welcome the newest member of the chase family

i am not a pet person.
sorry to all of my friends who just dropped their mouths open and gasped in disgust at that first sentence.
let me clarify.
i am not a have-my-own pet person.
i have no problem with yours.
i just don't want the trouble that comes with all the care and cleaning and dealing with a pet.
no offense.

ok. moving on.

riley has wanted a hamster for a while now.
i took him to the pet store a few months ago and watched him giggle with delight as he watched the tiny little rodent run around his wheel.
it was cute.
but i still wasn't sold.

with everything going on at the house, we couldn't really justify the expense that comes with buying the cage, the food, the animal itself and everything else.
so we just pushed it off.

saturday morning we went on our usual yard sale route.
we had to cut it a little short because aj had his piano recital.
(which he did awesome at! we are so proud of him!)

so we drove into our very last yard sale of the day and to riley...
the world stopped. the clouds burst open. and the angels sang.

there. in front of him.
was a sign.
it said.
FREE TO GOOD HOME:
HAMSTER WITH CAGE, TOYS AND FOOD

oh boy.
i guess we had no choice.
so now, let me introduce to you the newest member of our family.

meet taco.

 and, taco is a girl. so i guess it's not all bad.

 she came with literally hundreds of dollars worth of toys and cages!

God definitely blesses us and shows us how much He cares.
right down to the little details of a pet for riley!

he is one happy little boy!