A Man's (and Woman's) Best Friend

This is Louie. He is (obviously) the cutest dog on the planet. At least we think he is. A few years ago, when we were in an especially difficult place in our struggle with infertility, we both decided that we needed to have something to focus our attention and love on, something that needed us to take care of it. So we decided to go out and find ourselves a puppy.

That puppy just turned 3 today, and we gave him this little stuffed bear. He is hilarious with his stuffed animals - plays with them, wrestles with them, even seems to guard and protect them. Of course, he also likes to pull their stuffing out, so it depends on his mood.

In the last three years, he has been an inexhaustable source of happiness and comfort for us. There is nothing quite like the love of a dog to see you through tough times. Through heartache and stress he has always been there with his warm fur, cold nose and wet tongue, and his unconditional love and loyalty.

He has also been the greatest of therapy for us - he has given us something to take care of, to dote upon, to fuss over, to parent. While we still ache to be real parents, we can never fully express the gratitude and thankfulness we feel that this little guy came into our lives when he did, and that he has done so much for us in the last few years. We know that we spoil him and that were are a little ridiculous in our excitement about him. To others he is just a little dog. To us, he is our son. And he is ready to be an older brother.