The folly of shopping alone.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of going to Lethbridge to do the grocery shopping....ALONE. Because I went alone I didn't feel the need to take my gigantic purse, so I just took my fancy shmancy shiny wallet. I drove for awhile in complete silence, and then I turned on the radio and listen to whatever I wanted at the sound level that I wanted. It was truly heavenly. I roamed the superstore at my own pace finding everything that was on my list...in silence. I unloaded the groceries into the empty van with out anybody begging for something to eat. I replaced the shopping cart in the shopping cart garage thingy and then I climbed in the van and took the opportunity to check over my grocery receipt. I noticed that I hadn't received the $2 discount on the two jars of peanut butter that I had purchased. So I headed back inside to customer service for a price adjustment. After all I had all the time in the world, and no tired kids to deter me. And honestly, I would have probably only bought one jar of peanut butter with out the $2 discount. I got my $4 back and headed out to the van. Once in the van I reached down to grab my wallet to put the change in and it wasn't where it should have been. I couldn't remember  taking it into the store with me when I went to customer service. I looked in the back of the van with the groceries, but it wasn't there. I started to panic. I only had about $40 cash, my drivers license, no credit cards, Alberta health cards for me and the kids and various other semi important items. All of which were replaceable, it would have been a hassle, but it could be done. However, there were two other fairly expensive pieces of paper in my wallet, that would not have been replaceable. Last fall a friend of mine rounded up a large group of people to purchase group tickets(at a wonderful discount) to the Broadway play "Wicked" that will be playing in Spokane in May. I had purchased two of these tickets for myself and Kathryn and we have been really looking forward to our little girly getaway. But if my wallet was lost...that would all go down the drain, and I would have to cry. I immediately said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me find my wallet, and please let some honest person have found it and turned it in to Customer Service. On my way back into the store I stopped and looked to see if I had left it in the shopping cart, but it wasn't there. I wondered if I had taken it in with me and left it on the counter at customer service. I just kept praying that it would be there. What would I do if it wasn't? How would I tell Kathryn that we would no longer be going to go see Wicked? I tried to put it out of my head and just kept praying that it would be there. And do you know what? It was. I had left it in the cart and some lady had found it and turned it in. The lady at customer service said "There is still hope for humanity." Yes, yes, there is! And thank God for it! As I look at the series of events, I am grateful that I listened to those little promptings, that started with taking the time to look over my receipt. If I hadn't done that, and then taken the time to go in to get it corrected and had change to put in my wallet, I would have driven away with out noticing that I had misplaced my wallet. And who knows when I would have noticed that it was missing....and would it have been too late? See sometimes it pays to have kids with you, and carry a gigantic purse...it's next to impossible to misplace a purse that size.

Here is another feel good story, be sure to have some tissues near by, you'll need them.