WILD Goose Chase

I couldn’t make this up if I tried… 

After locking the front door this morning I placed the keys in the front pocket of our diaper bag.  It is a deep pocket that sometimes holds my phone, ipod, lipstick, lipgloss, & keys when they aren’t in the ignition.  My husband and son were already in the car, waiting patiently, in reverse.  We were on our way to church to keep the nursery.

Once we arrived I took Griffin to his classroom only to realize that he along with the majority of his classmates had been promoted to a new room down the hall.  He handled the change surprisingly well and Randy and I reported to our assigned nursery room-the crawlers/new walkers-and that’s another story…stay tuned!  At about 12:15 we picked Griffin up and of course, he was the only child remaining because we were waiting on parents to pick up their children from our room (one of us should have gone and gotten him…now I know).  We got in the car with the diaper bag and went to our in-law’s favorite local Mexican restaurant.  Once Griffin had more rice and beans on his face than he actually consumed we went home, with the diaper bag.  When we pulled into the driveway I realize that the keys were missing from the deep front pocket. 

After performing a cavity search of the bag and car my patient husband retraced our steps: both classrooms, two lost-and-founds, Mexican restaurant, and respective parking lots.  At this point we realized that it was possible that the keys had fallen out of our bag and were accidentally placed in another bag.  I called our largely populated church and could practically hear the tumbleweeds blowing down the halls.  NO ONE was there and I was prompted by an answering service to contact the pastor on call for emergencies, crisis, or death (of course, I felt like this was an emergency/crisis but I didn’t think the POC would share my heightened level of concern).  I left a non-emergency message “to be returned on the following business day.”  Then I realized that I had the cell phone number of one of the preschool coordinators.  Score!  I called her annnnnnd left another voicemail.  I thought for a minute and asked my husband if he could remember the name of Griffin’s new Sunday school teacher and AMAZINGLY he provided me with both his first and last name! So, I used handy-dandy whitepages.com and ta-da the couple’s phone number and address appear.  I called and spoke to the Mrs.  She told me that her husband remembered picking up the keys from off of the floor and placing them back in what he thought was our bag (remember, it was their first day having most of these kids).  She also informed me that sadly the preschool director’s father had recently passed and his funeral was today and ALL of the coordinators were presently supporting her and celebrating his life.  These ladies would have access to the class role and therefore the contact information for the other children’s parents in the room.  She told me she would also message one of the coordinators and they would try to track down the keys. 

A few hours later my phone rang and I was in complete anticipation of the news that the keys to my life had been found.  Nope.  The coordinator had spoken with the teachers and they thought that the bag that was hanging next to Griffin’s bag may contain the keys.  This student’s parents are members of the deaf community of our church.  The coordinator had tried to call the family through the use of TTY but the number provided was no longer in service and whitepages.com had no listing.  She believed that the pastor of the deaf ministries would certainly be able to get in touch with the family and she called and left a message (since, apparently NO ONE was ANSWERING their PHONES). 

I momentarily felt defeated and then I remembered the power of facebook!  I found the deaf ministries pastor’s wife and messaged her…and then realized that she wouldn’t get the message until she logged onto fb.  Then I discovered that I have six friends that are friends with her!  YESSSS!  I messaged the six and asked them to please look at her “info” page and send me her email address.  I received her personal email address and his work email address in a matter of seconds! 

At 9:55 pm I received an email from this dear pastor with a picture of my keys and a caption that read, “look familiar.”  HALLELUJAH!  Hopefully, I will be able to meet up with this sweet family early tomorrow.  Crisis averted.  Maybe this is why God led me to take ASL for four years during high school and college!