The Kiddyland in Harajuku was one of the highlights of our trip to Tokyo a few years back. It was the children’s first trip to Japan, and each of them was allowed to choose a souvenir.
After a day of sightseeing on foot, the children were tired. We walked from the toy store to the Meiji-Jingūmae Station to take the train back to our apartment.
As we organized our belongings into backpacks to prepare for the train ride, Tabitha began to cry. Her newly purchased pink vinyl Hello Kitty wallet was missing. She tearfully said that she had set it on the floor while looking at some dolls, and had forgotten to pick it back up.
Tom sat down on a yellow, metal platform bench with our four other pumpkins. “The kids are worn out,” he said. “You take Tab and I’ll wait here.”
I nodded. The trains ran every few minutes. If we missed one, there would be another.
Taking Tabitha’s hand, we headed back for the store. We rode the escalator together and then exited the station out into the busy sidewalk. To move more quickly, and so as not to lose her, I picked her up and carried her.
“Will they still have my wallet, mom?” she whispered right into my ear. The windy night breeze whipped her curls.
“I don’t know the answer to that question, Tab,” I said skeptically. “I hope they do!”
With hope, we went entered the beautifully bright, loud Japanese toy world.
As smiling lady in a Kiddyland uniform walked right over to us, as if expecting us. She was holding a familiar blue bag. “Hai! Dozo!” she bent down and gently handed the bag to Tabitha, who opened it and looked inside.
“It’s my Hello Kitty wallet! My favorite!” Tab shrieked happily.
I bowed and thanked the lady.
As Tabitha and I ran back to the station, she said, “I just knew it would be there, mom. I prayed and asked God to help me get my wallet!”
Do you have a favorite story of finding something you thought was lost forever? Maybe you found something and helped it find its way back to its owner. I want to hear about it!
Please share your story in the comments of this post to be eligible to win these eight, really cute Hello Kitty flags (approx. 12″ x 18″ ), a red tote just the right size to store the flags, and three sets of Hello Kitty chopsticks!
The flags say “Open”, “Yakisoba”, “Takoyaki” (one of my favorite “junk foods” – see the little red octopus peeking around HK’s hat?), “Ramen”, “Bath Room”, “Closed”, “Thank You Always,” and “Udon”.
From the list of comments (and yes, you have to leave a pertinent comment in order to qualify!) my children will draw the winning name.
My hope is that this giveaway will inspire others to be honest and to do the right thing when something that doesn’t belong to us is found. I would to hear some great stories to pass on to my children — who have a bad habit of first saying, “Finder’s keepers, losers weepers!” … but are always sad when someone says that to them!
BONUS: If you mention this giveaway in your blog (send me a “proof†link) or Tweet (via @mrsalbrecht), you will get ONE extra entry. (C’mon! I know some of you get a little carried away with this stuff and I can’t keep track of THAT many tiny pieces of paper!!) PLEASE do me a small favor and post a “proof link†or copy of Tweet so I’m sure to not to miss your extra-entry qualification. (Thanks!)
Please leave your comment by 9PM EST, Friday, November 30th.
The winner will need to provide their mother’s maiden name, social security number, and a valid US credit card number + three digit secret code. JUST KIDDING! I will, however, need their name and mailing address which will be kept strictly confidential.
If they’re agreeable, I’d like to interview the winner and feature them in a future post. I would consider including links in the post to the winner’s blog, favorite cause, home business, etc.
Winning contestants may not enter my subsequent monthly giveaway contests for a year following their win. In other words, if you win in November, 2009, you cannot enter again until November, 2010.
Last summer I took my favorite pair of shoes with me while I was teaching is Japan. When I returned home and began to unpack I discovered that I had only half of my favorite pair of shoes. I was a little upset because I thought I had taken one out to make room for all the gifts I was bringing back. I just had assumed I had left it in my room and it was gone forever (because I wasn’t going to call the school and have them mail one shoe to me…although I thought about it many times!) So anyways, about 3 months later my mother called me and told me she found my shoe under one of the beds at her house…apparently while getting some gifts out of my suitcase I knocked my one shoe out and it fell under the bed.
On the other side of things I was dining out with my friends the other night and a woman and her son where eating near us, when they left the restaurant her son left his jacket. So I jumped up and took it out to their car before they left. One of my friends asked, “Doing the Christian thing?” I responded, “Someone has to!” So, I’ve already been inspired to do the right thing, but I guess that just comes with the territory :)
Ok sorry for the worlds longest comment! I really enjoy reading your blog and twitter posts!
@higgins82 RT: @mrsalbrecht: Finders Keepers November Giveaway : 8 Hello Kitty Flags, 3 Sets of HK Chopsticks, and a Red HK Tote http://bit.ly/1Z61Vr
After reading your story my mind immediately took me back in time to August ’93. I was in high school and on a bus trip with my church. We were going to World Youth Day in Denver from Minnesota. Over 500,000 people gathered for WYD, the Pope was going to be there. It was a wonderful experience and many great memories. My mom has always been an overprotective parent. Worried about me among so many people she gave me a lot of “just in case money”. (Back in time before cell phones were common) We were at a gathering at The Mile High Stadium. Somehow, I lost my purse with my $300! I was frantic and thought for sure it was gone forever. But lo and behold, there was a group of people looking for me-since I had something with my name on it, not even a picture ID. Nothing was missing. I was very surprised and happy, but should have known. I was among thousands of people gathered with great Faith. :)
I’m what you might call a “loser” – I’m constantly losing things. In fact I’ve tried to stem the tide a bit by becoming super organized but I still end up losing things. Already this fall I have lost my gaijin card (left it at the luggage delivery counter and was able to have it mailed back to me) and my ketai (left it on a JR train and luckily someone picked it up and turned it in.) Just this week I lost my body parts lesson and had to teach without flash cards (they were not in their usual place but buried on my desk.)
But the best story isn’t about me losing something but my sister. She was at the beach (a 13 hour drive from Ohio) with our church youth group and lost her class ring. She knew she had lost it but she wasn’t sure when or where. It could have been somewhere in our house for all we knew. Months later a woman with a metal detector found it in the sand and with some investigation tracked down my sister several states away and called with the good news. She said she would drop the ring in the mail as soon as she had shown it off to her metal detecting club first.
Back in 1996 I was a single missionary in Russia (altho, unbeknownst to me, my husband-to-be was on my team). I taught the Bible to my translator’s 12-yo son S., and we had just received “Experiencing God” in Russian. We were looking at the portion which talked about God speaking to us and answering our prayer, and I had gone with them to their dacha for the weekend. On our way back into town, we stopped at a slow, murky river for some fishing. S. was swimming with his 18-yo brother’s flippers on, which were huge, and one of them fell off his foot! We couldn’t see anything in the water, but S. prayed that if God was there, He would help him find his brother’s flipper. In less than two minutes he had it in his hand! It was the most enormous faith-builder and a precious moment of God illustrating His wonderful truths to His beloved children!
Hi. I came here from THL (JUst Me is my name on The Lounge.)
I have 2 stories to share. The first I feel a bit awkward about because I don’t want it to come across as a “See what I did?” story. I’m not bragging; my treasure is in heaven. I am sharing the story to provide a suggestion on how to handle finding something of value that may not otherwise make it back to its original owner. ‘Nough said, let’s get on with the story.
Years ago, my then-fiance (now husband) and I were registered for gifts at a particular store. On our way out of the store, we found a piece of paper currency (single bill of a large amount) in the parking lot. Rather than take it back in and hand it to someone who may pocket it, I gave them my business card instead. I knew that it was a large enough amount of money that someone would likely retrace their steps in attempt to find it. So, I told the employee that I had found something of value that I was not going to turn in. However, if someone comes back looking for something they lost, please give them my phone number. Upon accurate description of the item, I would gladly make arrangements to return it. Sure enough, the phone call came the very next day and it was accurately described. The gentleman came to my place of employment to retrieve it. It was a safe way to handle it for each of us and it pretty well ensured honesty.
My next story is more light-hearted. When I was 5, I played with a blue rubber ball, much like a raquetball. It rolled into a bush and I followed, but never found it there. I was more confused than sad, but I did like playing with it. We soon moved. Long after being unpacked and settled in my home in another state, the ball turned up in my bedroom. Add confusion of the mystery ball. Without publiching every move I made as a child, let’s just simply say that it has turned up in various places over the years. Most recently, it was in a bucket of stuff in my van, where we keep misc things for the kids. I have no idea how this ball still keeps appearing, but we can never find it when we look for it – it just pops up when we aren’t looking. Weird, but funny. We always exchange a look and a laugh when it turns up.
I thought I had lost my camera. I was back at my alma mater, to see some friends graduate. Somehow, in the crowd, I guess I set down my camera and forgot about it. I didn’t realize I had lost it until I got home. I figured it was gone for good. Then a few months later, I’m off to grad school and my parents get a phone call. Someone from the college asking if any of us happened to attend the commencement ceremonies. My parents told them yes, and asked if anyone happened to have lost a camera. The gal who worked in the financial aid office found the camera and developed the film. They went and tracked every person who was in the pictures who had attended the college and called each one of them until they found the camera’s owner- me! I was amazed that someone took all that time and effort to trace the owner of the lost camera and so happy to have gotten it back along with the pictures of me and my friends.
BTW, it looks like the comment count is off — it’s including the pingbacks, which are hidden.
Excellent stories! Thank you for sharing them! The kids and I are enjoying reading about your lost and found items :)
I thought I lost a box of memories that I had saved. It contained old pictures of friends and awards that I have gotten through my school years. I have cherished this box and looked at it from time to time over the years. Now that I have children I started another box of items from our life together as a family. I was in the basement on day not so long ago and found my box of treasures and was so excited to look back at some of the items that had such meaning. It was nice to see the memories again!
When I turned 6 my mom and dad had been reading “A Little Princess” by Frances H. Burnett to me as a bedtime story. I loved how Sara Crewe had been given a special doll by her Papa. So for my birthday my mom took me all by myself on a special shopping trip through many shops in Cairo, Egypt where we were living. I knew that I would know the doll when I saw her – the one that I would love especially well, and would be special to me. Well, I saw her! Up on the shelf, blonde and blue eyed with a floral dress – made of special plasticine she was the perfect playmate for imaginary parties and make-believe. I named her Estelle, and I loved her so much! She came with me when we moved again, and although I couldn’t ever understand how her hair could get so messy, we had many wonderful times together. The time after that move we left Riyadh for the US and she got packed in a box with other toys – when we got back to the States I looked and looked for her, and she wasn’t there. We had lost the entire box. I was SO sad! I prayed that she was somewhere safe (maybe that some other girl would love her and take care of her, hopefully even better than I had!) When we moved again I went to a store to buy (this time, with my own money, because I was almost 9) another doll to take care of. I found one approximately the same size and shape, and also she could almost be mistaken for an American Girl Doll, which were popular at the time. But she still wasn’t Estelle.
One day we went to visit my Grandmother and Great Aunt in Jacksonville, FL. While we were there my Grandmother mentioned that she had some boxes in the bungalow in my Aunt’s backyard, which my dad was helping her clean out. He brought the large moving boxes into her kitchen’s dining area, and we began to unpack them. I was around 10 years old at this time! It seems that these boxes got redirected to our permanent address (my grandparent’s) back when we returned to the US – and Lo and Behold, nestled inside the box in 90 degree humidity was Estelle – her hair still mussed from my six-year old attempt at styling! I was so moved – I was more than excited – I was amazed – and I was thankful to a heavenly Father who knows how much those little things in life can mean to us.
I still have Estelle – safely nestled away in a box again, this time at my parent’s house in Pennsylvania. She’s a doll who has seen the world, and perhaps, one day be loved by another little girl who can take her on more adventures in make-believe… :)
Oh my….a few years ago I went back home to NC from here in IL. We were going through things, tossing most of them, that were at my grandparents house. They raised me so ALL of my child hood things were still there being stored. We just happened to check a very small opening in the ceiling up above the kitchen counter. No one had ever seen my grandma, who passed in 1998, stick anything in there so we figured it would be empty. BUT much to everyones surprise there was a small box full of my baby clothes, baby toys, my first doll etc. I was so delighted as no one else had anything from when I was a baby! I now have these things put away with all of my 4 kids “first” items :)
For years we had been moved around the world by the Military and each move I packed one box of Baby clothes; you know all your favorite outfits that someday you want your grandchildren to wear. My Husband always said they were the most traveled of clothed. Then Hurricane Andrew happened to our home. Everything was lost.
Well, Our first granddaughter was due to arrive in a few months and of all the “things” my heart missed, those baby clothes were the hardest to relinquish to God knowing He knows best. I tried going to Thrift shops and finding things that were LIKE what they had had but it wasn’t the same.
One day, after my daughter and I went on our Thrift store explore, we returned to our Apt in Colorado Springs to a box in front of our door. I recognized the handwriting on the outside of the box and the places it had traveled, Italy, DC, New Hampshire, Florida and now here it was in Colorado.
A note inside it said it had turned up in their home following the hurricane and they didn’t know what to do with it so they took it to the newly reopened Base in Homestead in hopes they could find us. It had been three years since the Hurricane.
As we opened the box tears flowed in both our eyes for there inside the box were my treasured baby clothes ready and waiting for our granddaughter to wear. The Lord brought it to our doorstep at just the right time.
Because of Jesus, Bobbie
This is just for your daughter…I have a green apple Hello Kitty Day timer that I would hunt everywhere for if I lost it too. I understand your concerns and so glad the Lord answered Your prayer and had it waiting for you. ( I also have a Hello Kitty Email address :o) There is something very special about Hello Kitty isn’t there? I am so glad you found your wallet!
Sarah Joy, Thanks for this idea, I have loved reading the stories.
Because of Jesus, Bobbie
We are always looking for opportunities to show our children that honesty is the best policy.
One day we went shopping at a WinCo, as we pulled out of our parking spot, I noticed a wallet on the ground, that was under our car. I got out, and pick up the wallet, looking through it, and all I found was a social security card and an ATM card. I took it into the store, and gave it to customer service. I hoped that the owner would check there and find his property.
A month later, while reading the local paper, we came across a Thank-you, written in the comments section. Judging by the date and time, we realized that the Thank you was for us, for turning in the wallet.
Although, we didn’t think a thing of it after placing the wallet with customer service, it was so sweet that that young man took the time to call the paper to thank us.
Great Story! My girls love all things about Japan and have never been. We have hosted two summers a 12 year old Japanese student, and my 10 and 11 year old girls just love all things Japanese. We went to Epcot in May in Florida, and the Japanese store was our favorite stop! They eat with chopsticks often. In fact, we just got a dog (first one for the kids), and they named her Nikko (sunshine in Japanese). I don’t have an honesty story to share, but I enjoyed your story and would love to win this package for my girls… Thank you.
We learn things about Japan all the time because this is where my son wants to be a missionary. Of course, Hello Kitty is one of my girls favorite (7 & 4 yrs) because it was my favorite growing up too! My lost story is about the girls best friend from church who lost his toy this summer while playing. It was green and, of course, lost in his “green” grass front yard. Ben looked everywhere and then finally asked for help. When he was asked if he prayed, he said “of course, I did that first” but he still couldn’t find it. He dad explained to him that sometimes the answer to our prayers isn’t the answer we want and we may not find it. Ben was determined and just kept looking. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, he found it! Not that it was an important toy; but if God can answer a prayer that we would consider “cute” or “trivial”, I would think he would answer others if we would just have the “faith of a child”! :)
If we would happened to be drawn to win something, we will share this with Ben as he allowed my girls to share his story with you!……God Bless!
I don’t have any specific stories. If I find something, I turn it in immediately. Oh, I did find a very overstuffed wallet one time in a shopping cart in grocery store parking lot. It had ID and I took it into the store for them to call the owner.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I have lost a lot of things (and people) over the years, but one sticks in my mind. I had been going to a church and was getting ready to move on. I had a big purse that was stuffed with stuff.. (for a young teen it was important) My last day at the church I left that purse somewhere I still don’t know where it was left. TWO YEARS later I went back to that same church and they handed me that same purse telling me that they knew that I would eventually come back for it. Makeup, and everything else was still in it. Got a surprise when I looked at my wallet and found that I actually had a $20 in it. I had been trying to get a job at the time so that I could get Christmas presents. I still can’t believe to this day that they kept that huge purse for 2 whole years waiting for me to come back.
Recently, our kids found a wallet in our backyard. They remembered that an elderly lady who was visiting next-door had come over to chat earlier in the day. Both of the kids promptly went next-door to check and see if it belonged to either of the ladies. The lady was so happy to get her wallet back and she rewarded them with a couple dollars.
In the more distant past, when my husband and I were youth sponsors, we took a group of kids to Colorado. On the way we stopped in western Kansas at some rock bluffs so the teens could climb on them. Once we arrived at camp we discovered that one child had left his bag (including clothes) in Ks. We checked on our return trip to see if the bag happened to still be there and were shocked to find it 5 days later in the same spot! What an answer to prayer!
This is not an Earth-shattering tale but my lost and found story is sort of embarrassing and humbling! I went to Target to pick up a couple of items while I was pregnant with my twin daughters this summer. When I got home I realized that two bottles of soap I had purchased were nowhere to be found in my bags. The next day I went back to the store to have them check to see if the cashier had placed them at teh service counter for me. They were not there. So instead the clerk refunded my money and I then purchased two new bottles of soap. Upon returning home from my shopping trip I was taking items out of the back seat of my car and noticed something under my seat and found the original two bottles of soap! Being so big and uncomforable during my pregnancy I hadn’t bent down to look under the seats and didn’t really think to look there. They had rolled out of the bag! So the day after that I returned the two bottles of soap to the store explaining what had happened. The girls at the service counter were a bit surprised and thanked me for being honest. Personally I felt more than a bit silly over the whole thing but THREE trips to the store later I finally had soap for my bathroom! And now that I’ve had the babies, I can bend again!
My mom and sister were at a lake playing on the shoreline and one of them dug up a class ring. I told Mom to go to the public library and look at photo albums from the class and look for people with the same initials and call the school.
A woman called my mom later and said her daughter had lost the ring while at the lake two years ago and figured she would never see it again.
The reason I feel like this story includes me is that my mom was just going to keep it, figuring she would never find the owner. I can’t imagine why you would want to keep someone else’s classring when you obviously had not gone to that school AND it has the person’s initial’s carved into it!
Working on the drawing now :D !
Andrew (@higgins82 ) Gets an extra entry for his RT: @mrsalbrecht: Finders Keepers November Giveaway : 8 Hello Kitty Flags, 3 Sets of HK Chopsticks, and a Red HK Tote http://bit.ly/1Z61Vr
Note: Only the entrants who shared stories are receiving an entry. Gotta play by the rules!
My husband lost my wedding band and another ring several months before we got married. He was remodeling the house we were going to live in & figured he just misplaced them. Several months after we were married, I found the rings. We had them all welded together so that I could wear them as one ring. They were beautiful–my engagement ring, wedding band & a ring he bought for me while we were in Russia serving as missionaries (I, long-term; he, short-term). While pregnant with our first son, I lost that special ring along with a silver band I purchased in Russia which is embossed with a blessing in Russian. We have never found those rings, but my husband did secretly contact a friend who is still a missionary in Russia & she was able to purchase another silver band for me like the one I lost. I now wear that ring along with a wedding band we bought at a pawn shop for $13! Like others have said, even when you pray for God to help you find something, sometimes God gives you an answer you may not like–“no”. That’s okay. I’ve learned that our material possessions are not our real treasures anyway!