Marty’s Blessing

This past Sunday we took our dog Marty {his official name is “Taylor’s Million Dollar Martin”…or Marty for short} to be blessed at the annual “Blessing of the Animals” service.  The original service was supposed to be held the Sunday before but was postponed due to weather.  That meant that now Daddy had to miss it because he was out of town on his golf trip. Luckily, Marty is a really calm dog {unless you give him a water bottle or throw a ball} and good around other animals, so the girls and I we able to manage.

Gracie & Gwynie were super excited to take Marty up to church. This was their first time to take him to get his blessing.  However, this wasn’t Marty’s first blessing…Lance and I took him several years ago when we where first married, living in Liberal, Kansas, and Marty was the baby of the family. He even made the front page of the Liberal paper {I know I have the newspaper clipping around here somewhere, if I ever come across it I will try to remember to post it}.

Before we headed up to church the girls each wanted to get a picture with Marty.

As we pulled up to the church Gracie got out on her side of the car like she always does {Gwynie is on my side} and Marty followed Gracie out before she could close her door.  Thankfully, Marty is not an escape artist.  He has no desire to “run off”.  So after calling his name a couple times I had his leash in hand and we were good to go.

Gracie introducing Marty to Father Clay

Marty receiving his blessing! 

I love this picture because I think it is so sweet that Father Clay took the time to not only get down to Marty’s level, but to look in his eyes as he blessed him.  Although Marty may be “just a dog”, Clay treated him with respect as one of God’s creatures.

It’s official!

The church had asked a parishioner who is also a photographer {David Chalker with Chalker Photography} to take free family portraits for those who had come to the event.  This was probably the part that was the trickiest for me to navigate without Lance being there.  It was quite amusing to me {and all the folks watching} to try to get both Marty and Gwynie to stay put and to look at the camera at the same time.  Thankfully, David is a friend of ours and a VERY patient man! The picture turned out great…I just wish Lance had been able to be in it. The event was fun and we all had a wonderful time.

Marty has truly been a blessing to us since that first day we brought him home {as a birthday present for Lance} in August of 2000. We are so fortunate to have him as part of our family. He is ALWAYS so gentle and patient with the girls.  His love {obsession} of playing catch and trying to get the cap off of a water bottle is fun to watch.  I often forget that Marty is almost 10 years old…he still plays just like a pup.  I pray that the Lord blesses up with Marty for many years to come. We love you Marty-dog!