Hoping for Homeward Bound

Most of you know our recent news of Olive being lost. However, somehow it feels wrong to continue posts as if everything is the same. She has now been missing for over a week and we are heartbroken.

Today would have marked a year since we adopted her. We were so excited and had planned to celebrate her "birthday." We know that God can work miracles and are praying that He brings her back to us. 

 

Even though she isn't with us, we still wanted to celebrate her and the time we spent loving on her! 

 Sept. 25, 2011 - Bringing her to home for the first time!

Her first trip with me to Wash Park! (Sept. 2011)

 This is one of my favorite pictures! Matt was taking a picture of my new snow boots and Olive just had to be in the picture as always! :) (Oct. 2011)

 Another favorite with Matt...If we were on the floor, that was always an invitation to her! (Oct. 2011)

 Olive's first camping trip!  (Mar. 2012)

 Olive's first friend, Duke! They loved playing in the river together. (Mar. 2012)

     Olive was always exhausted after our big adventures! (Aug. 2012)

 Our first camping adventure in the living room. Even at home she had to be right in the tent with us! :) (Sept 2012)

 This is Olive sitting on our balcony chair watching for Matt to come home from work! Once she would see him, she would run inside and down the stairs to greet him! Such a daddy's girl!

 This is where Olive and I would sit every day when Matt left after his lunch break. We would sit and watch him leave and then run up to the balcony to say goodbye and watch him drive away...every time.

For all those reasons and more, we love and miss our baby. Although, even though it hurts, we are trying to see God at work in the midst of this hard time. Over and over, we have been asking God to show us what He is trying to teach us. Through this, we are learning more about one another and growing closer together. We are learning how each other expresses sadness and grief....learning how to comfort each other and how to better respond when we are hurting. We also are experiencing closeness grow between Matt and I. As each of us have moments of weakness and breaking down, we rely on the other to encourage and pick us up. Finally, we have been claiming the truth that God works all things to the good of those who love the Lord.

So, Happy Birthday Olive! We love you and can't wait until you are home again!

If you have any suggestions on finding her, we are all ears! Here is what we have already done or been doing - We have checked shelters, petharbor.com, craiglist (checked ads and posted ad as lost), spread info on facebook, registered her lost with Home Again (microchip company) which sent alerts to shelters and vets of her missing, posted flyers all over the area, our apartment and old apartment, went door-to-door in neighborhood talking to people and leaving flyers 3 blocks long on 7 streets wide where she was lost, and passed out flyers in nearby parks. We have even looked up possibly hiring a bloodhound to track her, but CO doesn't have trained bloodhounds for tracking pets (some other states do). 

So please, let us know any other ideas! Also, please be in prayer for us and for Olive's return.

A View of Our Home - Favorites!

Hello Again!

This will be the last post of our home tour series...for now! Maybe sometime in the future y'all will get to see our bedroom, but for now, it is very much a work in progress! 

Anyways, here is a glimpse at the favorite spaces!

 This is our home! I love having an exterior door even though we are in an apartment! It just feels more like a real home. This wreath is our summer one, but will be switched out for our fall one very soon! So excited! 

 We also have a lovely door mat! This one is what we use throughout the year, but then we also have a Fall and Christmas one to come!

 Moving into our place, we come to my next favorite! This is our "entryway." It's only big enough for one small bench, but I think it's pretty great for an apartment...especially in Colorado. Now we have a place to store all those snowy boots without touching the carpet! :)

 The best part about our entryway is this little heater to the left! It helps dry wet boots and warm the tile floor when you come down in the morning. Yes, it's amazing! And so is our cute little Olive...she just had to be in the picture! :)

 Here we have a DIY shelf with knobs for hanging Olive's leash, harness and collar. On top, the basket holds keys so we don't loose them!

On the way up the stairs we have a little gallery wall of wedding photos. I hope to add more to this collection in the future! 

My next favorite is back upstairs and our wonderful, built-in buffet! I love this because it stores EVERYTHING! The drawers are filled with napkins, placemats, household tools, and small art supplies. In the lower cabinets I have everything from my sewing machine and stash of fabric to my paint bin and extra canvases! PLUS, this is the PERFECT place to set out finger foods and goodies when we host parties! LOVE IT!---Oh, and the runner is from our honeymoon in Belize. :)

The last unique feature of our place is this awesome built-in shelf and desk in our bedroom. This has been so wonderful since I'm in grad school! Now all my textbooks, binders, and printer can be stashed in the room instead of our living room. 

Also, this was the perfect place to display our beautifully framed diplomas (Thank you Matt and Julie Cavanaugh!) and our fun little trophies from college! 

Thanks for checking out our favorites. :) Can't wait to share our Fall decorations soon! The weather is already changing in Colorado and soon the leaves will be too...Another one of my favorites!

 

What's New with the Cavanaugh's!

It's been a while since I have given y'all an update, so before the holiday season begins, here's what's new with us!

Matt is still working hard and continuing to be a valued employee of Discount Tire. He is looking forward to doing sales this winter and hopefully saving his hands from freezing outside like last year! Since he is such a hard worker, his boss picked him to do a Drive & Learn. Basically that means he got paid for a day of racing BMWs to test different tires. Yep, he LOVED it! :) And, he so deserved it!

He also recently sold his Jeep. Last September he bought it up here for commute to and from work. He originally bought it for 2,000 and put some work into making it more reliable. Overall it was a good vehicle for the past year and almost always met our needs. However, with the nature of Discount Tire,he could be transferred to a further store within days notice. With that, Matt needed something a bit more reliable and with better gas mileage. So he listed his Jeep for sale and researched old Toyota 4 Runners. What's more reliable than a Toyota? Really? Thankfully, that same week, he sold the Jeep for asking price (with profit)and purchased a reliable 4 runner at a great deal! 

 

(Sold Jeep - It didn't look this good when he bought it!)

 (New Toyota!)

I am so thankful for a husband that doesn't mind buying beat up vehicles and can turn them into a profit! That's real talent! Not to mention, he saves us so much money by sacrificing and not demanding a brand new sports car. I really can't be thankful enough for him!

As for me, I am starting my 3rd semester in the Counseling program at Denver Seminary. Although, it feels like my 4th since I took summer courses and practicum. Seeing clients this summer was definitely a growing experience and a highlight of my program so far. I was able to experience counseling with a wide variety of clients and really enjoyed working with them all. However, through counseling a couple, I realized that I am very drawn towards marriage counseling. So I will be pursuing an internship next summer where I can specialize in couple and marriage counseling! Then I will hopefully graduate Dec 13 and start my supervised work towards a license.

I also am continuing my nanny job this year with the now 6 year old boy. I have been so blessed by his family and their generosity to us. While some nannies really struggle to find a good fit with a family, God provided the perfect one on the first try! I am looking forward to this year with them and thankful I can contribute to our financial needs as well.

While we both miss our friends and family back home, we have been blessed with friends and a church family here. We have really plugged in with our young marrieds class and are enjoying the new friendships we are creating. This fall, I will be a part of a bible study with the ladies in our group and also helping coordinate some fun events! We both will be participating in a marriage mentorship program at the church as well. We look forward to continuing the accountability and discipleship we had in Texas during our engagement (Thanks to the Hammond's and Hickman's!). 

 

(Just love those crossed-eyes!)

Finally, Olive is a very content little girl and sleeps most of the day on her recliner. She also has finally gone on a hiking adventure with us and seems to need more exercise. However, she is very smart and would walk fast in the sunny spots on the trail, but go at a snails pace in the shade! We also finally have her completely kennel trained. Yay! Now we are still working on her anxiety around strangers, bikes, other dogs and anything else that freaks her out. :) Nevertheless, she brings a lot of joy to our lives in so many ways and we are thankful we adopted her!   

To all our friends and family back home...across the U.S. and across seas...we miss you all and appreciate the prayers and support while we are here!