Went out shopping tonight for the finishing touches for the upcoming Valentine shoots! I have to say that excited is not even the word for how much joy I am filled with in anticipation for them! Decided that on our way to Menards, we would stop by the local thrift store to see if they had any cool vintage chairs. You never know what you will find at a thrift store. We used to go shopping at thrift stores when I was a kid, before it was cool, and mostly because it was hard on my Mom to find school clothes for five children on such a small budget. I was hoping to find something amazing...I guess you could say I did. ;)
On our way to the back of the store, we passed the toy section. Now I must say, I am amazed by how much better the toy selection at thrift stores has gotten, compared to when I was a kid. Back then all of the baby dolls had ink pen covering their faces, or their once beautiful blond locks of hair were matted together into one big lump. Now, there are all kinds of cool toys. Many of them unopened. So, of course, my kids wanted to stop & look at the toys. I promised them that if they let me look at the furniture and stayed on their best behavior, we could check them out on our way out of the store. They tried their very best to remain quiet, which lasted about 1 full minute. ;) Besides a few random shoves to each other or a tongue stuck out here or there, all in all they were pretty good. ;) So, I kept my word & off we went to have a look. They pointed out all of the cool toys they wanted & explained to me how greatly each one would benefit their lives. Same old story as any other time we get in a toy section of any other store. But then something happened that made my entire night. And actually, to this very moment, my heart is still smiling over it...
Kimmy came up to me & said, "Oh Mama! Look at him! He's handicapped like Papa! I feel so bad for him Mama! If we don't take him, no one will ever take him & love him!" And she held up this little stuffed puppy dog. He was missing an eye & a leg. But the strange thing was, someone had actually taken the time to sew him up, right at the spot where his leg would have connected to his body. And instead of 2 matching eyes, he had a regular eye & one clear, glass looking eye. The glass one had no pupil or sign of being an eye, but it was definitely sewn on by someone in hopes of giving him another eye. Sewn on with love & care. How peculiar it was, I thought. There wasn't anything really special about this puppy other than that. And it amazed me that someone had taken the time to fix him up like that. Someone's Mommy had taken great care to patch up this puppy, that was obvious. And as I looked down at Kimmy, staring up at me with such sincerity & love for this little puppy, my heart was touched. Such compassion, from a child. So many adults walking around without an ounce of care for people that are hurting in this world, and here was a child, taking pity on a one eyed, one legged stuffed pup. So, of course we bought the puppy. That was the only thing we bought. It cost 99 cents. When we got in the van, the babies had a big discussion on what they imagined might be wrong with this puppy, whom they have affectionately & unanimously named JoJo. They all felt so bad for the poor thing and promised to love it forever. The end conclusion was that it must have had Cancer like Grandma Great.
Children amaze me. Please God, don't ever let them lose those hearts of theirs. Please don't ever let the world harden them. May they do amazing things with their compassionate little hearts...
