70 % of kids who regularly attend youth group stop attending church after the age of 17 <| sep |> Thanks for the welcome . I very much needed the affirmation that this is at least somewhat normal or as normal as anything can be in this situation . I think I might be doing the same thing trying to rehearse and prepare for the worst case scenario . I appreciate the suggestion for counselling as well . I think I might wait until the New Year husband ' s job has just kicked into crazy mode until Christmas so it just seems like bad timing . <| sep |> I always wanted to name a dog Laika but she was too old to change her name she ' s 5 now . Lola suits her . Unfortunately she was given up when her family didn ' t want her and she got severely hurt by another dog just before we got her 15 stitches on her neck where the other dog went for the kill .