During our three months of off-and-on stays at the hospital it has become quite normal to see multiple nurses AND doctors standing around Little’s bed with their phones out. They are all showing her pictures of their dogs and answering these questions:

1. What’s your dog’s name?

2. Is your dog a boy or a girl?

3. How old’s your dog?

Some get asked about the breed but most of those she knows on sight. Most visitors offer up a story without her asking.

Her nurse today, Sarah, was so tickled by Little’s obvious passion for the canine crowd that she called down and set up a date with the therapy dog in the building. Turns out dogs aren’t allowed on our floor for various reasons, but Little was allowed to go down and meet Nikko, the seven-year-old male Portuguese Water Dog, in the staff lobby. She happened to be wearing the PERFECT T-shirt.

My sister-in-law called this a “sweet mercy” and she is right. It’s another sweet reminder, in the midst of so much brokenness, that He loves our girl and meets her right where she is.