Tuesday July 29, 2008

Have you ever had “one of those days”?? Well, our house has been full of it today.

Most notably, I lost our mail. This was a matter of some concern, as I was supposed to be taking a handful of mail to the post office — a number of bills including checks, a Blockbuster dvd, and some information for Gabriel’s insurance (including his ss# and everything). So anyway, I’d had lunch at Ashley’s house (and yes, I had taken my mail into her house) and then we were going to run to WalMart together. So, with purse & baby & a bottle of soda in one arm… I had the mail & car keys & a new outfit from Auntie Ashley in my other hand. As I unlocked the car, I put the mail and outfit on top of the car. (Note: never place anything on top of your car.) Then I tossed the purse and soda onto the seat, and buckled-in Gabriel, meanwhile thinking “Don’t forget to grab the stuff off the top of the car.” Well, I got chatting with Ashley and just kind of spaced out… got in the car… drove away… went shopping…
About forty minutes later, we returned to the house and I was about to head to the post office. Suddenly — oops — it hit me. The mail was gone. Then, like the slow motion minute of a film, I had a flashback of buckling Gabriel and leaving the mail & outfit on the top of my car. I thought I would die. I felt my heartrate race and my stomach just felt sick. Ashley and I looked everywhere, just to make sure it wasn’t overlooked. I called Steven, in a total panic. He said to retrace our footsteps (aka tire tracks). So back to WalMart we went, slowly, staring at the gutters and lawns along the way hoping to find my mail scattered somewhere.
No luck.
Nothing.
It was all gone.
<poof>

Long story short, I spent my whole afternoon freaked out and panicked. I called the bank. I called & emailed Steven a few more times. I just kept praying that somehow someone would find the mail and stick it in a mailbox. And I was sad, thinking that Gabriel’s cute new outfit was someplace in a muddy gutter — but I hoped someone in need might find it and wash it up.
Ashley and I watched a movie this afternoon, so I was good and distracted. By the time Steven got home, I gave up hope of finding the mail. We ate dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, and gave Gabriel a bath. While our baby boy was splashing happily in the sink, Dilly barked at something out the window. Steven looked and reported, “there’s someone at our house. There’s a guy on a bike.” I immediately thought, “ooh, Steven will have fun with that Jehovah’s Witness” — but when Steven answered the door, it didn’t sound like a religious call.
“Are you Steven?”
“Yes.”
“Is this your mail?”
MAIL!!!!!!!!!!

I literally jumped for joy, pulled Gabriel splish-splash-quick out of the water, wrapped him in a towel, and ran down to the front door.
“YOU FOUND MY MAIL!!! AND MY BABY’S OUTFIT!!!”
The guy explained that he lived just down the street from my brother and his wife, and that he works right near our house. He found the things in the road outside his house as he was leaving for work — and he said after not finding us in the yellow pages or on google, he came to the address on the return-address labels. I am still amazed. I am so thankful for his kindness and care in returning our mail. He was so nice, and blessed us today more than he can ever know.
So Mr. Bicycle, thank you. 🙂

I wish we could repay him for his kindness.
I asked if he wanted a cookie. 🙂
But he said he’d just finished dinner.

So tomorrow I will be going to the post office. And only to the post office. I will not make any stops along the way. I will go directly to the post office, without passing Go and without collecting two hundred dollars. lol.

THE END. 🙂
Now we’ll get back to fixing some of the other things that have been “off” today…