The Pug List (with Bonus Content) by Alison Hodgson

Author:Alison Hodgson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2016-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Once we broke ground, I had so many decisions to make. Building a house requires making hundreds of decisions—and you have to make them in a timely fashion or you’ll mess up the schedule. This is stressful and overwhelming for homeowners with planned builds; for me, addled by exhaustion, it was excruciating. I had to force myself to do what needed to be done, and it’s not like I could set down the rest of the plates I already had spinning.

While shopping for appliances, I got a call from Eden’s school counselor. Eden had been meeting with her that year and in their most recent time together had said how anxious she felt. I leaned against a kitchen display and quietly discussed strategies to support my worried and overwhelmed girl.

“Building a house is soooooo stressful. You have so many decisions to make. It’s so hard,” the salesman said when I returned. He knew our house had burned down and that I had excused myself to talk to my child’s counselor, but these little details were lost on him.

A couple of weeks later, when I was shopping for tile, my phone rang again. I saw that it was Christopher’s school and felt a pang in my chest. Experience had taught me that this probably wasn’t going to be good. I excused myself from the saleswoman and walked toward the entrance.

It was Christopher’s support teacher asking me to come to school to pick him up. He had brought a weapon to school and was being suspended.

WHAT!

It was his small Swiss Army knife. The teacher knew Christopher well and didn’t think he intended to harm anyone, but she was required to take the knife away and report it. When she asked him why he brought it to school, he said, “It makes me feel safe.” And the entire antibullying protocol swung into action. There would be a mandatory three-day suspension while the school investigated and made sure no one was bullying him. I wanted to put my head down and cry, but I didn’t have time.

I apologized to the tile saleswoman and headed for the car, calling Paul as I walked. By some miracle, he was able to get away, and I drove straight to his office to pick him up. On the way we talked. Neither of us could believe Christopher had consciously taken a “weapon” to school. He loved his knife. He was constantly whittling things or whipping it out in emergencies, especially after the fire when we had no other tools. Several times, Christopher and his Swiss Army knife had saved the day. We were almost positive he had simply forgotten or maybe didn’t even know he wasn’t supposed to take it to school. But how could we demonstrate that? And why did he say it made him feel safe?

“We have to remember it’s one of the only things he was able to save after the fire. I wonder if making him feel safe has to do with providing a basic sense of security and not from it being a means of defense,” Paul said.

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