I received many lovely gifts for my birthday, but truly, none more touching than this stained glass of my Joie given to me by my mama. She commissioned an artist friend to do this for me.

It will be one year August 22 since Joie moved into spirit world. You may recall that I adopted her from Oregon Dachshund Rescue knowing she had IVDD and needed a wheelchair. John worked his magic and took Frankie’s wheelchair and adjusted it to fit Joie.

Joie was only with us for ten short months. But she left many gifts behind. Her biggest lessons to me were to pause, sit in stillness, and to understand that I no longer needed to prove my worthiness. I can rest securely in who I am.

As I did a bit of research for this post, I went to the Facebook page for the movie Joie took part in last August, The Surface Movie. I was wondering if there was any notice of a date of when the movie will be out in our area.

As I scrolled down the page I saw a post noting the movie is now complete. The post was on July 14th. Four days before my birthday and three days after my mom gifted me with this special gift.

Tears immediately sprang to my eyes. Joie’s spirit is strong and well. My heart smiles.

It will be bittersweet to see her in the movie (I’ll keep you posted once it is out in theater’s- projected to come out later this year). But I’m ready to see her sweet face roll across the big screen in her wheelchair. It is going to be a proud, proud moment.

The stained glass piece of her is a shining, loving reminder of how lucky I was to have her in my life, even if for just a short time. She blessed me in ways I would have not otherwise been blessed.