All the preparations

November 2012 - Read Joe's press release, well with the help our our church Women's Group, many private donors, The Foundation for Challenged Children and the Hutchinson Lioness', we have made it to our goal of $13,000 donation.  

January 2013 - We have received notification that we will be in the December 2013 Graduating Class.  We have now submitted a video that includes our home, our family and other dogs, Joe at school and in the community.  And now we wait.

August 2013 - We received our "Match Form" kind of funny questions that I actually had to ask Joe for some of the answers like what kind of hair do you like...smooth, soft, long, curly...he said he didn't care any kind is fine with him.  But they also asked good questions like can your dog drool, jump on you, play ball with you, etc.  And Joe was very matter of fact with his answers.  

We have also book our hotel near Xenia, Ohio which is a suburb of Dayton, as we now have actual dates to be in training...Dec. 2-13.  So we will leave sometime on Nov. 30 to arrive Dec. 1 and get a good nights sleep, we hope, before meeting Joe's dog. We are planning to stay Dec. 13 and head back to MN on Dec. 14.  Praying for good driving weather...snow can wait until we get back please. 

The Foundation for Challenged Children has contributed again, they have helped us purchase fencing materials for our backyard to keep Joe and his dog safe, so our next project is putting the fence up.  We have done some work with free and inexpensive materials we have gotten off of Craigslist, so now we wait for the heat to break so we can work at it and get it done.  Pictures coming soon.

Sept. 2013 -  The fence is going in...formal letters have been sent to school to start the process of letting Joe's dog to school with him, now we wait for a meeting, and nesting is happening at home, we are cleaning, cleaning, and bargain shopping, so far we have a kennel, a couple chew bones, poop bags with a carrier to clip to leash and 100 tennis balls (some of them are being donated to 4 Paws).

Oct. 2013 - Excitement is building, I think Joe is finally realizing that our trip is coming soon and getting is dog is a reality, although we probably we won't have a picture and know which dog until a week or two before we travel...then it will be real for Joe, with out knowing which dog I think he's still confused and wondering if this is going to ever happen.