Stolen. Robbed. Heartbroken.

My 2nd born daughter has such a sweet heart.

She has a laugh that is contagious and loves to give hugs.

She loves to carry her purse everywhere she goes.  When we recently went  on vacation I thought nothing of it when she had her wallet out.  I didn’t even bother to ask her if she brought some extra money from her savings jar.

We had visited one of my favorite stores in Florence, Kentucky – Half Price Books.  I saw her with her wallet in the store.

After a couple of hours in the store – when we were leaving…she said she couldn’t find her wallet.

I asked her how much was in it.  She was in tears.

ALL her savings.

She had saved for years.  She had approximately $100.00 in her wallet.  This was HUGE for our little 8 year old.  We don’t give an allowance.  She had earned every penny.

Now I felt like crying.

We asked the workers.  One was very helpful – he walked the store.  The manager not so much.  They looked for about 5 minutes but hardly even looked at us when we were talking.

It turns out they had security cameras but never offered to look until the next day when I called them and ASKED.

I had asked for the Corporate number – I was so upset about the apathy.  I called corporate – they did apologize for the lack of caring from the manager.  But, by that time – it was really too late to do anything… so they said.

I thought to myself – if this had been an adult’s wallet – the police would have been called.  The manager would have at least looked at the lady’s face when he spoke to her.  And she would have been consoled – hopefully.

My daughter had to learn a hard lesson.  She shouldn’t have been carrying that much cash.  We later found out her younger brother had put that money in her wallet.  She didn’t know it was all her savings.  Another heartbreak.

My soapbox:  (Just ignore…if you want.)

It saddens me when adults treat kids like they are nothing and thinking they can justify it by saying “this is the real world.”

They will get the “real world” soon enough.  It comes!  AND comes fast!

Instead of breaking a kid’s heart – why can’t they just grant a wish once in awhile?  What would it hurt?  Really?  Life is sooo short!

I’m not talking about spoiling a child or about giving in and never teach a lesson.  But, when a child wants to play a game – why not play along?  Even if it does involve being silly.  You might just give him the inspiration to become something you could never be or just a little hope to succeed in life.

Who doesn’t want to be someone’s hero instead of “The Old Grouch?”

Things that could have been handled differently by Half Price Books…

• They could have offered sensitivity by at least looking into my daughter’s eyes and telling her they would look for the wallet.  (They did tell me…but it wasn’t my wallet nor did they really seem like they would look for it.)
• They could have been less cold in their attitude.
• After we spent as much money in their store – they could have at least looked again.

This post is not to get back at Half Price books.  We will shop there again.  We love their children’s section.  I find most of my homeschool curriculum there for super cheap. They are a Texas based company.  And I do love Texas.

I do also understand that this is the holiday season and managers are responsible for many things – it is easy to be preoccupied.  Helping a little child was just not a priority that day.  I do hope that in the future – they would just be more sensitive.

Back to my daughter:

We prayed in the parking lot that whoever did take the money would have needed it more than us.  That they would come to know the true meaning of Christmas.  My daughter was heartbroken but she saw HOPE.

Hope in blessing someone who might really need the money.  Hope in learning a lesson.  Hope in really understanding that some do have joy even when there is no money.

Hope is something that most never see.  We truly wish that the world would know that IT is available to all mankind.  Money is truly just paper.  We may never see that money again…but not all is lost.  Money never produces true JOY!  AND JOY is what we do have!

Blessings to you!  You are loved!

[easy-share buttons=”no” counters=0 native=”selected” show_fblike=”yes”]