Look at what we received in the mail!

I got an email early last week, to be expecting a package from our friend, Irene. We had no idea what it could be, but we anxiously awaited it's arrival. She thought it might come on Wednesday, if not Friday, because of Veteran's Day on Thursday. Well it did come on Wednesday. but our postman didn't deliver it but rather put a notice in our box. When I went down to the Post Office, the post lady informed me he had the package with him and wouldn't be back until after the she'd be closed, so... now we had to wait until Friday.  Below is what we received and was it ever worth the wait.......

Here is the picture it was taken from, one of my very favorite photos of Cortney riding Mo!

Irene does beautiful oil paintings, which she's shared with me via email photos but never in our wildest dreams did we think she'd ever bless us with an original and especially one so near and dear to our hearts. I had share some photos of Cortney with Irene months back. This painting is so near and dear to our hearts because....... I haven't share this until now, when it happened it was simply to hard to tell. A little over three months ago, we lost our beloved Fjord, Mo. He seemed fine the morning Cortney put him out for his grazing time, but when we went to get him in he was obviously not feeling good. I was worried it may be colic and had Cortney walking him, while I got in touch wit the vet. Mike came home and was busy working on a cylinder repair( an emergency situation) for a friend. I told him about Mo and that we needed to haul him ASAP to the vet. While Cortney was walking him, he tried to lay down several times and was very sluggish. Mike got the trailer and we loaded Mo and headed to the vet. To make a LONG, hurtful and complicated story short, Mo's spleen was swollen to double the size it should be, creating a blockage of his colon( not a twisted gut, but very similar).  The vet talked to us about options, such as surgery, which is VERY costly and not often successful. We told her that wasn't an option at this point. She continued to work on Mo until she called us at 2am, explaining that he was no better with the treatments she'd given him and he  was in a great deal of pain. Mike and I had already discussed with Cortney that we may have to make the choice to have him put down and we all agree if he was suffering that that was the best choice. Well, as painful as it was we opted to have Mo put down. The loss was almost more than any of us could bare and it still hurts deeply today.  So Irene knowing of our love for Mo and captured him in a painting for us all to remember. Thank you again Irene, we just LOVE it and have hung it right in the living room.  It's taken this long to share the loss of Mo for several reasons but with time and healing we wanted to share our loss with all of you. There will never be another Mo, but someday maybe when we've healed and are no longer mourning Mo, we can love another horse.  Until then we have this gorgeous painting to remember Mo.