"Penny of Time" Adventure GUEST Post: Fostering Animals and Healing Hearts

Leisha, single mother of 3 awesome kids, shares with us how she serves with her children through fostering animals.  This GUEST post below touched our hearts in so many ways.  And, we couldn't just pick a couple of pictures!  So, here are her words (which will make you think) and the cute pictures (that I know you'll love)!

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 . . . The more kind we are to our animals, the more will peace increase, and the savage nature of the brute creation vanish away . . . let the whole people . . . be possessed of that spirit so will it spread over all the world.

-Brigham Young-

Two years ago my three young children were put in the worst of positions.  Their father and I were in the throes of a painful and bitter divorce.  To add insult to injury, we were forced to sell our 2 beloved pet Dachshunds.  Money was tight and we just couldn't care for them. It was an emotional upheaval of epic proportions.

Devastated and disheartened, I slowly set in motion the rebuilding of our lives.  We often cried over the loss of our sweet pets and the comic relief and cuddles they gave.  I was always fretful and prayerful over how the divorce (and the devastating reasons for it) would play out in my children's development and future happiness.

As finances began to improve, I entertained the notion of another family pet.  We needed healing and hope.  Where else could we also give healing and hope than at the local animal shelter?  I had no idea that the shelter would be the beginning of my prayers for my children being answered.

That day we saved what I affectionately called "the ugliest dog in the pound."  A  6 month old mutt who had evaded euthanasia twice.  A better dog has never walked the earth.  Looking for a deal on a groomer, I soon found a young autistic woman who bathed and groomed dogs out of her parent's garage.  The money she earned on her discounted services was then used to rescue dogs and cats from the animal shelter.  She gets them all of their shots, needed medical treatments, spays and neuters them and then adopts them out to loving homes.

My friendship with this kind and earnest woman soon led us down the path of fostering orphaned kittens for her.  It allows her to have more room to save other animals while teaching my children invaluable life lessons.  We only foster 1-2 kittens at a time.  Extra time is really not in my vocabulary.  I am a single mother.  I run a childcare business out of my home which adds 6 toddlers to the chaos 11 hours each day.  However, this small act of service and compassion has led to miraculous healing in our lives.

 

My hope is that giving "pennies of our time" will help heal our broken hearts and help my children (who are all adopted themselves) to overcome hardships in productive ways.  I hope they will turn to service for fulfillment when feeling empty instead of temporary "highs" that never make one whole.  I hope that it will eventually translate into their adult lives in the form of nurturing parenting of their own children, an abhorrence of cruelty, no matter how small, and in selfless service where they are, with what they have, no matter how meager.

 

 

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