Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Mysteries...

We have a couple mysteries going on in our house right now. Neither one related to each other, but I thought I would share.

First, the mystery of the missing knife.

Not just any old knife, not a little butter knife. No, the biggest knife we have. Missing from it's place in our knife block. We hardly ever use it...it is no where else in the kitchen...where the heck would it be? And yes, we have grilled the children, their clean. So if anyone sees a missing Henkel knife in your drawer...it could be ours.


Second, the mystery of the $50.

On Saturday when my parents were here, Mom took the kids to walmart to get a birthday present for their cousin Kael. They had strict instructions to stay near...and not ask for toys for themselves. (not sure how the 2nd instruction went). However, the first went well. Emery did ask if she could go about 5 feet away on the next aisle (still in vision of grandma) to look at some dolls. In that short amount of time, a man walked up to her, and slipped her a $50 bill, told her Merry Christmas and then put his finger to his mouth and said shh.... Then quietly walked away. Emery waited until he was away and went to show grandma. They could not find the man to return the money.
A very strange and frightening yet interesting experience. I find it very sad that our first reaction is fear, but it is a legitimate reaction in this day and age. We have gone round and round on what this man's intentions were. Were they evil, or purely meant to bless. Emery was looking rather like a homeless child that morning, maybe he thought she needed some help.
We have also gone round and round on what we should do. Do we contact walmart or the police? If we did and it was just a sweet man trying to bless someone would he get in trouble? If we didn't and it was not a sweet man, are we letting a pedophile go? Man, I watch too many crime dramas.
What I am really praying is that we hear more stories of this around town and find out it is just a nice man helping us poor folk out ;).

By the way, Emery chose to use the money to buy all the gifts for Operation Christmas Child. Sweet girl.

18 comments:

Tanya said...

WHOA!! Two CRAZY stories there Shan!
I am going with a random act of kindness with the 50 bucks. But I completely understand the creepy nature of the act and why you would be in the questioning mode....but from what you said he was harmless.
What a sweet girl to use it for the cause she chose....thats awesome....that money is going full circle!

Melissa said...

No knife here. Well, your money story is interesting. Why couldn't he just give it to grandma? It is hard to say these days maybe he really wanted to help.

Anonymous said...

Interesting, I too had a Henkel knife go missing while Mom was here in February, did you check her purse???

As far as the money. I'm thinking a "normal" person would give the money directly to an adult so as not to draw negative attention. I think having your hackles up is a good thing.

Michelle

Anonymous said...

I did not take anybody's knives!!!
It wouldn't hurt to call WalMart and ask if they have had reports of money being given to people while they were in the store on Sat. and see what they say. Being's nothing beyond that happened I don't think they would make a big deal out of it but they may want to be aware of what is going on.
Love, Mom (not a thief)

Anonymous said...

Laughing at Michelle's and your moms comment!
And the banner made me smile!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes and very proud of miss Emry!

Lindsay said...

Hmmm... it's almost "movie" material... a knife, random money ... and a happy ending thanks to Emery!

Jamie said...

Way to go Emery!! A little frightening and kinda creepy, but I'm hopeful that underneath it all, this was a very altruistic man who was simply "paying it forward". Kudos to you and Mike for raising such a socially-conscious kiddo, too! :)

Michelle said...

Totally giggling. I love your sister and mom... your sense of humor comes naturally!

I bet the money thing is just a sweet gesture... and it is a good thing that Judah didn't end up coming over on Monday... you might think he swipped the knife. ;)

Hope you are feeling better tonight.

Sweet Blessings said...

Thanks for sharing the $50 story...I was sooooo wondering about it....sorry to hear about the missing knife too..I'll be praying God brings peace to your heart about both mysteries...!!! What AWESOME parents you are...that Emery has learned the gift of giving already!!! Sweet blessings!

Katie said...

Oh man, I have a weird feeling about that $50 thing. I'm handcuffing my kids to my cart from now on...

Love the banner!

Molly said...

The story of the $50 gave me chills - 90% good chills, 10% skeptical chills! How cool would it be if his intent was truly just to make someone's day? Wow.

Kimberly said...

Hmmn, both stories are a little odd. I'm sure the knife will show up somewhere, the garage maybe???? I don't know. The $50 story does sorta creep me out too. . .

Kristie said...

hmmm...the knife is a little weird...have you made scotch-a-roos lately?? Maybe it's still in the pan:)

The $50 seems a little odd but whatever the intention was it was turned into a blessing for some very special children somewhere around the world!!

Didn't a man give Trey some money the other day?? Maybe it was the same man?? Ang said he seemed nice...Although I think it was only a dollar...

Anonymous said...

My only thought is that if it was just some nice man, why wouldn't he have taken a second to ask the adult that she was with if it was OK, adn why tell her shhhh... and where did he slip off to so quickly? Did you ever call wal-mart to find out if there was any other strange happenings??? I am wondering about this.

Kailin said...

Wow! THe $50 thing is a little odd, but hopefully just someone being nice...really, what one of us would have allowed our child to accept the money had we actually been asked? Love your thoughts on this one...and I love how Emery used her gift!

Amanda said...

Yeah, I'm thinking the $50 was probably intended well, but still a little scary how vulnerable our kids can be even 5 feet away from us!

Good for Emery on such a grown-up choice of how to spend it!

Michelle said...

Hello, friend, you have been honored on my blog. :)

http://michelleblitz.blogspot.com/2008/11/honest-weblog.html