Back on Sunday, January 20th (2019), I had enjoyed a quilting day at my house with my sisters. Louie had spent the weekend at Strawberry Lake with his brother Mike, our nephew Luke, and Titus. Around 5pm, I was in the kitchen and I called Louie to see when he expected to be home and if the guys would be hungry.
My sister Louise had already left when I made that call. (She had her investment club meeting.) Ann and I ate dinner. I put away some bins of fabric, helped Ann pick up her stuff from the guest room, and cut up some more veggies for dinner for the guys. I was also browning some hamburger for the next day's meal.
Around 6pm, Ann left with her dog Zurie and about six bags with her projects.
Around 6:30pm, Louie and Titus were home. I snuggled the dog a little, then went out onto the porch and tied him out. When he came back in, he puked in the entryway. (Long car rides often upset his tummy.) I cleaned that up, dumping the water in the laundry room wash tub. I went out to the garage and hugged Luke, carrying in one load of stuff. I helped put stuff away in the house, got tomato sauce from the laundry room storage, and finished making chili and taco meat for upcoming meals. Then I got my PJs on and rested on the sofa.
Around 8pm, I took a bath, did a crossword puzzle, and got my PJs back on.
Around 9:30pm, I noticed my phone wasn't plugged in the charger, figured it was upstairs, and went to bed anyhow, tired.
The notes I made the next day when I couldn't figure out where my phone was and tried to "retrace my steps" . . .
On Monday morning, I walked around the house, looking for the phone. Louie called it several times as we tried to listen for where it could be. We didn't hear it as we walked through the house, listening. I couldn't remember if I had left the volumes off after church or had turned them back up. I wasn't concerned at this point and was eager to get to work at my new job at RaDon. We looked some more that evening and wondered if it had somehow gotten into Ann's bags and gone home with her.
By Tuesday, I was getting concerned and tried using my tablet to find my phone. It located it, last connected on Monday, at 209 Robert Road. So that seemed to confirm that it was indeed in our house somewhere! I also learned that I could have used the spiffy software at my fingertips to make my phone make noise, even if the volumes were all turned down. Too late! We were confident the battery had drained since it had last been charged Sunday morning. (I love learning new things! The fact that I can use an app on my tablet to locate my phone is solidly in my brain now.)
My searching intensified. I made a list of all the rooms in our house. I worked methodically, starting with garbage cans, recycling, dirty laundry, etc. I didn't cross a room off until I had removed everything from all the drawers and cupboards and checked every possible physical space for my phone. Since I was fairly sure that the sofa was the logical culprit, we searched all the sections thoroughly, even turning the sofa upside down slowly to listen for anything shifting or bumping. We searched and searched! My master list:
On January 30th, I posted this on FaceBook: "I'm on day ten of searching for my phone . . . and I'm extremely hopeful
that today is the day. After looking in all the logical places, then
completely removing everything and searching every square inch of the
rooms I spent the most time in on the evening of 1/20, I will find it in
an illogical place. Right? Subzero outside, fire in the fireplace,
content dog, . . . it's time for me to find my phone! (BTW, if you've
texted or called me in the last ten days, I haven't been ignoring you
intentionally . . . )"
I searched and searched. We turned the sofa upside down again (all three sections). I went through the bins in my sewing room (not just the ones I'd used on Sunday). It was frustrating! I even asked Louise to help check Ann's bags to see if it had somehow gotten into them and the technology didn't know when it had last pinged at 209 Robert Road.
People tried to be helpful. "Have you looked on top of the fridge?" "Yes." "Have you looked under the bed?" "Yes." "You should look IN the fridge / freezer!" "Done that."
Finally, Louie bought me a new phone (my 4th one since our flip phone!) while the battery on his very first smartphone was holding a charge for shorter and shorter times. I felt bad. And frustrated! How could I lose a phone in my own home?!?! My house isn't THAT messy!
We budgeted money to buy a replacement phone for Louie in May. Last week, he said that Republic had a sale and it was time to order a phone for him. I had been praying that the Moto X4 that was lost somewhere in our house would turn up. When my sister Louise asked if we had checked the sofa, I glared at her. "We've thoroughly checked the sofa! We've turned it upside down and checked all the nooks and crannies TWICE!"
I had been praying about this for over three months. On the one hand, it just wasn't that big of a deal (in terms of eternity). On the other hand, I've been trying to be more thrifty since I'm not earning much money. And it seemed silly to buy a brand new phone when we had a perfectly good (and relatively new) phone hanging out in our house somewhere.
When I woke up on Wednesday, May 15th, I had a vivid dream that I found the phone in the sofa. I walked upstairs at 5am and started searching the cushions. "What are you doing?" Louie asked. (I don't usually do ANYTHING until after I've had at least one cup of coffee.) "I had a dream that I found my phone in the sofa. I just thought I'd check."
That evening, I went to church for prayer time. I was the only one there (a different story) and was praying to have a humble heart and to submit my will to God. I've been struggling with trying to be in charge and call the shots lately. I was having a really nice time drawing near to the Lord. My phone pinged with a text and I checked it.
"I found your phone!!! Were you praying that we would?"
"What?!?!?!?! Where? Yes, I've been praying!"
Before going online to buy a new phone, Louie had decided to check the sofa again. He was struck by my odd behavior that morning and the strength of my dream. First he checked the three-seat section, which is where I usually sit. Then he checked the two-seat part. When he turned it over, the phone fell out. He figures it had been wedged somewhere during the first two times we looked there. That's where my dream showed me it was and where I had looked that very morning . . . God is so good!
I called my sister Louise and said "I have a question and a comment. Why did you ask me to check the sofa?" She said she had seen me set the phone down there earlier. "But I USED the phone in the kitchen AFTER you left!" It's like God gave her the vision, too . . . "Louie found the phone!"
So that's the saga of the missing cell phone. Louie has installed a new sim card and activated it. Now he's on his second smart phone and I'm kind of on my third instead of my fourth. :-)
Praise God for answered prayers! (Even the ones that aren't eternally significant!)
