Saving the Shumate

Sadly in my job, one of the things I get to see a lot is bad parenting. We have a lot of parents who come in to use the computer and forget that their children even exist. I help children find their “missing” mommy all the time and even have moms ignore us as we walk around looking for them because their computer time isn’t up yet. It really is such a sad, sad thing. On a side note we do have good parents in our library too.

One day at work I was putting away the new magazines that had just come in. I was walking towards the children’s area and heard a little one having quite the meltdown. I went over to see what was going on and realized that we had a missing mom. This little one was so upset that some other moms were coming over to see if everything was okay or if one of their children had hurt her in any way. I assured everyone that she was just fine and that all would taken care of. This little one also had a sister nearby that was as carefree as could be and this was upsetting the little one because not only was her mom missing but her sister didn’t care! She kept insisting that she needed to see if the car was there. I took her hand and started to walk her to a window that she could look out of. We almost got to the window when the little sister decided she would rather play in the kid’s area then go on our little walk and so she quickly turned around and walked back. The little one again start to freak out and started running after and calling for her little sister. It was at this point that I realized who this little girl was and who the missing mom was as well.

As I had been checking in the magazines I had sworn that I had seen my old Achievement Day leader from my hometown and had confirmed this by finding her two oldest kids in the library. I had only ever known her two oldest children but did know that she had several others. As the little girl was crying out for her little sister she called her a very unique name and the only person I had ever heard of with this name belonged to my Achievement Day leader’s daughter. I ran up to the little one and asked her if she was her daughter and she told me that she was. Luckily at this point I could tell the little one that all was okay and Mom hadn’t left but was out in the car feeding the newborn baby. This calmed the little one down and after getting some coloring pages and showing her the other two children were still in the library she started to relax.

What amazed me about this story was all of the little pieces. If I hadn’t seen the mom walk out with the baby, I wouldn’t have ever been able to place this child. Or if she hadn’t called out to her sister, I wouldn’t have been able to place this child. Or if the Spirit had helped me solve the puzzle and find a way to comfort her, I wouldn’t have been able to place this child. Or if another staff member had found this little girl, they wouldn’t have been able to place this child. This scenario, once again, confirmed to me that our Heavenly Father knows us personally and loves and takes care of us. He was aware of this little child in her time of distress and sent someone to her that could comfort her in her time of need. How grateful I am for that knowledge and for a loving Heavenly Father. I was so grateful that I could be in the right place at the right time and was able to be an instrument in his hands.