Lost and Found

A few months ago, it came to my attention that The Girl was storing quite a lot of stuff in my purse.  I have always resisted the "mom is a pack mule" mindset- not that I don't carry a large bag, but I don't need everyone trying to hand me their bulletins after church, or their various and sundry articles.  No.  What I've got in there is MINE, unless you're an infant in diapers.

So I told The Girl I thought it was about time she got her own purse.  "Really!"  SQueeee!  Who knew that this observation would cause so much glee!  She didn't just pull out a kid's purse from under the bed.  We went shopping.  Carefully.  At great length, we found the purse at Penney's on sale for only $12.00!  It was a nice size, tan corduroy, with a couple nice pockets for Ipods and such.  She  took it to Nana who personalized it with some nicely placed butterflies.

So imagine our dismay when she came to me and confessed that the purse was lost.  It had sat forlornly in the upstairs hallway for quite a while, but she couldn't say just when it had gone missing.  To compound the problem, we'd been to Philly for a long weekend.  And to the 30-hour famine overnight at a strange church.  And about a million other possible places.  And the box that it sat next to in the hall had been taken to the Clothing Closet at church.

As time passed, I found out about a half dozen other items that were IN the purse and therefore, also lost.  The Pandora-type bracelet she got for her birthday.  My earbud headphones that stay in while I am jogging (not really).  The peace-sign wallet the "tooth fairy" brought when she got her molar pulled in Feb.  We were both becoming terribly sad about it.  I emailed people in Philly.  I called churches and libraries, pestered grandparents and aunts.   She cried.  I went to bed one night and prayed about it.  I know some people are programmed to do this for lost items all the time, but I'm not really.  I let the tempter convince me that God doesn't care about this, even though I have had the experience before of seeing in my mind's eye where I should look.

But I woke up the next morning convinced that the purse was in this house.  Moreover, I thought that it was in the little kids' room and that The Princess has stashed it with her toys.  We gave the room a half-hearted once over, mostly looking in toy boxes, and didn't find it.  I still thought it was in the house somewhere, but we had no place else to look.

Yesterday, I dragged The Mayor's suitcase out of the closet to pack him for camp.  This morning, I started digging through the closet to clean it out now that the big obstacle was gone.  (There are about 10 clothing items hanging in this closet.  We're pretty minimalist around here since our last home was a 30' travel trailer and we have one foot on an airplane most of the time.)  In the bottom of the closet there is some old blue luggage and a bag of clothes that don't quite fit The Princess yet.  And under that, voila!  The purse!!  The Girl wasn't here this morning, and I couldn't wait to show it to her when I went to pick her up.  We have been ever so happy since then.  Thanks for sharing in our joy!  Next time, I will listen to God and look a little harder when I have a revelation.  Now, if we could find the keyring The Giant lost...