Busted

So last night at about 11:15pm, Neil and I were laying in bed.  I was just getting warmed up in my daily "let me talk you to sleep" ritual.  Or I was finishing it off.  I don't really remember actually.  But we were somewhere in the middle of that nightly routine when suddenly we heard a huge bang on our front door.  We both leaped out of bed, he headed down the staircase while I ran to look out our window for a car in our driveway.  There was none.  At this point we began to get suspicious.  Because, quite frankly, Becca is in that whole stage of life where her friends do random things at our house in many hours of the night.  "Ding Dong Ditch" is a frequent occurrence.

So anyway, while I was staring out the window, Neil called upstairs to me that there is a HUGE box on the front porch.  I went in to Becca's room where she was laying on her bed listening to her I Pod and oblivious to the drama going on.  She and I snuck down the stairs with Neil and watched out the window for any sign of a person hiding in the bushes.  The porch light was still off so we just watched and waited.  And waited.  We discussed what to do.  Surely this is a practical joke.  But what did it mean?  So, after about 5 minutes, we see one of Becca's friends come lurking up to the front of the house, ready to knock again.  We know his whole family from our church-- they are awesome people :).  I ran upstairs with Bee cause, let's face it, I was not dressed properly to be seen by anyone in public.  Neil continued to hide until he got to the porch.  At that point he flipped on the light, put his face up to the window, and watched the look of terror on that boy's face. 

As the light flipped on Neil stepped outside and looked at the box in the light.  The boy ran away.  The box?  Filled with a brand new LAWN MOWER.  We had just busted a secret good Samaritan (and his parents who were waiting in the vehicle down the street!) who knew that along with our AC problems last week, that our lawn mower had up and gone to lawn mower heaven.

What amazing friends.  I am not sharing their names to honor the fact that they were trying to surprise us in an anonymous way . . . but wow, I am so blown away by their generosity and thoughtfulness.  I am humbled and grateful.  And you know what?  I am praying that someday we will have the opportunity to surprise someone else like we were surprised last night.  Minus getting busted, of course. ;)