About my beloved wallet.

I lost my wallet today.

Totally my own fault.

If this has ever happened to you, you know what agony it is.

I'd been running around with the kids, buying groceries and school supplies, with Wal-Mart as my last stop. I was in a hurry to get them home and fed so I could then take them to the neighbor's house while I went to a dentist appointment that I'd just scheduled that morning. I was frazzled, impatient and absent-minded. I remember looking at my purse as I rushed out to the car with my purchases and noticing that my wallet wasn't inside the pocket it was supposed to be in, but kind of perched on top of it.

It wasn't until I'd walked through the door to my house and set my purse down that I realized that my wallet was no longer with me. I looked everywhere that I'd just walked, but since I'd only gone from the car to the door, there weren't many places it could be.

Next I searched the car but found nothing. I emptied all of my grocery bags but still didn't find it. Panic began to set in and I called Wal-Mart. No wallet had been turned in, and of course I couldn't ask them to go search the parking lot and shopping carts for it. I'd have to do that myself. I asked the kids to make themselves something to eat so I could keep looking for my wallet. Those darlings had cold cereal for lunch and didn't complain a bit.

My sweet neighbor let me drop the kids off half an hour early so I could go back to Wal-Mart. The whole way I prayed I'd find it- please, please, please let me find it.

The cart return had been emptied since I'd been there only 20 minutes before, so I scanned the parking spaces near where I'd been. Then I tracked down the cart collector but he said he hadn't seen a wallet. Meanwhile, I was going over in my head what the contents of my wallet were:

-driver's license, less than 2 years old
-temple recommend, less than 2 months old
-3 debit cards
-2 credit cards
-insurance card
-medical expense card
-library card
-several gift cards
-Costco membership card
-punch cards
-receipts to be turned in for reimbursement
etc, etc, etc.

The mental inventory was getting longer and longer, and more and more painful to think about. Customer Service still didn't have any wallets that had been turned in since I'd called, so on the verge of tears I wrote down my name and number with a description of my wallet, and left. I was supposed to be at the dentist that was 20 minutes away in 10 minutes. I called and rescheduled my appointment, picked up my kids and went home to cancel all of my bank and credit cards.

All this time, I could think of two "bright sides" to the situation. First, there hadn't been any cash in my wallet. Maybe some change, but that was all. Just the night before Aaron had given me a bunch of money to use for groceries and such for the next couple of weeks. Normally I would've put all of it in my wallet, putting this week's allotment at the front, and the rest at the back behind my coupons. Instead I took only what I thought I'd need and left the rest at home. I literally spent every dollar of what I'd brought with me, with only a few coins left over. That was a huge relief. HUGE. I'd have felt so much worse if I'd just lost our family's food money as well.

The other bright side, and this may seem dumb to some of you, but I was actually kind of glad that I'd have a legitimate reason to get a new driver's license picture taken. My last one expired when I was 7 months pregnant and I was severely put out at having to renew it while I was carrying around all that extra poundage. I know. I'm vain.

So I got all of my cards cancelled, and got new ones on the way. But I was still so bugged. I hated the idea of someone having my personal belongings, things that are important to me, in their possession. Sure, they could take the gift cards and use them, but everything else in there would be totally useless to anyone but me.

I tried to stop thinking about it and got busy cleaning up and cooking dinner. We'd volunteered to feed the missionaries tonight. I tried not to think about what a pain it would be to replace all of those items that I'd just lost, and how the wallet that I've had for 10 years, that I'd purchased while on my honeymoon, would probably never turn up. I vented my frustration on Facebook, got some very sweet and sympathetic comments from my friends who promised to pray for my wallet's return and urging me to pray as well, but I'd all but given up hope that I'd get it back.

At about 8:15 I sat down to check my e-mail for the first time today. There in my Inbox, I saw a message with the subject "WALLET FOUND". I was so confused. Here's what it said:

SARAH,

I HAD YOUR WALLET TURNED INTO THE ASSESSORS OFFICE IN GEM COUNTY AT 5:00 MONDAY NIGHT AUG 16TH. IT WAS FOUND IN CALDWELL BY A MAN FROM EMMETT, SO HE BROUGHT IT OVER TO OUR OFFICE. I HOPE YOU CAN GET THIS E-EMAIL AND CAN GIVE US A CALL.

The kind lady proceeded to provide her office and home phone numbers so that I could leave a message at either one. I called, left a brief message, then I cried so hard that Aaron thought someone had died. After fretting about it all day and dreading the hassle that was ahead of me, I was just so happy and relieved and grateful that it had turned up- the very same day even! - albeit in another county.

It took me a while to figure out how she'd gotten my e-mail address, but I think I must have had an old business card in there or something.

Such a small thing. It was just a wallet. Not a child or a vehicle or anything of real consequence that had gotten lost. But it still threw me into such a tailspin. Such a small thing, but there was a lesson in there for me. The desperate prayers that I'd muttered, the prayers offered by my friends on my behalf- they'd been heard and answered.

I know prayers are answered. I KNOW THAT. I've had that proven to me over and over and over again. But I also know that sometimes our prayers aren't answered when and how we want them to be. I guess I was bracing myself for this to be one of those instances. But my loving Father in Heaven took pity on my poor harried self and gave me a freebie this time.