A couple weeks ago when the mail came we received a wonderful surprise.
A very sweet couple had sent us a $50 giftcard to Outback. Huge blessing. We were SO thrilled because just that morning we were talking about wanting to go out and do something special together.
We made all our plans that afternoon around the dinner location: Outback Steakhouse. Throughout our afternoon of Christmas shopping we kept saying, "I can't believe we get to be treated to Outback tonight!!" After an *exhausting* afternoon of shopping we finally arrive at Outback. As we are walking into the restaurant Brian asks me if I have the gift card on me and I assure him that I do. I had been glancing at it most of the day with excitement! We sit down and order our Dr. Peppers and I decide to pull the glourious gift card out for us to look at again. It wasn't there this time. I dug through my purse as my heart was breaking. Where on earth did our gift card go? I tearfully looked at Brian and said, "Our giftcard GONE!". He takes my purse and looks for himself (usually he finds what I have assumed is lost and gone forever). Not this time. Brian runs to the car to see if it's in there. I tell our waitress the scenario that is going down. She doesn't care...but when Brian returns with a super sad look on his face I tell her that we need to go and find the lost gift card(I assure her we will be back). That means retrace every step we took during our Christmas shopping "outing" is my word for it "nightmare" is Brian's word for it. We get in the car, I cry really hard...mostly because I thought we were about to have a SWEET dinner and get to have our special date. Instead, we are both bummed and somewhat hopeless about finding our beloved giftcard. We regroup and map out a plan:
Brooke will go to Target(every aisle!)
Brooke will then run across the parking lot
to Macys and look in every section we were in.
(which I think was every section but childrens and furniture)
Brian will go to Barnes and Noble and JCP and look through all the parking lots.
We break and go to our seperate destinations. We looked in EVERY little spot. I even had the Target customer service guy page every person on the floor about our lost giftcard. He wasn't happy to do it... but I was pretty happy to hear on the speakers, "Attention Target guests and Employees has anyone seen an Outback giftcard laying on the floor?" Sadly, nothing.
Run to Macys. nothing.
call Brian. He has found nothing.
I retrace his steps in B & N becauseI thought maybe it would be there. nothing. An Hour and a half has gone by at this point.
I leave B & N with a deep sadness. I know it's strange because it's just a giftcard. But we were SO pumped about this giftcard. I had been praying too during this whole thing that some how some way we would find it, that God would just guide our steps. But then again who wouldn't take a $50 giftcard that they found?
by this point Brian's phone is dead. He is somewhere in JCP looking. I decide to wait for him outside- it wasn't too cold and there were pretty Christmas decorations out and a Huge Christmas tree. I walk around it and listen to the music that's playing for all the people walking by. And as the music starts to build(i'm not even kidding about the music building)
I see in the blessed distance our giftcard. Can you even believe it? I take off skipping and grab it and stare at it in disbelief. I think I even pumped the air with my fist. I immediately take off RUNNNNING to JCP with the biggest smile on my face. I ran through about 17 different sections before spotting Brian. There were probably 50 Christmas shoppers between me and Bri but I yelled. "BRIAN, LOOOOOOOK!" I threw the giftcard in the air....everyone looking at us. Brian just starts shaking his head and meets me in the mens shoes dept. I fill him in on all that had just happened. We celebrated and thanked God for the giftcard that was once lost but was now found! It was a good moment.
I'm thankful that God cares about the little things in our lives- He will even direct us back to lost giftcards.
We returned to Outback and our waitress and had a great date night!
