On July 7th, we went to Estes to celebrate Steve's 63rd birthday. We had decided to celebrate Evan's and Isaac's birthdays as well. Our plans for a boat ride on Lake Estes were rained out, so we had a nice "picnic" at home while we watched and listened to the downpour outside. Candles were blown out and presents were given and received.
Evan got a Swiss Army knife from Ann and Steve which he promptly lost. It was very lost, as practically everyone in the house had searched for it in every place we could think of and could not find it. Evan stated that it had been in his pocket inside the box in which it came, but it was no longer there. He insisted that he had not roamed about the house with it, but had just been playing downstairs near the toy closet. The normal searching of said closet procured no results, so being a firm believer that when something is lost you should always look by cleaning, I determined to clean the closet out. Evan and I removed some boxes blocking access to the floor, got a trash bag, and set to work. I had sat down on the floor and was going through everything to no avail when Ann came down to help. Evan disappeared after becoming frustrated about being asked to check his pockets for the umpteenth time by someone upstairs. Ann helped me identify which pieces went where as I organized the toys into different piles and containers. She had just declared the search as fruitless when she stepped from the closet over a pile of toys and spotted the knife box resting among the rubble.
"Here it is," she called, stooping to pick it up.
I was surprised to see it retrieved from among toys I'd had to touch in order to get them to that pile, but I was relieved it had been found. Evan came from the downstairs bedroom with awe on his face. "You're kidding," he said, as Ann handed him the knife. "I just got done saying a prayer like two seconds ago."
Ann smiled and said something about the Big Guy helping her find it. I smiled and said, "Gimme five, Ev. Nice teamwork." Evan still looked in awe at the knife.
"When something's lost you should always pray and clean," I voiced aloud, and in my heart I said, "Thank you Heavenly Father for giving my son such a sweet experience to remember. Whenever he is struggling, I hope he can think of this moment of awe and turn to thee with faith that thou art there."
