“Faith, wake up.”

I look over at my clock, its 12:17 am. Dazed and confused I lie on my small squishy bed looking up at my dad, who has woken me up from a wonderful candy-filled dream. He is looking at me, and with a humongous grin, he turns his head and mutters something I can’t make out. I think he said something with a P in it. Not quite sure though. He grabs my arm and wiggles it around. My arm moves as if it’s a gummy worm, half asleep like me. I start to question him in my head. Why are we getting up so early? Couldn’t this surprise wait until morning comes? Why is my dad so happy and so excited? He has never done this before, am I in trouble? “Get up, sweetheart; there’s a surprise for you downstairs. You are going to fall in love with it.”

I pull my arms off of my bed and into the air motioning him to pick me up. He instantly gets the hint. As I am being picked up off my warm cozy bed, I realize my beautiful mom is standing next to him, with my little brother in her arms. I lie on his shoulder falling asleep to the whisper of the creaking stairs. I notice I’m being picked up off of my dad’s shoulder and told to stand. I turn around to see what my very late night surprise is, but all I see is my dog, Amber. She’s not the surprise; I’m 11 and I got her when I was six. What could this surprise be?

“Go around the corner of Amber’s crate. Your surprise is around her kennel. Go on now.”

I slowly walk around the corner as if something might jump out at me. When I finally reach the front of the crate, I see two of the smallest, yellow-furred bodies I’ve ever seen in my life. They lie there with their eyes closed tight they begin to whimper and whine. It’s a noise that makes me fall in love.

Amber hears them and scurries past me to attend to them. I watch her climb into her big wooden cage and lay down next to her children. The puppies immediately start to crawl over to their new mother for warmth and comfort. I walk over to get a closer look at the tiniest living things I’ve ever seen.

I look back at my dad with the biggest smile on my face. The joy ran up and down my body. I felt an explosion of energy and anticipation racing through my blood. I want to hold their little paws and cuddle their tiny bodies, but my dad says I can’t hold them until their eyes are open.

This is one of the few memories I have, viewing my family together as a whole. Seeing the love and adoration in everyone’s eyes. I knew we were together in that moment, but even then we all knew it wouldn’t last. He wouldn’t be home too much longer.