. Through the years Gracie has helped turn our troublesome days into fun days. She was quick to learn many tricks and is the most well behaved dog I have ever met. She will shower you with slobber and lots love. She is always willing to pose for pictures when I get out my camera no matter where I put her. As you can see from this picture she is very photogenic.