I had a bit of a panic today, realizing that I had never gotten a winter coat for Big L. It was on my priority list weeks ago, but I had let it slip my mind. And here we were, with just 2 days to go and no coat. Ugh.

I mentioned that it was stressing me out while chatting with my friend Amanda and that I was ready to buy whatever I could find on Amazon. She picked up the phone and starting calling local stores, asking if they had winter coats in stock yet. She told me which stores to try and then posted about our need on her Facebook.

Not too much later, before I even had a change to hit up any stores, she texted me a picture of a coat from a friend of hers. Red. Big L’s favorite color. “When can my friend stop by?”

Wow. God is incredible.

So, Amanda and her friend stopped by in this evening. Aaron was about to get home any minute and I had a bit of a surprise planned for him. Silly string attack. ‘Cause, why not? I felt a little bit awkward about my poor planning, once again. I had it set up so Aaron would see a box with a big sign on it, alerting him to the silly string and the fact that he was now under attack, as soon as he got out of his truck. Not much I could delay there for the element of surprise.

Welcome to our crazy. But, instead of being annoyed that I have nothing together and can’t even seem to plan a visit without the threat of silly string, Amanda and her friend Katie picked up cans and joined us. Because they’re awesome, they just laughed with us and reassured me that any place with silly string is a place they want to be.

Amanda asked me if she could bring her dog. Um, yes, please. We’re a house full of dog lovers over here. Amanda just recently adopted Margo. Big points for canine adoption and big points for a great name.

This was our first time meeting Margo. And, Katie. They’re both welcome back to our crazy any time.

So, the silly string was just the comic relief in the stress of the coat drama. But, Katie showed up with two coats for Big L to try on. And, the first one fit. Bingo. Both coats were red, Big’s L favorite color. I asked Katie if it was her favorite color, too. “No, I just buy red coats!” And she told me that she was just ready to donate them to Salvation Army. How perfect? I’m feeling very thankful for our dear friend Amanda and our new friend Katie and Margo too, because hello, cute dog.

Tonight was also the night that Big L said goodbye to Reed, Lena and Gus, her “siblings” for the past 9.5 weeks. How do you even? But, the goodbyes were okay. Reed was awfully clingy with her earlier in the day, but by bedtime, he just gave her a hug. Lena, too. And Gus didn’t take a nap today, so um, he was ready for bed.

The goodbyes are beginning. Tomorrow morning, she will say goodbye to Aaron and just over 36 hours, she will say goodbye to me. In two days, I will be back home without her and how strange that will be.