A Saint Jude Moment

Tuesdays are busy days for us. I took Rebecca to swim practice at 4:45, and picked her back up for soccer practice at 5:30. She had to dry off and change into her soccer gear in the car, poor girl, but at least her wet head kept her relatively cool out on the soccer field.

Gabriel would not stay put during soccer practice, he kept running off, and I had to keep dragging him back by his ear. The staff at Christina's preschool have already noticed Gabriel's talent of running off, and asked me if I'd considered putting a cow bell on him before he starts Mother's Day Out this fall. Hmmm...

Once practice was over, I got everyone back in the van, loaded the folding chairs in the trunk, and climbed into the driver's seat. I realized I didn't have my keys...uh oh. I remember Gabriel had them last, and checked around him, under him...no keys...

Rebecca said,

"Mommy, if we don't have the keys, we can't leave!"

Thanks so much for pointing that out sweetie.

I quickly checked the trunk again, and then retraced Gabriel's path from the soccer field to the van...no keys...

The coach saw me looking around, realized my predicament, and joined the search. He checked around Gabriel's car seat again...no keys...

The kids were starting to get restless, I was getting hot...but I knew I could not panic. I've learned the hard way, over the years, that when I lose something, I just can't get upset; otherwise my brain locks down and refuses to remember where I left whatever I'm looking for.

I racked my brain...the keys have to be in the trunk...so I go look again. I have to pull out all the bags of stuffed animals the Formation classes have collected for our service project this spring. I dig around the stroller, folding chairs, portable high chair...no keys...

"Saint Jude," I say out loud, "I really need these keys."

I start to replace all the bags of animals. One bag was a large paper gift bag, open on the top...I heard a little jiggling noise when I picked it up...I dug around...and THERE WERE THE KEYS!

"Thank you Saint Jude!" I cried.

Thank you Saint Jude.