1 john 5:13-15

something awful happened this afternoon.

our day was going so well, too. we went to church and ella had a lovely time in the nursery. the sermon was wonderful. it was on 1 John.

we went out to breakfast with momby, r., j. and h. at sophia's, then ella had a good nap and afterwards h. met up with us for a walk downtown to the town's 375th anniversary celebration where we had ice cream and got ella a balloon. then we went to the winthrop elementary school playground to meet up with j., where he and his brother were going to videotape themselves doing some dunks on the courts...

when j. arrived he put his things down on a bench and came to say hello to elenora. he had brought 3 mini video cassette tapes with him because his brother had borrowed our video camera and j. didn't know if there would be a tape with space on it for them to tape on. he was going to check them all at the courts to see which one had space...

there were about 5 teenage boys at the courts. at some point while j. was sending ella and me off home, these boys decided to swipe all 3 of the video cassette tapes...

tapes with irreplaceable footage of elenora's last 22 months.

i felt like they stole minutes of my daughter's life. it was heartbreaking. i felt like it was footage she would never be able to see of herself. precious footage of ella singing songs. footage of our trip to NC to see her mimi and poppy. and who knows what all else.

brutal.

i wrote out 5 large posters to put up around town, begging for the tapes to be returned. i want no trouble, i said. just please return our tapes.

j. went out to hang them up. he was gone for 1/2 an hour. when he walked back into the house he was holding the 3 mini video cassette tapes.

he'd gone to 3 different establishments around town to hang posters, then decided to go back to the courts just in case there was anything there. there were kids there, and j. walked up and asked if any of them had taken the tapes and one kid said "oh, here they are. i didn't know they were yours."

we're just so relieved.

1 John 5:13-15: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us."