Quest for a Pillow Pet

A few weeks ago, we were out shopping and Melia discovered Pillow Pets. In case you aren't familiar, they are big, soft stuffed animals that turn into pillows you can sleep on. Well, Melia fell in love with the pink and purple unicorn and asked me if she could get it. "Sure. Look and see how much it costs and then you can save up your money and get it if you want it." (My token answer for pretty much everything she sees in the store and asks me for.) "It costs a one and a nine, Mommy. Can I get it?" "Wow, $19 is a lot of money. You'll have to save for a long time to get it." "Ok!!" Usually, she forgets about most things, but this time was different. She kept talking about it all the way home and was so excited to save up her money and buy it. So we made a "Pillow Pet Fund" jar and Melia did jobs around the house for me and Bo and my mom (Luckily, Grandma Sue pays well. :) ) for a few weeks until she finally had earned enough money to buy her beloved Pillow Pet. She was so excited to go and get it with her little jar full of money.
Well, let me tell you, I know God has a soft spot for his little children and works things out for them even in the things that may seem small to us, but that really matter to them. For example, the way we acquired this Pillow Pet for Melia...
On the day that we are going to get it, I call ahead to the store to make sure they still have it. After all, she was so excited and had worked so hard--I didn't want to go there and have them not have the one she wanted and have her be disappointed. So anyway, I call the store and turns out they are completely out of pillow pets and will not have them in for two weeks. Great. I call around and Target doesn't carry them anymore and Walmart puts me on hold forever and we get disconnected. So I decided to just go to Walmart and take our chances and if they didn't have it, we could order it online. I told Melia all of this ahead of time to soften the blow just in case Walmart didn't have them. So we went to Walmart and looked all around the toy section. Nothing. We asked a worker and they told us they thought they had them but they were in the home section. So we went there and they had Pillow Pets....but no purple and pink unicorn. Melia was disappointed, but decided we would order it on the computer.
I still wanted to look around at the curtains and stuff and here is where God stepped in and created a chain of events that would lead Melia to her unicorn. While we are looking at the curtains, Naiya starts having a fit. Not just any fit--this one lasted and lasted and she screamed and screamed. I didn't know what was wrong with her because she usually doesn't do that. Finally, I had had it. "Ok, let's go pay for our stuff. We need to go." (Otherwise, I would have stayed because there were still other things I wanted to look at.) As we are walking to the checkout stand, Melia just "happens" to glance down the aisle of checkout stands at that precise moment and says, "Mommy! My pillow pet is in her cart!!" I looked and didn't see what she was talking about, but she wanted to show me so I reluctantly followed her thinking she had just seen a pink and purple stuffed animal or something. So we are weaving our way around people and stands full of stuff that Melia is getting distracted by and Naiya is still kind of fussy, so I finally tell Melia that we just need to leave and go pay for our stuff. "But Mommy, the worker had my pillow pet in her cart!" "It was someone who works here?" "Yes! Come on!" As we round the next corner of the check stand that is at the complete opposite end of the store (and would have never been close to if we had followed my plan), what do we behold? A lovely Walmart worker stocking the shelf with pink and purple unicorn pillow pets! I couldn't believe it. Melia was thrilled! She pulled out her little jar of money and was so proud to pay for it all by herself. In her prayers that night, I told her to make sure she thanked Heavenly Father for helping her to find her pillow pet. And she did--night after night. :)


After she got her pillow pet, I asked her what she wanted to save her money for next. Her answer was an example of why God said to be like little children. She said she wanted to buy a pillow pet for her sister, Naiya. Awwww. So she worked and did jobs for the next few weeks until she had enough money to buy one for Naiya. She was so excited when we went to buy it for her. Melia picked out the monkey and gave it to her and said, "Surprise! It's a pillow pet for you sweetie!" Naiya took it and hugged it and laid her head down on it right away. :) It is such a joy to watch Melia do sweet things like that. I hugged her and thanked her for doing that for her sister. Both of the pillow pets have had much use and love every day.



In other news, Naiya found Daddy's lotion and decided to lather herself up--her hands, arms, hair, face and clothes. Not to mention the newly mopped floor!