Wanted to add pictures of our new puppy for those who were following our blog. My husband picked up Perseus on Sunday and we surprised the kids! Carson even asked if the puppy was theirs? And then said, "to keep?" Percy has been a wonderful addition to our family. Hard not to love a little puppy as cute as this.

A Little Bundle of Joy

Shhh...It's a secret. October 21st we will get a new bundle in our house. We can't wait! The kids have no idea about him so mums the word:) Sorry all I had to delete the pictures they posted on my kids tablets because its my google account and I can't figure out how to NOT have that happen! My son just asked where the pic came from and I said I don't know. Thank goodness he didn't keep asking!!

An End

If you have children, I am sure you have said, "if you would have just told me that to begin with you wouldn't be in so much trouble." I don't know about you but I really try and teach my children that if they do something wrong they should take responsibility so they can fix the situation and learn from it. The same goes for adults. My husband is in the Army and as old as it may get, at the end every exercise they have an After Action Review. The report includes, what was done, why, was it effective or not, and most importantly what did we learn from this. Whether it is our children or we as adults, learning should be continuous. An integral part of learning is being responsible. If we as people never take the blame for our actions how can any learning take place? After a comment was made on my blog that said I was using my children and discrimination as a scape goat from what really happened, I about hit the ceiling. If I thought I understood what had happened besides what I was told, this "situation" would have been resolved. I quickly made my call to end the silence and say, "I have no idea what you are talking about." I was just today told that the puppy was too hyper and not a right fit for our family with small children. I am not going to get into the whole telephone conversation but the end result is this: We were never told that the puppy was the issue for the adoption not going through, until I started blogging about discrimination. The only issues we were told about pertained to our daughter. I was told that the reason we weren't given more info was because our volunteer is not a good communicator. It was our fault we weren't given more info or a choice of another dog because I left crying and when my husband went back in and asked what happened, obviously angry, she told him,"she wasn't going to discuss it". We did receive an apology from Uma. In the end this is what my husband said and I truly hope it meant something to her "Hopefully your organization has reflected on what's happened and identified what went well, what went wrong, and what you can do to try and prevent this from happening again." I know we'll do several things differently next time should we choose to use a shelter/rescue group in the future. After our conversations today, we know where we stand and where they still stand. If you continue to share our story, please remember that our goal is to keep such a horrible event from happening to other families.

Still No Apology

Dear friends, family, and followers, It has been three full days plus since we tried to adopt Tex and we have not heard anything from the Board of Pet Rescue Alliance. At this point I think that they think that we are just going to go away and all will be fine. I am here to tell you we are NOT stopping until our goals are met. Our goals are the following: 1) A formal apology and acknowledgment that the adoption process was not handled properly 2) Written confirmation that policies are in place to prevent this from happening to other families; and that volunteers will be assigned adoption cases based on their education and life experience (i.e. generally speaking, a person with no children, formal education in special education/counseling, or life experience with special needs children SHOULD NOT be in charge of the adoption process for families with children (special needs or otherwise). 3) To enlighten other rescue organizations so that they can ensure this type of discrimination is NOT happening in their organization. 4) Remind other parents that they need to thoroughly investigate the rescue shelter and ensure that the organization has the appropriate staff and policies to effectively assess whether or not they have a dog appropriate for your family. We are asking that everyone continues to post our blog to all social media and to get the word out. Another way you can help us is to call your local rescue groups, let them know our story, and find out what their policies are with children, especially those with special needs. Again we thank everyone with your continued support.