Unwrap HIS Gifts: Clementine

Clementine is truly a gift from God! We've only had for one night and already we have been blessed!

Clementine is a 3 month old kitten that we adopted from our local animal shelter. Her mommy was someone else's pet and that someone else wanted to find other families to care for the kittens. She is as sweet as can be and is dearly loved already. We aren't exaggerating when we state that we think she may be the sweetest kitten we've ever met! She loves to snuggle, comes running to us when we hold our hands out to her and doesn't mind being picked up and handled by little hands! We have two little girls in our house who are over the moon in love!

- Clementine's story -
It all started about a year ago when Big Miss first started talking about a kitty. "Mommy and Daddy since God is telling us "not yet" for a baby, can we get a kitty?" We have been experiencing secondary infertility as we try for our 3rd baby and though this has been a painful experience we know that God has been using this to draw us nearer to Him and His plan for our lives. The girls know that God always answers every prayer, and that He answers them in 3 ways...yes, not yet or no. As we stumble to grow our family, unable to determine whether or not the answer to our question is not yet or no, we have faith that God knows what is best for our family.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~ Jeremiah 29:11

In response to Big Miss' question about getting a pet we discussed, with both of the girls, the amount of care, attention and responsibility pets require. We also talked about character traits that both Big and Little Miss would need to develop before we could bring a pet into our home. We told them that mommy and daddy would be watching to see that they were being responsible at home by taking care of their toys and belongings and assisting with housework. We also talked about the need to be gentle, kind and obedient. Then over the past year our family continued to discuss whether or not we thought bringing a kitten into our home would be a good idea for not only our family, but also for a kitten. In the course of this past year the girls have grown, matured and demonstrated responsibility, kindness, gentleness and obedience. We can offer a warm home, adequate attention and care and an abundance of love, so we agreed that we were ready to make the jump from talking about getting a kitten to actually getting a kitten.

God is so in the details of Clementine's story. Throughout the many discussions we have had about growing our family and preparing to welcome a kitten we have seen God work on the girls' hearts and their love for Christ deepen. We have seen such growth in their prayers and it just warms our hearts.

As we shopped for kitten supplies it down-poured and hailed and we were on a bit of a time crunch to meet daddy and head to the animal shelter. The girls prayed "dear God please stop the rain for us to get to our car". He answered their prayers with a "yes' and then as soon as we got all buckled into the van it started to pour again. The girls were thrilled that God answered their prayers immediately, so they rejoiced and praised God saying "thank you God for stopping the rain"! We did talk prior and we would have praised God even if He answered no and we had to get a bit wet.

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18

We had been praying for a while that God would lead us to a warm, snuggly lap kitten who wouldn't be overly shy. We prayed for the health of the kitten. We prayed for us as owners to show love and compassion, to be gentle and patient. We prayed that God would show us our kitten right away, but that if their wasn't a good fit at the shelter that He would reveal that to us and we would be able to leave without disappointment, but rather with gratitude that we were able to snuggle kittens that needed snuggling. God so delivered! Prior to going to the shelter we had researched what we should look for in regards to health of the kitten and how we should interact with them to try and determine what their temperament might be like. When we arrived at the shelter their were plenty of kittens to choose from, but as soon as we saw Clementine we were drawn to her beautiful orange color. We asked to take her into one of the small meeting rooms where you can spend time getting to know animals and immediately fell in love. She passed all of the physical checks we had done an exceeded our expectations in temperament with the activities we did. We had predetermined to take at least two kittens into the meeting room to compare and avoid just falling in love with the first kitty we snuggled, but we changed our minds. We were already in love with her and knew she was the right kitten for our family! Thankfully we decided when we did because as we were filling our the paperwork another family took Clementine into the meeting room; an oops on the staff's part because there wasn't communication that Clementine's adoption was in process. That other family also wanted to adopt her (she is so loveable) and was very disappointing when they found out they couldn't. We pray they found the right kitten for their family!

Alas, here is our Clementine! We are still unwrapping her gifts and rejoicing!