Goodbye Max

Yesterday began the first of our goodbyes. We will have many more to make before leaving here. We have made so many wonderful friends here and it will be hard to leave them all behind. But yesterday we said goodbye to Max. Joe brought Max home when we were living in Virginia. We had only been married a few months. He was nameless for a few days, but eventually we decided on Max after one of my favorite little babies in the NICU in Austin. He was tiny and sweet and 6 months old. He was instantly our first child and we treated him as such. He even has a "baby" book that has more filled out in it than our 2nd and 3rd children! And thanks to digital cameras, we have many more printed pictures of Max than of Hannah and Sarah. We took him everywhere.

Over the years he remained part of our family, though his status kept changing with the addition of each child. We took his picture with us to the hospital when Nathan was born and made sure he was cared for by a friend while we were waiting for Nathan to come into the world. Then we brought Nathan home and our focus changed. Every time Nathan cried, Max whined and I remember thinking that if that didn't change, "that dog" was outta there. But eventually he got used to noise the new little person made and he was very protective of his new little brother. He had another adjustment to make with the addition of Hannah and then a move across the country with the two of them. He dealt with living in an apartment (illegally, I think) and then a hotel. Then he dealt with more cold than he'd even experienced and two sets of stairs, which were both hard on his joints. He has been very loyal despite his frequent status changes and it was really hard to leave him at the airport yesterday.

I keep looking up expecting to see our little white shadow. I expected to be greeted by him when we got home from church too. The kids haven't mentioned him much and handled the whole goodbye process very well. They were more sad about Memaw leaving than Max leaving. Today has been a very quiet and restful day. It was definitely something we needed, but not exactly helpful in the sale of our house.

Last night we watched Lady and The Tramp before bed. Probably not the best choice in movies when you just got your dog a one way ticket to Texas, but we were looking for something besides Monster's Inc (Hannah's latest passion). As we all sat on our bed watching, I kept waiting for Max to come into the room. It is just so strange not to have him here.

Memaw called to let us know he is doing fine. I knew he would be. Moving four times in his 6 years, traveling often, and being left in many different homes has made him a very adaptable dog. We joked that when we lived in Plano for over 3 years that he was probably thinking, "Isn't it about time to move again?"

We know he will be happy, loved and cared for in San Antonio, but we will miss him terribly.