laying mittens to rest

We got a call yesterday right before we were leaving Rusty's mom's house from the guy who was feeding our animals. The news was not good. Mittens, Carter's kitten was found hanging in our tree out back. We had purchased some collars to put on the kittens while we were gone so they would have id tags in case they wandered off. (We recently had an experience where Mittens was taken to the pound, had to be fixed, adopted back into our family and the story goes on but that doesn't matter now.) Apparently the collar was hung on a branch and she didn't make it. The news was not taken well by Carter or Aubrey. We shed many tears on our ride home. When we neared Birmingham we saw a rainbow. Who doesn't look at a rainbow and think of our Heavenly Father. So many lessons and points can be made from this one beautiful sight.

This morning Rusty made a box and and put Mittens in it. After dinner tonight we buried her in the back yard. Our tendency is to protect our kids, not let them hurt. Carter knew the truth (the whole truth) about Mittens and my hope and prayer is that his heart would be as broken and compassionate towards the hungry, poor and suffering people in the world as his heart was towards this precious kitten. We have to teach our child to love and to hurt for those who hurt. We are thankful for opportunities to grow even when they are hard. Carter prayed with his Wednesday night class before we left for protection for Mittens, he prayed at Ma Sue's church in his class for protection for Mittens and he told us he prayed nightly for her. I guess it is never too early to learn about God's sovereignty, even from the loss of a kitten. I can say that we enjoyed her the 3-4 months we had her!