The Miraculous Story of the Dog God Sent Me

God didn’t forget about me, like I thought He might have.

For about five years now, I have felt forgotten by God. It has felt like one hit after another. Health struggles, financial strain, hardships in my marriage, my child’s health issues, losing friends, losing income, losing pets… multiple pets, health scares with family., vet bill after vet bill. The list goes on.

My mental health eventually crashed so hard last year that it landed me in a 12 week IOP (Intensive outpatient program), of which I completed about 8 weeks of before it ended up being cut short because my daughter suddenly had to be hospitalized. The saying “when it rains it pours” felt like a pretty accurate description of my life.

But even through all of it, I never turned my back on God. When life gets hard, people tend to do one of two things. They either run away from God or they run toward Him. I ran toward Him. At least I thought I was.

Looking back now, I realize that I was running in the wrong direction. I thought I was running toward God, but I was really running toward good ideas, good intentions, things I thought would make God proud.

What I wasn’t doing was stopping to ask Him which direction I was supposed to be running in.

Failure after failure, combined with crippling headaches that never seemed to stop, eventually pushed me into a place of deep despair.

Those headaches became something I often referred to as my “thorn in my side,” much like the apostle Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 12:7–9.

Three times Paul pleaded with the Lord to take his thorn away. God’s answer was:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9

I have asked God many times to take this thorn away from me too. He hasn’t.

Over time, I’ve come to accept that perhaps the reason is the same one Paul experienced. It humbles me and it keeps me dependent on God; and honestly, it has.

Then June 3rd 2024, I had major brain surgery. The hope was that it would finally get rid of my headaches. It didn’t. Well, it mildly helped for about 4-6 months but then they started to come back progressively worse again. Below are three photos; the first one is of my brain tumor/cyst (located on my brain stem), the second one is of my brain surgery incision shortly after surgery and the third is of my first walk down the neurosurgery wing post-op.

OK back to my story… the headaches were coming back, so I began looking into something else that could help me navigate daily life when a severe headache hits unexpectedly. I started researching service dogs.

Originally, I thought my sweet little rescue girl Kevin might become my service dog. She actually has an incredible ability to sense when a headache is coming. But there was one major problem. She’s simply too small.

When a severe headache hits, my vision can become impaired/blurry. Sometimes the pain gets so intense that I cannot open my eyes without excruciating pain, bending down to get things causes pain so bad that I may vomit, in the event of vision issues, I need help being guided somewhere safe to sit or lie down, getting medication, getting my phone, turning lights off, getting water and being calmed down because my anxiety spikes severely.

Kevin is gifted at detecting my headaches (a lot of the time), she can also help calm me but she simple can’t do the rest, she physically cannot assist me with the other tasks I would need in those moments.

I realized I would need a larger dog. Either to take over those tasks Kevin cannot perform or partner with her in doing them.

I began saving money to purchase a service animal. I knew service dogs were expensive. I thought expensive meant around $5,000, so that’s what I saved. I was way off. A trained service dog can cost $12,000–$15,000 or much more. I’ve even seen some for $50,000!!!!!

I began looking into whether medical insurance might cover a service animal. I have all of the documentation form my doctors afterall…. they don’t. Which is mind blowing to me considering they are literally considered a “medical device”.

I looked into organizations that donate service dogs but my medical issues didn’t qualify. Most of those programs serve veterans or individuals with auditory impairment. Those are incredibly honorable programs and I love that those people are helped, it just didn’t apply to me.

Eventually I found a breeder online who produces incredible dogs. Rare dogs, actually. She is also a professional dog trainer by trade and a very good one at that. Her dogs are health tested and temperament tested, she runs an impeccable program. So I reached out to the breeder about the possibility of a service dog prospect. She said she might be able to give me a discount. Maybe $5,000–$7,000. I had $5,000 saved up, so I filled out the application and began waiting for her next litter to be born.

Then, while I was waiting, everything fell apart again, I briefly touched on this earlier. My daughter was hospitalized.

I won’t go into details because that is her story to tell, not mine. But I had to pay for accommodations and living expenses so I could stay near the hospital and remain close by while she continued receiving daily treatment, even after being discharged. All of this happened while our family was already living on a medically retired law enforcement income. My husband gave twenty years to that career. The job took a heavy toll physically and mentally and left him broken and still trying to heal. Again, I won’t go into detail because that’s his story to tell.

We had also taken on debt after attempting to open a pet store. The hope was that the business would help keep us afloat after my husband stopped working. Instead, it drove us deeper into debt.

So when my daughter became ill, I used my service dog savings. Every bit of it… and more.

Then a couple months later, the call came….

The puppies had been born, the breeder asked if I was ready for one and I was absolutely devastated when I had to tell her no. At that moment, I felt like God had truly forgotten about me. I felt like I was getting punched from every direction and I started to lose hope.

Not in God really, but in believing that He cared about me. It wasn’t because I believed God couldn’t do great things. It was because I started believing maybe He just didn’t want to do them for me. I felt forgotten.

A week and a half ago everything changed. The breeder posted a video of the litter I had hoped to get my service dog prospect from on Instagram... it haunted me. I replied to her story and told her exactly that.

She sent back an encouraging message, and for some reason I just word-vomited my entire situation. I don’t even know why I did that; she was essentially a stranger. I never share personal things like that with strangers. But there I was…. oversharing.

A day later she messaged me again… She asked a very simple question.

“Could you afford the food and care for a dog?”

I said yes; we exchanged a few more messages back and forth that left me in shock and in tears (in a very good way). She told me to call her the next day at 4 PM. I did.

She said she had never given away one of her dogs before but for nearly two days she couldn’t stop thinking about it (she’s a Christian too.). So she decided to gift me the dog! God did that! She told me “God's plan is always better than our own and His timing is always perfect.” Boy was she right!

I told her I couldn’t stop crying because to me, this felt like God saying: “I did not forget about you.”

This dog isn’t just a puppy to me. It’s a medical device that will help me navigate life safely when my health fails.

And honestly, He didn’t just answer my prayer, He answered it in a way I never could have imagined. There were a few very reasonable conditions. One being that I’d have to fly to pick the pup up. I knew didn’t have plane ticket money but I also knew something else... God would not bring me this far just to leave me here.

So I moved forward in faith! I ordered dog food, I set up the crate, I ordered a collar, I signed up for pet insurance, I prepared my home for a dog I had absolutely no way of getting.

Then last night I had my Lent Bible study meeting and shared this as both a praise report and a prayer request.

The praise was that the breeder had gifted the dog!!!

The prayer request was that I still needed to pay for the plane ticket to go get her, plus the veterinary health certificate required for the puppy to fly home, gas, airport parking etc.

Then something else incredible happened after Bible study! Four women in my Bible study group donated money to help me get there!

Enough to cover the plane ticket, the health certificate, and the drive, all of it! I sat there in complete awe. Truly, awestruck.

One of my friends said something that echoed exactly what had been in my heart the entire time: “God didn’t bring you this far just to get you this far.”

Exactly.

When I stepped back and looked at the whole situation, something else became incredibly clear to me. Every single step of this story, for YEARS, involved someone God placed in my path. The breeder who couldn’t stop thinking about me and gifted me a dog (& also offered to give training advice as needed), the women in my Bible study who also gave so generously. The friend who spoke the exact words I had been thinking in my own mind. Every single one of them was used by God to move mountains in my life. None of them even knew the full story, yet each person played a part in something only God could orchestrate. It reminded me of something Scripture shows us over and over again: God often works through ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. That’s what happened here. They allowed themselves to be instruments of Gods grace in my life. I am forever grateful.

And that brings us to today….

Tomorrow I’m getting on a plane to pick up that puppy. God did all of it. God never forgot about me.

For five years I have felt like I was living some version of Job’s life. Job lost his wealth, his health, his family stability, and nearly everything he had. Yet Scripture says:

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” - Job 13:15

I have thought about that verse often. Sometimes I even wondered if God had said something about me the way He spoke about Job:

“Have you considered my servant Job?” - Job 1:8

Maybe that sounds strange, but thinking about that possibility helped me keep loving God through the pain, the anger, the confusion, and the questions. I refuse to let the enemy win! As hopeless, empty, and broken as I have felt at times, turning my back on God was never an option. In fact, I needed Him even more.

I’m not sharing this story as boasting about my faith. It is about the faithfulness of God.

He never forgets us, He never abandons us, He pursues us relentlessly…

He breathes life into dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–14).

He empties graves (John 11:43–44 & Luke 24:5–6)

Sometimes He works in ways so unexpected that the only possible explanation is Him.

Right now I’m sitting here crying again. But these tears are different; they are tears of gratitude and of hope. Because God didn’t forget about me.

If you are in a season where you feel forgotten too, I want you to hear this clearly… you are not forgotten. God is still working, even when we cannot see it, even when the storm lasts longer than we thought it would, even when we feel like we cannot take one more hit… God is still writing the story and He is so, so good.

I am still in the storm. The other circumstances in my life haven’t suddenly resolved. My health challenges are still here, the headaches are still my thorn, the financial realities still exist, my husband is still struggling, the long road of rebuilding after everything our family has walked through is still real… those things did not magically disappear overnight. This wasn’t a moment where every problem vanished. But something else happened that, in many ways, mattered even more. God restored my hope.

Hope was the thing that had slowly eroded over the last five years. Blow after blow has a way of doing that. Even when you love God, even when you keep praying, even when you refuse to walk away from Him… the constant pressure can slowly drain the hope out of you; and hope is what gives us the strength to keep walking.

Right now, my circumstances are still what they are. The storm has not fully passed. BUT God showed up in a way that reminded me that He sees me, He hears me, and He has been working behind the scenes the entire time.

This puppy is more than a dog, she is a reminder that God did not forget about me. A reminder that even when the road is long, He is still writing the story.

Scripture says:

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” - Hebrews 10:23

That’s exactly where I am today, believing that the same God who orchestrated this moment in my life, will continue to carry me through whatever comes next.

Some days will still feel like trudging through mud, but now I’m walking with hope again and sometimes, hope is the miracle we need most.

My current theme songs… again —> Even When It Hurts & Remember

Plus a song that has been my prayer to God for a very long time now Gratitude