Lu Lu Renae

To those of you who read my last post about Chief, I thank you.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your words of sympathy.

I wanted to share a little update with everyone.

On the day that Chief was hit, a little black kitty mysteriously showed up at a family friend's house.

Hmmm...

Had a little black kitty not mysteriously appeared, we would have continued on in life with Rascal - our only cat, but...

There was a teeny tiny part of me that felt like it was meant to be.

Chief leaves us and sends a new baby kitty (black - just like him) into our lives...to fill his void.

I couldn't pass it up.

And just because we get a new kitten a couple of days after the passing of our cat, it doesn't mean for one second that we are dismissing what happened to Chief or everything we had with him.

Chief was Chief and there's not going to ever be another cat that can replace him.

So...we set a plan into place.

We thought we would have Santa deliver this new kitty to us.

Throughout the year, Santa randomly checks in on the kids...to make sure they are being good.
Earlier this summer, to the kids' surprise, Santa even came to our house!
He's always watching...

Well, because Santa knows if you're awake, or if you're sleeping, or if you are good, or if you are bad...

then Santa knows things like when your cat, Chief, gets hit by a car.

And, he knows if you've been wishing and hoping for a new baby black kitty (just as Makayla had been).

So, the other evening, in pops Santa through our front door!

He came to deliver a new baby black kitten to the kids!

Makayla and Mason were sort of shocked (mia was sort of scared)!
They couldn't believe it!
Makayla said under her breath - "how did santa know i was wishing for a new black kitten?"

That evening will definitely be a moment that the kids will remember forever.

We don't know if the kitty is a boy or girl, but Makayla has been the one to pick the name.
Mason wanted to name it Chief

and
Mia wanted to name it Mia.

If it's a boy, Makayla wants to name him Ezekial (i told her we could call him zeke for short) 

and if it's a girl, she wants to name her Lucy Renae.  

Were calling it Lucy (or Lu Lu) for now.

The kitty is doing very well in it's new home and even Rascal is adjusting great to it. 

It fills me with joy to see the kids so happy and to see Rascal so accepting.

Through this bad time, we were given something good and as weird as it may sound to some, I think I have Chief to thank for our new little ball of fur.  He sent this kitty to us when we needed it the most - when he had to go.  

Having this new kitty in our home makes my heart happy. 

..And you know what else makes me heart happy?

This morning, I received a message from the person who hit Chief.
I don't know him, but I do know that he is a good person.
To seek our family out, to admit that he was the unfortunate driver, and to apologize, means everything to me.

For him to pass along information about the accident to me has brought me some closure and for him to send us his deepest sympathies means more to me than he'll ever know.  Receiving a sincere, heartfelt letter like that brought me peace this morning and is something I guess my heart and mind needed because I feel a little bit better today and can smile a little bit bigger about Chief.

"Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else."
-Fred Rogers