Little things we take for granted

Sometimes little things happen to remind us just how blessed we are.

Last night my husband was in the front yard pitching baseball with our boys. He stuck his head in to tell me the lady across the street locked herself out of the house & he was going to go help her get in.

Fine, no problem.

A few minutes later, he showed up with who turned out to be our neighbor’s babysitter who moved here from Russia about a year ago. She was taking the 3 year old daughter for a walk and accidentally locked them out of the house. She speaks very little English, and what she does speak is difficult to understand.

After a failed attempt to unlock the house, hubby brought the sitter and little girl to our house for them to use the phone. However, she could not remember any of the parent’s phone numbers.

She kept repeating Hanes Mall, so we guessed the parents must have gone shopping there. We only live about 2 miles from the mall so I offered to drive her there. I have to be honest and admit, I was getting a little bit irritate. I had literally just finished dinner, so my plate was on the table waiting for me. And I was having a great deal of difficulty understanding a word this lady was saying. But, we obviously couldn’t just leave her and the 3 year old sitting in the driveway until the parents got home.

So, without a car seat, we loaded up the sitter & the little one and headed to the mall. Keep in mind that Hanes Mall is the largest mall in the Southeast. It is enormous. Between home and the mall, I was able to figure out that the mom was at school and the dad worked at night at the mall. But, she didn’t know where. She kept saying, “Near Belk.”

Ok, so we parked at Belk and went into the mall. As we wandered around Belk, she became very animated at a “Fur Salon” section and I was able to deduce that the dad worked at a hair salon. NOW we were getting somewhere.

Belk doesn’t have a hair salon, but JC Penny does. This, of course, was the opposite direction. Fine, we walked down to JC Penny. The sitter went into the salon and just started wandering around looking for the dad. All the hair stylist were looking at her like she was some kind of freak. I approached the front desk and asked for their help. The sitter said she was looking for “Temodee”..which I finally figured out was Tim or Timothy. Of course, no one worked there by that name. They did tell me where all the other salons were in the mall, so we set off on an adventure to find Temodee.

We walked all thru the mall, with the 3 year old happily trudging along with us, until we came to the very last salon on the far end of the mall. Yes, a Tim works there! But, he didn’t come in that night. But, thank the Lord; the manager had his cell phone number. He called the dad; sitter spoke with him, and ALAS! We had a winner. Dad said he’d be at the mall in just a few minutes to pick them up and take them home.

I offered to stay until Dad arrived, but the sitter insisted I go on home…he was only a mile away and should be there soon. She thanked me profusely and I finally went home to my dinner.

We’ve all been in situations like that. Locked ourselves out of the house, locked our keys in the car, had a flat tire. Situations where we really have to rely on the kindness of strangers. But, at least we can communicate our needs to other people. We are familiar with the area and how to resolve the problem. This poor lady had never stepped foot in the mall and couldn’t clearly communicate who she was nor who she was looking for. I can not even imagine how frustrating the whole experience must have been for her.

As I lay in bed last night I thought about how blessed I really am.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves