First of all, I wanted to share with you that Mercy passed her Therapy Dogs Incorporated exam. For membership, she also needs to pass 3 observation visits. Her first observation was with a food pantry. She did wonderful in there. It was great seeing these low-income people struggling being comforted by Mercy. Two of the observations have to be done in a nursing home. She visited the first nursing home yesterday. When the observer greeted her, however, she jumped on her. It was a shock to both of us. The observer almost failed me, but praise God she didn’t. Instead, she is now requiring that I go for a 4th observation, yet tomorrow’s observation visit is already taken. Go figure! Just keep up the patience and faith! I tried to have a meetup at a regional park on the river, and the one Golden Retriever person who signed up said she would come, but didn’t. I decided to take Mercy for a lone swim anyway. When I was ready to head to the car, Mercy ran off and still soaking wet, disturbed two people laying on a beach blanket. They were screaming like the people in the movies do when dogs jump on the dinner table. Yuk Yuk! I was disappointed in myself and Mercy once again. But I am over this. The last thing, and three times the charm, I tried to plan for a meeting for the ministry I am trying to found, Mercy Therapuetic Ministries through meetup.com. As I told you last month, Mercy passed the Canine Good Citizen test on August 9th. I thought the test would be on August 2nd, the last day of class, so I planned for my pilot meeting to take place on the 9th. Lo and behold, while I was taking the Canine Good Citizen exam, the people signed up came to my door. My husband had to tell them I was out with my dog. I then planned another meeting. She had to cancel on me. I then planned another meeting, tonight to be exact. After I was already facing humiliation from the wet dog disturbs relaxing people incident, which happened today also, when I didn’t think it could get any worse, I noticed that the time for my guest to arrive had come and went. I decided to check online to see if she might be running late. Alas, I discovered that she had written me yesterday to confirm if I had remembered if she was coming tonight. I never got the message. I wrote her back immediately, begging her to come, but as of right now I still have not heard from her. A first impression is a lasting impression unfortunately, and now I am concerned that I lost a potentially excellent ministry partner. I invited God into this and I put this into his hands. That’s all I can do. In the meantime, I could sure use some encouragement and support so that I might be able to pay it forward and help someone else in need of comfort. Somebody else out there might also need to read this message knowing that they are not alone in their struggles.