It's December already?

 As the last month of 2016 arrives today it seems a great day to reflect on the past year with all the changes and also a perfect opportunity to look forward. As American's we have been afforded so many opportunities that most people appear to take for granted today. My travels result in putting me in front of many different people often seeing sides of this great nation that I have not experienced prior. I would like to say that what I see gives me hope, but that would not be the whole truth.

There are so many new experiences that I continue to have on a daily basis, trying to write about them all is one of the hardest things to keep track of in my log. Not a day goes by while inventorying my actions and interactions with people to see how I could have been a better person, and I am amazed by how other people show me God's grace in dealing with me. I find that one of my biggest problems is that I fail to hold a light to same God that carries me so often when I do not have the strength, courage, and understanding to get through the daily situations called life. Through reflection, I have been awarded a small understanding of the grace others carry and share so freely, but it is this quiet time where I also see my stepping in the way of often of allowing others to be the windows and mirrors that God has placed here on earth for me.

The mission of supporting Veterans and others which I happen to be driven towards over the past years continues to kick into high gear with new opportunities. This week alone a call came in from a company in CA that wants to do a couple of videos focusing on the bond between the service dog and myself. I will have an opportunity to share the dark times that I went through before getting Iris in my life and how life without a service dog would be unimaginable. This medium is professionally produced, marketed and will be used to help so many people I am overjoyed to be a part of it.

Mike & I will be flying out to CA for this particular trip which will be fun. Mike has not done a whole lot of flying so it should be interesting given his large size and the small size of today's commercial airliners. For sure he and I will make it work since I have seen him crawl into spaces I would never have expected an animal of his size to fit into let alone be comfortable.

On another note, I have to give a shout out to Jan Roberta & the Stitch Chicks Quilts of Valor Group of Eastern CT for honoring Mike and I while we were visiting over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The pictures in this blog are of the amazing quilts they stitched up and then presented to us at the Norwich, CT VFW. It was a great afternoon for all of us because Mike and I were able to explain about Service Dogs to some Veterans and the "Stitch Chicks" allowing me to carry on my mission while attempting to be humble and accept their beautiful gift to me.