Little Lost Boy

I have felt very sure that my wedding needed to be held in February. Please don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t crazy about the date but I just kept being assured that February was the right month for us. I was so grateful for the extra time that Marc and I were able to grow and the changes that have come into our life because of those changes. But another reason I was so grateful for our wedding being in February was that we were able to play a small part in the lives of a family who had lost their little boy.

As we decorated the church on Thursday, a lady and a little boy wandered into the building. I didn’t think too much about it as others had been in and out of the church all night. My Mom and I had been decorating the arch when they lady and the little boy were directed to come and talk to us. I signaled to my Mom that someone wanted to talk to her, I figured that they must know my Mom and was a little surprised to find out that neither one did. What had happened was this little boy had wandered away from home and this lady and picked him up and was trying to help him find his way back. They had wandered into the church when the little boy had recognized it. They were then directed towards us so that we could use our cell phones to look up people’s phone number or to try and find phone numbers. He told us his name and I knew that I had heard it before but couldn’t place it. After a little while we were able to correctly identify his family and we realized that we had known his family for quite awhile. I was able to talk to him about his Aunt that is living in Hawaii at the moment and that seemed to relax him a little bit to know that we knew his family. From there we were able to call other members in the ward to try and find a phone number for this family. The little boy again lit up as we were able to come up with names of families that he knew from church. After a while the little boy’s family was contacted. It was such a sweet scene to see his Mother come in and cling to her little boy as she wept. I was so grateful to have been a tiny part in returning that little boy back to his family.

There were so many miracles that allowed that little boy to be returned. The first one was that the little boy was found by an incredibly caring lady and that she took the time to try to find his family. She wanted that little boy to be found by his family. She was able to have the patience as she tried to follow directions from a lost little boy as he desperately tried to find his way back home. She was prompted to point out a brown church building not far from the highway. It wasn’t until she pointed out the LDS chapel that the little boy was able to recognize it as the one where he attended church. Since she wasn’t LDS herself, this was a little bit of a miracle because there are multiple churches in the area that are closer to the road than that church is. Another miracle was that we were decorating the cultural hall for my reception and that we hadn’t locked ourselves into the building. This allowed for these two people to wander into the building to get help. Another miracle was that we were able to recognize the little boy and the family that he belonged to. My Mom was able to recognize him from dropping my little brother off at scouts. The little boy’s Dad is in the scouting program in the other ward and so she has seen the Mom and the little boy’s family at the church. Had either our family or his family not have been active or faithfully serving in their callings, I don’t know if this miracle would have been possible. It was a miracle that we were able to find other members of the wards to help us find the phone numbers we needed and that we had been in the area long enough to know who those individuals were.
I was so grateful to have been a small part in finding this little boy back home. I know that there are angels along our way to help us back to our Heavenly home. I know that like this mother who had lost her little boy that our Father in Heaven also weeps when one of us has lost his way. I know that he wants us to come home again. I know that he has made it possible for our return and that as we follow the steps and use the aides we are given that we will make it back. I was so grateful for the opportunity to help this family in their time of need. That little boy has found his way into many conversations with my family as we have pondered the events and the prayers that were answered that night. It wasn’t just a coincidence that all of this happened but a miracle.