Yesterday Gabe’s guinea pig (Acorn) passed away, so my day was spent soothing my boys through this sad time.
We all said our goodbyes and buried him in the flowerbed in our backyard.
Owning a pet is bitter sweet. It’s a stepping stone to experience adulthood and parenting. It takes practice. It gives children a chance to learn to be disciplined. As they take care of their pets, remembering to feed them, clean them, clean up after them and give them love and time, they learn and grow and come to understand that love is learned through service. It’s a wonderful way for a child to learn what love really is when they are responsible for the well being of something outside themselves. It’s also a tender learning experience when the time comes that something they cared for passes away.
We reminded our boys that we live in a fallen world where we will experience happiness and sadness. We cannot know joy without also knowing pain. We cannot always control our circumstances, but we can learn to control what we dwell on in our memories. Our boys spent countless hours loving, caring for and playing with their pet. Instead of focusing on the sadness of his passing, we encouraged our boys to look back fondly on the wonderful time they spent loving their little friend.
Our little Acorn will be missed.
XO,
Melessa
Sonya
August 30, 2019 at 7:43 amThat’s so sad:( tell your boys we love them and we are sorry about Acorn.
Michelle D
August 30, 2019 at 7:47 amSo sorry for their loss of Acorn. Blair lost his fish last weekend and he took it a lot harder then I thought he would. So hard to see them deal with loss.
Allison T
August 30, 2019 at 8:27 amMom and I were reading your post this morning and are very sorry that your family lost Acorn yesterday. Please tell Gabe that are thoughts are with him. We have also experienced the loss of a pet and know how hard it can be.
Lillian
August 30, 2019 at 5:03 pmHugs for Gabe!