There she is!

We saw Ester today. 

For the last time.  

It was awful saying goodbye to her back in January.  Today was a different sort of awful.  More permanent.  

Every one of my Seeing Eye friends who has done this, says seeing them in harness is indescribable.  There's such a sense of pride in seeing the finished product.  Truthfully, I went into it with mixed emotions, this being our first experience.  

Her instructor brought her out in harness and I did a double take.  Our goofy, sweet girl, was transformed into this beautiful, strong working dog.  Right in full view.  There is no proper way to be prepared for such a sight. EVER.  The only response I could give was to let the tears flow.  When I turned around to see Charlie, I'm fairly certain his eyes had watered too.  My quiet reserved boy had been changed by her.  

We followed her through town, jumping in and out of puddles on this rainy spring day.  She never wavered, and the water didn't bother her.  Afterwards, the instructor spoke to us about her and the challenges she faced.  They expect her to be matched up with someone in the next month or two and will keep us apprised of her progress in that regard.

What a blessing to get closure.  In life, things are rarely wrapped up neatly.  This is one exception.  We raised her, we loved her, and sent her off to do great things.  Then, we have the privilege of seeing it all come full circle and witness her in harness.  

Along the way, people have often told me "I don't know how you do it, it must be so difficult to give them back."  Yes, yes it is.  But the purpose is greater than the pain.  It disappoints me greatly that so many would opt out of doing something great, all because it's "too difficult".  Nothing great was ever achieved taking the easy route.

I'd rather do the hard right thing, than the easy wrong thing.  

To Ester.

To loving others.

To doing the hard right thing.