New Toys

When the Lewises dropped us off at our apartment on Thursday they gave us a bin of toys that they’d been borrowing from the Brunets. Their shipment arrived a while ago and so now they have their own toys. Ours are packed in boxes in Grandma and Grandpa’s basement and won’t be coming out to Egypt, so at Enrichment a few Sundays ago I asked Maria if we could borrow her toys next.

She was only too happy to let us use them. We were equally happy to receive them, although slightly puzzled about why Maria had toys in the first place.

Her kids are all grown, but neither of them are married so the prospect of grandkids is still very much in the future.

I had heard that she was running a daycare, but in fact she is working full time for USAID.

It really was a mystery to me why she’d haul a big tub of toys across the ocean…

Well, today I found out the answer. I was talking with Maria while Andrew was home teaching. As she related it to me, her husband was unpacking some things when he came across the tub.

“Maria, did you pack a tub of toys?” he asked her.

“No, why would I bring toys here?” Good question, really.

As it turns out, it was all just a big mistake. The tub of toys was supposed to be a tub of linens. It had somehow gotten mislabeled or something and the movers packed the toys in their crate instead of the sheets and things.

Kind of funny, if you think about it, but very fortunate for us. I think we have more toys here than we ever had in Orem and Rachel just loves them (perhaps because she thinks they’re Sam’s toys). She has been playing on her own so nicely since we got them on Thursday. She loves the little school bus (I think Patrick had one of those—it’s pretty fun. I remember playing with it, too) and the toolkit, especially.

And while we’re giving credit for new toys, we also got a load of toys from Lydia, who has been sorting through her children’s toys and getting rid of things in preparation for their new assignment...they’ll be moving somewhere in January.