Our Missing Key or How Good He Is to Give Us Neighbors Who Love Us.

Yesterday morning Parker and I were locked out of our house. It wouldn't have happened had I not been sick the day before. Normally whenever I leave the house, even just to take Parker outside to play, I either double check to make sure I haven't automatically locked the front door knob, or I take my keys and cell phone with me. But not yesterday.

Parker was playing in the back, and I started scoping out my roofline to see what sort of roof I have. Michael's dad and I had had a discussion about this over the weekend, and I had been surprised at how difficult it was for me to remember what the roof looked like, having missed out on that portion of our home inspection. Why, oh why, did I not follow the home inspector onto the roof, or anywhere else for that matter?

I left Parker in our fenced-in back yard for a moment while I wandered around to the front of the house. While I did discover that we have a partial hip-roof, which I had previously vehemently denied, I also discovered that there was no way for us to get back into the house. Both front and back doors were locked, and we still had not gotten around to hiding a spare key anywhere on the premises.

Bad, bad luck, and me sick. Whine, complain.

First things first. We scoped out the surrounding neighborhood. No cars at Teresa's house. One car at Gavin and Amy's. Parker and I both had been ill, so I wasn't about to knock on my elderly neighbor's door. It was 9:15 in the morning, so I suspected the students across the street might not be awake. We tried the house across the street first. No answer.

We keep our stroller on the front porch these days for easy access. Fortunately for me. Unfortunately for me, not only was I wearing the wrong shoes for walking, but I was also wearing yesterday's clothes and had not yet brushed my teeth. Parker had been quite anxious to get out that morning.

I put Parker in the stroller, and we walked to the opposite end of the neighborhood. Thank you Jesus, Danny was home, and he had slept late that morning, and he had items to return to a shop right near Michael's office (plus he and Mary keep extra brand new toothbrushes at their home for when the grandchildren visit). The timing of all this was impeccable. Parker and I played in our neighbor's back yard, while he went across town to pick up our spare key.

And I got an enforced and impromptu walk that morning that did nothing to the detriment of my health. And Parker and I hopefully avoided infecting others.

All things (such very simple things) certainly worked together to our good yesterday morning.