The Mystery of the Missing Keys

After our rainy trip to the pumpkin patch, we headed to Penn Square Mall to find outfits for us to wear for our family pictures that were coming up. All was well until the keys went missing...just look at Jonah's innocent little face in this picture. He's looking at me with those eyebrows raised, like "What did I do? It's not my fault. You shouldn't have let me have the keys!"

Here's the story:

We were shopping in Dillard's and all of a sudden, I saw Jonah throw my keys on the floor. So I asked Mackenzie to pick them up. I didn't specify for her to put them in my purse, and not give them back to Jonah....my fault, not hers! She handed them right back to him and that was the last we saw of them. Somewhere between shopping in Dillard's and walking to Penney's, we lost the keys. He must have thrown them down again. We backtracked to every single store along the way at least 4 or 5 times and asked every employee if any keys were turned in. No luck. I really can't even describe what this was like. The mall was completely packed. At one point I just sat down on a bench and stared at the wall, not knowing what to do, and willing myself not to panic over this. How do keys just disappear like that? After searching for an hour, I called Brian and told him what happened. He is THE best man in the whole world...he didn't chastise me for having the keys out where Jonah could get them in the first place, which is what I was doing to myself already, he just said, "I'll start heading that way." Yep, he's the best! So for the next 2 hours, we proceeded to continue looking for the keys. But, they were nowhere to be found. Thankfully the kids were very cooperative and didn't whine or complain much through this whole process. When Brian got there, the girls ran to him across the mall, like he was their rescuer. Which, he was! He drove all the way to OKC from Tulsa, gave us the extra key and a few hugs and kisses, and then turned around and went back home. All without a single complaint. I have much to learn from his easy-going personality and servant's heart. I left my phone number, thinking surely the keys would show up, but they were never turned in. We were pretty bummed about that, because our van key is the electronic starter kind, which costs around $225 to replace. I am always amazed at how God takes care of us...there is a sweet lady in our church who has ties with a company that makes these keys and she took care of it for us. WOW! Thank you, Lord, for that huge blessing!!
And, Lesson Learned!!!

Our Hero!

"Sorry, Momma!"

We finally just sat down in the middle of the mall and waited for Daddy to come save the day! Oh, and we ate chocolate chip cookies and drank Diet Coke...that always makes everything better! And, on the plus side...we did find outfits for the girls to wear for our family pic's!

It's a good thing he's so cute!

After about our 3rd trip between Dillard's and Penney's, Jonah gave up and went to sleep! The fact that we were missing the keys wasn't bothering him at all!