Well Donovan, here it is New Years Eve 2008. This time last year, we had just lost you a few months prior and the pain was still so fresh. I just wanted 2007 to be over. It was filled with pain and loss and stress; the worst year ever!! I prayed that 2008 would be quiet and peaceful and healing. Now, as we get ready to enter 2009, I feel that this year was better. That’s not to say that I don’t still miss you and grieve for you still, cause I do so much!! I think of you everyday still and I still cry. I smile when I recall good times and cry when I hear a sad song. You were and still are a huge and important part of this family, we all miss you so much. This year, in October, we decided to take a big step and bring another dog into our family. We all missed the companionship that only a dog can give. We wanted to try to fill some of the void that you left, which felt to me like a giant crater in my heart. You know that nobody can take your place. I wondered at first how I would feel with a new dog in our home. I worried that I would forget you and felt guilty like I was trying to replace you. What I discovered though, was that I can love Dakota with all of my heart and give her a place in my heart too and that the way that I love you and cherish you will never change. As the song says, “Love Remains the Same”. She has brought smiles, love and happiness into all of our lives. She is sweet and lovable and goofy, like you. I know that you would be happy to see me smile this way again! I do miss you so much and wish you were here to share many more years with us, but I feel that you are with me in spirit and I guess I have to accept that. I don’t know why you had to leave so soon, but we will be together again someday. This is the first whole year without you and it will seem strange to say that you have been gone since 2007, it seems so long ago now, yet like yesterday that you were with us! I hope that 2009 will bring more peace and healing and love. I will love you always Mr. D….my handsome, handsome boyfriend. I miss you still.
Love, Momma