For every hard thing in life, there's a good thing

We said our goodbyes to our little chinchilla Ninners last Saturday. He was our little buddy, and part of our family for three years. The decision to get rid of him was really difficult and emotional (as most things are when you're nine months pregnant). I wrote a post about it here. For the last week, I would turn and see his cage or hear his little squeaks, but was constantly reminded that I would soon have to send him away. I choked back all emotion until Saturday, when it came time to put his cage in the truck and drive him to the breeder, I totally broke down. I sobbed. We got to the breeder, and the man could see how upset I was.

This man was totally who he needed to be. He looked like a retired pirate, complete with a ponytail and a beard ponytail that had rubber bands all the way down it. He offered to give me a tour of the farm so we could see what Ninners' new home would be like. There was nothing he could have done for me to make me feel better except for this. We walked through the rows of cages (literally over 1000 chinchillas), and every once in a while he'd stop, reach into one, and pull out a little baby chinchilla and give it to us to hold. In case you don't know, baby chinchillas are born eyes open and with all their fur, unlike other rodents. They are light as a feather and soft as flour.

We snuggled the little babies (a few of which were only a couple days old), thanked the owners, and I said one last teary goodbye to Nin before we drove away.

We then picked up our new couch (pictures coming soon, you'll love it!) and came home. Some friends of ours had agreed to take our old couches off our hands, so they drove from LA (it took almost 5 hours in traffic) and met us at our house right after we brought the new couch inside. Here's the thing. They just had their baby girl three weeks ago, and I love her like a niece. She's arguably the most beautiful, bald little girl I've ever seen.

If ever there was a day when I needed to snuggle something sweet and beautiful, it was this day. I had just let go of my little pet (who had absolutely no clue how sad I was), and was devastated. Here comes baby Juniper in her bald glory, sleeping and cooing and even smiling a little, making me feel like everything would be ok.

For every hard thing, there is an equal or greater blessing coming your way.

^^^ She's holding my baby and I'm holding hers!