I Believe In Angels...

These are my paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Shell. He was orphaned along with an infant brother in Poland around 1920 and brought to this country to live with a bachelor uncle. She was best friends with his cousin. They met and married in 1937. He passed away in 1995 and she passed away in 1999. Most of the furniture in my home is their furniture. I sleep in the bed that they bought when they were married. Perhaps they are the angels in this story.

If you have been following my activities on Facebook or have read the post below you know that I am involved in a rescue operation. My friend, Fran, who's blog is linked there on the left, There Will Be Bread, put up a post this past weekend and I knew I had to act.

It is no big secret that I love my critters, especially my dogs. Fran's sister-in-law is dying from cancer. I believe she was initially diagnosed in 2006 and almost gave up her dog back then, but for encouragement from Fran. In the end, she was very glad she kept her and it gave her motivation to fight back these past few years. Now, however, her time has come and one of Fran's responsibilities was to find a home for Skittles, the 8 year old Jack Russell terrier.

As it happens this woman's name is Olga and she is Ukrainian, an immigrant like my grandfather and, yes, my grandmother's name was Olga. Fran reports that in her delirium she had reverted back to the language of her youth and old country home. Fran has been spending many hours at her bedside and she had no idea how she would find this lovely little dog a good home.

Fran and I have met through a church focused blogging network. We have had discussions. We partied together on line on New Year's Eve at another long distance friend's Virtual New Year's Eve party, Maria plays a part in this story too. Fran and I have never spoken directly to each other until today, yet we know each other enough via social networking/internet to consider each other friends.

I contacted Fran and suggested I could take in the little dog if there weren't other options. As I waited for her reply I began to piece together a rescue plan. My parents are active participants in Airedale rescue. They frequently volunteer to transport rescued dogs to help get them to their "forever homes." I modeled my plan on this.

Through the help of volunteers I had pieced together a fairly good train of folks with some gaps in Ohio. We hadn't yet set on a day when I contacted Jack Russell rescue as suggested by my dad and my friend Kate. Within an hour or so of sending my e-mail, I learned of a German Shepherd rescue occurring this weekend that would take the dogs from Pennsylvania all the way to Ypsilanti, MI.

Unfortunately, Fran wasn't able to do this on Saturday morning so we needed to find someone who could pick up Skittles in New York and meet up with the rescue run in Pennsylvania. Once again the crew started putting the word out. As it happens a rather new cyber friend of mine, Annette, announced she could do this important initial leg.

See that pic of my grandfather, Stanley Shell? When he came to this country as a boy he still had the family name, Skorupa. When he turned 21 he decided to translate it to Shell. A few months ago I noticed this gal who had commented on another old friend of mine's facebook page. Her name was Annette Skorupa and I wanted to see if we were related. We're not, but we stayed connected. Do you see my point about angels?

The final stretch of the transport will involve one of my bestest friends from high school. We moved to Michigan and ended up great friends with this wild and crazy gal, Marci. Through Facebook we have reconnected and when I put out the initial request for help Marci was there volunteering herself and her husband.

I feel so much God Spirit in all of this my heart is ready to burst. Peace.