Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Missing Blanket

Hello!

You will be happy to know that we found the missing blanket!
Let me give you a little bit of history.


When we had our little girl, she was given more blankets than I can remember but didn't really get attached to any of them. She often liked to have something soft with her but it was usually whichever stuffed animal was newest.


I thought that our second born was really attached to his blanket. From the time he was very tiny, he loved knitted or crocheted blankets with holes to put his fingers through. I packed a couple of different ones when we moved to the Dominican Republic when he was a year old and he quickly decided which one he wanted. He went everywhere with that blanket but, after a while, could sleep without it if we couldn't find it.

Then came this boy.


He goes EVERYWHERE with his blanket. It's a hand-me-down from friends and we have no idea who made it or how we could ever get another one. He cries if we don't bring it to church and asks for it if we leave it behind when we run errands. One time it got left in a store and he had to go without it for a night. It took him FOREVER to get to sleep. He was not ready to give it up and neither was I.


So you can imagine my worry when we couldn't find blankie right before our first evening session on a missionary retreat this week-end. I thought he would stay awake and we could go home and get it after our session. (We only live about ten minutes from the camp.) But the session went late and somehow, with the help of his big brother and a wonderful babysitter, he fell asleep. We decided not to drive out late at night and hoped that he wouldn't wake up. It was all fine until five o'clock in the morning when he caused such a commotion that none of the rest of us could get any more sleep. We were sure that blankie was left at home and made an early run to get it (and sneak in a shower because the camp's water wasn't working.) We searched the house from top to bottom but it wasn't there. Had he dropped it when he played with the neighbours while waiting for us to pack up the car? We didn't see it anywhere. Had he left it somewhere outside when we first got to the camp? We returned but no one remembered seeing him with it there. Could it be on the top bunk where we forgot to check when we were home? We somehow got him to take a nap and then wore him out and prayed that he would make it through the night. He slept until 8:30 and we were much more awake for that morning's session!

When we drove home I noticed our overflowing garbage cans and complained, "Oh, they didn't pick up our garbage!" They often come on Fridays (occasionally Thursdays which I think is the actual assigned day) but there was a holiday this week so I was hoping they would come on the week-end. You never really know here. Then I noticed a small section of a tattered green blanket sticking out from under the lid. Blankie was in the garbage can! Good thing the garbage truck didn't come! We had one VERY happy little boy who could not stop checking the washing machine to see if it was done yet.


And our Linus is back!


Goodnight! I hope we will all have a great sleep tonight!

Marcie Cooper

P.S. Our sessions were part of a Peacemaker Seminar based on the book The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict by Ken Sande. I highly recommend it especially for missionaries. Did you know that the number one reason for leaving the field is conflict with other missionaries? Please pray for us and for good relationships with our fellow workers!