Surprises.....

We got a surprise this weekend. Thad was able to be home for Mother's Day. He came to the food pantry where Lauren and I were and surprised us! We were so excited to see him. Thad put down his belongings and gave us hugs. While he still had Lauren in his arms, I picked up his backpack and flight bag and put them in my car. We visited a few minutes then he helped fix a problem with our huge dumpster. Such a good thing because the trash couldn't be picked up and he fixed the problem quickly. Yay! A Blessing for sure. We grabbed a bite for lunch and it was on the way home that Thad realized he did not have his iph*ne. We retraced all of our steps and could not find it anywhere. He remembered that he last had it when he came in the food pantry. He had left it on the table but it was not there. I remembered the family that was in when he arrived and I gave them a call. They had picked it up and was honest enough to admit that they stll had it. We went on our way to retrieve it. As we drove up, I realized that I had never seen a house look like this. Things were falling down all around. Lots of chickens between the two structures where more than two families lived. About eight children gathered around us to see what these strangers where doing at their house. I forgot that I was still in the US. It reminded me of things seen on mission trips and I was only fifteen minutes from my house. God showed me lots of things that day. I can't believe that a family has enough food because their clothes are nice. I can't believe that they are not really hungry because their car is nicer than mine. We did get the phone back with only one or two calls to NYC :-) on it. It was turned off and in great condition. We exchanged grateful hugs to the lady that gave it back and were on our way. I am still learning from all of this...mostly how surprised I was that it was given back when it could have been sold to buy food or other necessities. I should not have been surprised how loving on someone changes everything.