This blessing in disguise is actually from when we were on vacation. Thus the sand:

We did a lot of bike riding while on vacation. Some friends gave us a bike trailer for Anna Grace & Nate to ride in and they loved it. They even slept in it during some of our long rides.

One fateful evening we were riding our bikes on the beach. After we finished riding, behold – only 1 pink croc was found. Anna Grace was so sad. As you can imagine, her Mommy was not super happy about it either.

The next day we went shoe shopping on our way to Savannah. We had a lunch appointment at The Lady & Sons restaurant, so we left with plenty of time to spare for shoe shopping and traffic problems.

I found a Payless Shoestore via Google maps and we headed out. Only problem…there was no Payless at the “Destination on the right” spot. #fail

No problem though, because there was a mall nearby. The only store that carried shoes was Dillards. And they didn’t have any shoes that small. #2ndfail

Next stop: Marshall’s. But they only carried infant’s shoes and youth/adult shoes. #3rdfail

If I can interrupt the story flow – just remember that Anna Grace wasn’t wearing shoes, so I was carrying her throughout the stores looking all over for size 5 shoes. And all this stopping&going was totally interrupting Nate’s normal nap time, so he was wailing his head off.

All this while trying to make a lunch appointment at a place that was 45 minutes away. (p.s. this was also the same trip where this happened.)

We finally decided to just drive and try to find someplace on the way since we were running out of time.

Let’s be honest now. Would you like to know my mood at this point in time?

Frustrated. Super frustrated. At myself for putting AG’s shoes on when she really didn’t even need them on in the first place, at the stores and associates for being incompetent, at Nate for being super duper fussy. I know that God is always in control. And that even in this little shoe-annoyance He was in control. Despite my bad mood, it occurred to me that maybe all these trips were so I could talk to people about Jesus.

Fast forward 5-10 minutes: Walmart is in sight.

I tell ya, Walmart has never looked so good. I went in, found a pair of shoes {& some E.L. Fudge cookies to make up for the stress} & headed to check out. After making some small talk with my cashier, I told her I had some good news about Jesus & gave her a Bible tract.

She had been very friendly to me & Anna Grace, but when I mentioned “Jesus,” she shut down and her face hardened. So I just thanked her, left, and let her scan other customers’ items.

It isn’t my job to change hearts. It’s my job to faithfully tell people about Jesus so HE can work in hearts.

So, is that the reason Anna Grace lost her croc? So I could talk to my cashier about Jesus?

Probably not. But I don’t have to worry about the reason. I just need to obey.

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