Moving Forward

I never imagined last October when we started down this path to get Jeremy a Service Dog all the twist & turns we would have along the way.  Days of pure joy, days of non-stop tears not knowing how we where going to  manage. But so far God has answered every prayer that I have laid before him when I lay in bed at night asking the question "what now, how do I get this done?". We love Oregon Assistance Dogs for matching us with our super handsome smart Banyan. They did an amazing job with him for the first 7 months of his life and I am so grateful. Then we where blessed with All American Dogs here at JBLM who stepped in and said here is a local trainer at No Cost to keep moving forward. With out Jean & Ursula - Banyan would not be as well behaved and super smart as he is today. I know I can take him anywhere in public with out worry. That would not have happened with out the hours spent with Lead Me On training & All American Dogs.

Then we hit a crossroads back in May where AAD needed to find a trainer to meet Banyan's specific needs to help Jeremy in the future. They did their best to find someone local but at this time life has happened and we need to move forward as Banyan is getting older everyday. Thankfully a friend as well as The Hutchison Foundation recommended that we call http://www.noellesdogsfourhope.com/ in Colorado. I sent out an email at 3AM because sleeping was not happening as I worried over how we would pay whomever did have the trainer we needed. As well as I knew in my heart we had to move away from AAD whom we have grown to love. Tina the owner of Noelle's called back immediately this morning & said how can we help? How do we make this work so Jeremy can have the best Service dog available to you all? We talked in length about the needs Jeremy had she even brought up training I never thought we could obtain that she can get for Banyan.

Then I asked about cost.....I actually shed a few tears when I learned I just needed to pay for the plane tickets to get Banyan, Jeremy & I out to Colorado in mid-October to meet her staff as well as the trainer .  Paying for two plane tickets verses the thousand's of dollars I had been quoted was such a relief the tears came.
They will work with the Hutchison Foundation and use only our Grant money to finish Banyan's training, nothing more. He will live with them for five months which will be sad for us but exactly what he needs to be the best for Jeremy. Which has always been our goal from the beginning.

He will learn Search & Water Rescue since we live on a lake ( I never even thought of this as an option)

Splitting & Blocking since Jeremy can't see out of his right eye should someone approach from that side.

Seizure Alert specifics

Scent tracking in case Jeremy decided to wonder off- which has happened on occasion.

Mobility should Jeremy have a stroke from a seizure and be unable to walk by himself.

He will be CGC & ADI certified when we get to his graduation in hopefully January. I am beyond words with how relieved I am at this moment. We are excited to use the next 6 weeks to so his refresher course at Lead Me On with Ursula as well as a couple new exercises they would like him to learn before he goes to Colorado. We have some work to do but we are more then happy to put in the time to get the best dog possible for Jeremy. Thank you to all our friends who keep helping us along the way. I am sure you get tired of my constant chatting about this- but it consumes my daily life & will until Banyan is back home with us in the new year.

Now we will put up the Service Dog Quillow that is done in Americana Style Handmade by Jeremy's Grammy as an Auction here on Facebook. ALL MONEY raised will go towards our airfare to Colorado. Any of our Fur-Friends who would SHARE our Quillow Auction on their page we would be forever grateful. We know we ask a lot sometimes but we do hope you hang in there a few more weeks of fundraising then we will be all done! What a glorious thought to know we will be done with paying for expenses for Banyan's training. I can barely believe it!

I know that some of our BLOGGY friends aren't on our Facebook Page in order to BID on the Quillow you have to "LIKE" Jeremy & Banyan " Our Journey"  on Facebook. Then place your BID in the Comment sections under the note Titled " Moving Along in a GREAT Direction" . If you have no Facebook account but would like to place an Auction BID I can do that for you if you leave a Comment on THIS Blog Post. I will COPY & PASTE it into the Facebook page with your BLOGGY username. 
Here are the pictures of the Quillow which has Golden Retriever Pups hand sewn all over. It took Grammy over an hour on each pup! We sure love her <3 Please know that we would love any help spreading the word about our Auction. You can share this BLOG Post or you can go to our Facebook Page   and share the note with all the details.

Philippians 4:13 :" I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me."