What My Foster Dog Taught Me
Our family dog Sasha passed away this fall. She was a beautiful black Labrador that we just all adored. We always said that we were going to get a black lab puppy after she passed and we began to reach out to breeders to see what was available. I was so excited about this idea of having a puppy. I wanted to teach it cool tricks, and socialize it so I could take it anywhere with me, get it just the way I wanted it.
Then one day my husband comes home and says, “There’s this dog that needs a home.”
He quickly added, “We can foster her until we can find her a home.”
I instantly put my emotional guard up. I said okay but was adamant that we needed a deadline for how long we would foster this dog for and I was clear on my role in the responsibilities. I told him how emotionally devastated I was still and was still in major grief for the loss of our Sasha girl.
I was NOT ready for another dog therefore if this foster dog came in it would mostly be his responsibility.
(Oh Brooke, you can be a little bratty sometimes)
Then Bella showed up. As her previous owners said their last goodbye to her, and quickly walked out of our home leaving this beautiful, sweet, innocent animal behind, I broke down.
I cried. My heart swelled with love and sadness all at the same time. This sweet girl deserved all of the love a human can give and I was trying to hold back from loving her??
Why?
Because I was protecting myself. I didn’t want to love her because of these expectations I had created before she came.
But here she was, 100% worthy of all the love, as any dog is.
Sometimes we hold back from loving someone deeply because we are trying to play it safe. We are living our life so small because we don’t know how to be confident enough to love big. Loving big takes courage, risk, and most importantly learning to love ourselves first.
Momma you have an INSANE amount of love inside you. You are capable of loving FIERCELY and powerfully. Let it out, let yourself love that very human (foster dog) like husband of yours because there is no advantages of NOT loving. Love is the greatest feeling we can ever experience. It is the foundation of any good we see. Continue to see the good, do more good and watch it grow at an exponential rate in your life.
