Christmas 2020 - Passport Diaries

Following the trends of 2020, we went ahead and got a cat. Pounce, the best of cats, passed away 18 months ago. We swore we wouldn’t get more pets while we stayed in the military, but for nine months, the kids ended their evening prayers every night by praying for a kitten. We went to look at a kitten and the rescue place told us, “There were five but three died… of course you can do as you like but it would be great if the sisters could stay together….” So now we have two cats.

Cadeau and Noel are full of personality and snuggles. Also: they wouldn’t use the litter box. They had fleas. There was a translation error regarding ringworm. One had an eye infection. Two weeks in, after another surprise and another two days of panicked stress cleaning and sanitizing, it was close to the end for these two with our family. I took one to the vet and he said, “This disease is very difficult to get rid of. This medicine is good, but I wouldn’t buy a cat with this disease.”

The kids were in despair. “Is there anyway we can keep the kittens?” they asked after yet another disastrous discovery.

“Pray about it,” I told them. “Of course we love the kittens, but if the medicine isn’t working and the disease is spreading and we can’t have them around any of us, then we’ll need to send them back. I am not equipped to deal with that, but you know who is?”

“God?” They said. “That’s right,” I said. “Ask him to heal the kittens and we’ll see what the vet says tomorrow.”

So one week after the first vet appointment, after days of bleaching everything in the house, I set out in the rain to take one of the cats to the vet in a final Hail Mary.

He checked her all over and said everything was fine. He found no traces of the disease, recommended completing the treatment to make sure, and said the spots that looked like spreading disease were a reaction to the flea medicine and nothing to worry about. She got the all clear.

There was much rejoicing in the Krueger household. MUCH REJOICING.

“I prayed that we would get to keep them!” Isaac whispered to me in bed that night as I tucked him in.

We often talk about how God always hears our prayers and cares about what we care about. We had prayed together for the kittens and thanked God for loving them and us.

“Remember,” I said to Isaac, “Remember God is showing his love for you when he answers your prayers the way you hope he will. And when he doesn’t answer the way you hope he will, he shows his love for you by always being with you.”

Once we were able to let the kittens around the kids again, they seemed to be past their initial shyness. They snuggle, they cuddle, they play, they jump. It’s unbelievable how tolerant they are.

And while kittens are such a small thing in the scheme of 2020, this was huge for Isaac and Eloise. So that’s how our 2020 ended—with two kittens, answered prayer, and renewed hope for 2021.

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