Waiting!

It was hard to hand it over.

The little girl looked down at her most favorite stuffed animal.  It was a beanie-animal cat, the color of buckskin. "Olly" had blue stitching eyes, a tail with a white tip, and little rounded feet with big toes.  It was her favorite kitten, and well-worn; how many adventures they had seen together.

Car rides-- to the store, to grandma's house, and through the perilous octopus carwash;
To the wild, where the kitten "helped" Tally dig for treasure in flower beds;
To the park, where laid-back Olly watched Tally fly a kite, or lazily rocked in a swing next to Tally's.

Now, this was a trip they couldn't take together.  She looked at her friend tearfully and fearfully.  What if she lost Olly?  What if the place they left him got compromised?  Mom said once they landed in DC, she would be reunited with Olly.

Dare she trust such circumstance?

Her parents were resolute yet gentle, letting her know it would be safest for Olly to not sit with her on the airplane or be carried in her arms through the airport.  Olly could easily get misplaced or lost.  "Wouldn't that just be awful?"  Olly would certainly be safe, though, where her parents were going to put him.

So they said.

Little did Tally know that her parents merely wanted to put Olly into THEIR own luggage cases :)

Tally did hand Olly to her parents that day, and tears were wiped away.  The crying did not last long; perhaps the worry stayed in the back of her mind, but the decision had been made.

She actually had forgotten the situation for a while, such as during lunch after the plane landed.  They ate at a yummy cheeseburger place that had a HUGE playground, and so many colors and animals on the walls!!! She felt like a jungle woman!  It was so fun.  Plus her grandparents met her there, and it was so great to see them!  They went to walk downtown after that, exploring statues and stores.  A few were boring but lots of them were really neat to Tally.

The car pulled into the gravel parking lot of her grandparents' home.  It was night time, and Tally was a happy and sleepy gal.  Her mother tucked Tally into bed, beneath cool, fluffy covers. Her eyes were already closed when Dad walked in holding a bundle in his arms.

Feeling a soft weight on her chest, Tally opened her tired eyes.

There was Olly.

She had forgot!  Oh!  She was ecstatic!  Something had been missing going to sleep, she knew, but Oh!

She rejoiced in having Olly back.

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Sometimes God withholds things from us, or doesn't give us things, for a while because he wants to take care of them better than we can!... until we are ready, because he has something even better planned, or He is preparing that something....  That can be hard to imagine or hard to "sit in." But God?
His plans are the BEST because He loves us so.

What are you waiting for God on?  Take heart.....  He doesn't "misplace luggage" !!!

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  Psalm 27:14