Small Miracles

I mentioned that I had lost my camera a week and a half ago at an apple orchard/ pumpkin farm that we went to with our friends. The camera is back... and I am amazed! Here is the story.

We had such a nice morning with our friends, picking apples and eating apple cider doughnuts from the orchard bakery afterwards. We walked out of the bakery to discover that our friends' new Radio Flyer wagon had been taken, with all their apples in it. We all hunted, but the farm is huge and it was crawling with people, many with children and wagons either of their own or wagons that were available to use while at the farm. We left disappointed, but hopeful that perhaps someone had "borrowed" the wagon and that it would turn up later.

When our family arrived at home, I realized that I didn't have our camera. Since its usually my constant companion, I grieved it's loss immediately, but was hopeful that it could be found. I immediately emailed the orchard with a description of it, and we also called that day. Both that call and the calls we made the next two days left us discouraged... not only was it nearly impossible to get through to a live person, when we did get through they told us how swamped they had been that whole 3 day weekend, and that they hadn't even gotten to sort out the lost and found.

I called again each of the following days that week, only to be transferred from person to person who had definitely not seen the camera. On Thursday I decided to drive out to the orchard (40 minutes each way) and do my own search. It was freezing that day (we had that freak early snow that morning!), and Seth and I nearly froze our noses in the biting wind. We looked for the camera all around in the area where we had parked during our weekend visit, and we hunted for the wagon in all the farm's wagon storage areas with the help of the farm staff. I gave fresh camera descriptions to the staff and looked through the lost and found, but nothing turned up. We drove home with half a dozen more apple cider doughnuts, but neither of the lost items.

When we arrived home, there was a voice mail from the orchard. They had hunted some more after I left, and low and behold, they had the wagon! I was so amazed that it had actually turned up, and couldn't wait to tell our friends their wagon was back.

Would you believe that the next morning, nearly a full week after losing the camera, I got a call from the farm saying that they had found it. I was incredulous! I had just been there the day before... we had looked through all the lost and found... thousands of people had been through since I'd been there with the camera in my possession. When I asked them how they'd gotten it, they said it just "showed up."

Maybe it did. But to me, it was a miracle. God had His eye on my camera the whole time, and He brought it back to me. I'm so thankful!

And now, here are the pictures I took at the orchard!


Our friend Becky with her two little ones and Gwen, enjoying the apples!

Sharing an apple with Daddy.
Our crew!
I found a good one!
Is this beautiful, or what?
Trying to get up...
I did it!
Queen of the world!