Johnny’s patience and persistence paid off; about a month before his 9th birthday, Wolfgang arrived. Johnny had been asking for his own dog, specifically a German Shepherd, for at least a year. After some constant reminding and research, we found a breeder located in Idaho. We were put on two different waitlists and finally the litter was born on June 14th – 11 puppies. We had first pick for a male. After waiting all summer, we drove to Idaho in early August to choose him. Johnny sat down on the grass and interacted with 7 male puppies for about 20 minutes and then knew who it was and decided on the one with the light purple collar. It was one of the sweetest moments of his almost 9 year life. Wolfgang has been such a wonderful addition to our family and we’ve all been in true puppy love ever since. 

Below are many pictures of Johnny and Wolfgang around his birthday. Johnny had his golden birthday this year turning 9 on 9/9. Johnny is truly a golden child that radiates sunshine wherever he goes. His positive nature is infectious to all around him, especially me. Johnny is thoughtful and genuine in his conversations. He still asks me how my day is or how did I sleep. He’s doing very well at school and has many friends. Recess with his buddies continues to be the highlight of his school day. He’s quite involved with baseball and had an awesome spring and fall season with his team. John is one of the coaches and it warms my heart to see those two on the field together. When Johnny has free time, it is filled with a passion for Fortnite (another example of Johnny’s persistence paying off). He and his friends have a daily Fortnite saga that we get to overhear (I’m guessing one day I’ll miss this). 

For Johnny’s birthday we celebrated with two baseball games the day of his birthday with the request of Wolfgang attending and then he had another epic laser tag party with his friends the next day. The picture of Johnny with his hands up is special because it’s what you do when you hit a baseball so hard that it rolls over the bike path. That means it is a “ground rule double” and the coach had just explained that to us right before this practice. So, Johnny felt pretty special!

I’m grateful for Johnny everyday and for the love that he shares with our family. Wolfgang is pretty dang lucky Johnny chose him… and so are we. Happy 9th birthday, Johnny! Can’t wait to see where your determination takes you next.