A small miracle...

The majority of our week was spent recovering from our computer crash early Monday morning. Yes, very exciting, but slightly devastating. We have wanted a new computer for a while now, but just couldn't justify spending the money if our computer worked just fine. We thought, “if only our computer would just not work, then we would feel okay about buying a new one”. We didn't actually pray for this, but obviously someone was aware of our true desires and now our hard drive is toast. We recovered almost everything, but weren't completely prepared, so it has taken quite a bit of time to get ourselves back to where we were, and accept the loss of several pictures I failed to burn to a disk the night before. Ouch. But, my genius husband got us all set up with a nice, new, computer that he's very excited about. As for me, I can't really tell the difference, but it works, and that's what I care about. Although, we did discover that calls with Skype work wonderfully now. I guess our poor connection over here did have something to do with our old computer!

Our other highlight of the week happened yesterday. We found a Mexican restaurant a few weeks ago that we were SO excited about. We decided to try it out for dinner, and both give it the “thumbs up!” on everything but the food. Why is a place still wonderful when the food lacks so much taste, you ask? 1) it's close to home, less than 1 km 2) we were the only people in the restaurant, so we didn't have to worry about our crazy kids bothering other tables. Janie walked up and down the stairs at least 100 times 3) being the only people in the restaurant meant that the staff played with the kids some, which was awesome. Jack was helping one of the waitresses cut some coupons up or something for the last 15 minutes. If there's something he can destroy, he's in. 4) It was fairly cheap for farang food. And, it was MEXICAN food. It felt like home! That is definitely the cuisine I miss the most here. It's hard to come by, and still the tastes aren't quite the same, but we'll take it. I can safely say that the first fast-food place we go when we get to Utah will be Taco Bell. So, laugh if you will, about my excitement in finding a nice, quiet, kid-friendly place with good service, even with not the most fantastic food, but those characteristics are hard to come by over here. It's a challenge every single day to find places we can take the kids, where we can all relax. So, maybe not the best food (don't get me wrong, some of it was great, just not everything), but it's a place to go where we all leave smiling!

So, instead of trying to come up with more exciting (yet not really) things about our week, I thought I would share an experience we had last week.

Tuesday mornings I take Janie to her swim class around the corner. I intentionally didn't put on my wedding ring because I knew I was just going to get in the pool, so I left it on the vanity where Jeff and I had both put our rings and watches the night before (which we've done every night for 6 ½ years). After swimming and a shower, I went to put it on and discovered it missing. I was sure it had just fallen down behind, or got pushed into the closet or a drawer or something. We have wood floors, so it could have easily gotten kicked away. So, I searched the whole bedroom, under the bed, behind night stands, under draperies, blankets, clothing, etc. I looked everywhere. Finally, after calling Jeff, I was sure he would find it within 5 minutes after getting home for the evening. He is amazing, if you didn't know. So, I went on with my day. That night as I read to Jack, Jeff looked and looked, with no luck. I felt pretty sick about it, but tried to stay positive, thinking it would just show up in the laundry or something.

Wednesday morning when I also couldn't find Jack's Tae Kwon Do uniform I thought I was going to lose it. I was sure I had taken it out of his backpack from the previous week and put it in his closet, like I always do. I hated to send him to school without it, picturing him being singled out for having the mom that forgot. So, after searching every nook and cranny for my ring and Jack's suit, I was sure I was losing it. I called his school just to see if it was there for some reason, and after they assured me they had kept all the uniforms from last week, I felt much better, but not really, because now I was doubting my memory! My friend came over that morning and told me her “lost ring” story and how she had recovered it from a church parking lot weeks later, which calmed me some. But, I couldn't stop thinking about my own Mother who lost her beautiful wedding ring in the house when I was little and we never found it. She was always sick about it, and now I knew how she felt. I kept thinking, “I can just wear my wedding bands until we can afford a new one. Maybe for our 25^th anniversary?”. Very depressing thoughts. Jeff kept assuring me that it is just a thing, and he's right, but that thing is the most sentimental thing I've ever owned. I've never prayed so hard for a thing before. At this point, my ever-calm husband, wasn't calming me anymore. I was sick about it and couldn't do anything.

Thursday morning, I had the idea to bait Jane, who we suspected may have taken it. I put another one of my rings (don't worry, not one that I cared about) in the exact place on the vanity where I was hoping I had left it. I watched her play in my room that morning while I got ready to see if she would take it and stick it in some magical hiding place she had discovered. She didn't come anywhere near it. So, I decided to get out for the day and hope to forget about it. Janie and I decided to try a new market we had heard about. We walked to the train, went 4 stops over and walked quite a ways down another soi to get there. All the while, Jane sat in the stroller playing with her hair clip she had pulled out as soon as we started our journey. When we got to the market, I walked up and down the isles looking, buying a few things, and letting Janie interact with all the vendors. She wanted out, so I let her get out and push the stroller some, and run around. One lady was particularly aggressive with wanting to play with Jane, so she came running to me. I watched her coming and was relieved to see she was playing with what I thought was her clip (we go through so many of those things!). But, as she grabbed my legs, she handed it to me and I saw that it wasn't her clip. It was my ring! I was so shocked and relieved I could barely hold back the tears. The lady saw what she handed me and I'm sure she thought, “what kind of mom would give her baby a diamond ring?”. I couldn't tell her what had happened, but really didn't care. I was so relieved to have my ring back, it wasn't until that night that Jeff and I really realized how much of a miracle it was. We think it had been in the stroller all along, but thinking of how many places along the way that it could have been dropped. I was especially grateful when on the way home, Janie was holding a used book in the stroller I had bought her and she dropped it maybe a half-dozen times just getting to the train. Why I was so blessed to have my daughter not drop my ring as we went up and down those awful sidewalks and busy market isles, I have no idea. Why would the Lord answer my prayers for a thing? Who knows why things like that happen, but I've felt like this is one of those experiences I should remember for times when things don't go my way. Not everything works out how we wish they would. But, every once in a while, heaven smiles on us, and it does us some good to remember that on a rainy day.