Taking Strollers from Babies

It all started this morning at 5:30am- I was sleeping soundly when my husband woke me up and said "Em, did you give away our double stroller?"

I said groggily "No" he said "well it's gone." I replied "what? the one on the top or the bottom" "Top " "That's so sad" I said Matt left for work. I couldn't go back to sleep. I got up went outside to the car port where we keep the stroller, I had to see for myself if it was really gone, it really was. There was another one there though, it's not ours, a family in the ward gave it to the church to give if anyone needed it, I was just storing it. I walked around the front yard looking in the grass for stroller marks, doing a little "CSI" no such luck. I went back in and tried to sleep. I don't know when I finally dosed off- I woke up to the alarm. I was getting the kids ready for school, still brewing over the theft, I told Aurora someone took the stroller- she wanted to go see (she's like her mother). This was about 8am. When we went outside lo and behold the other stroller was gone!! While we were out there a car pulled up to our house saw me and drove away- I thought I bet that's who stole our strollers-Now I was really freaked! I moved the tire, furniture blanket and large broom into the backyard, they left some stroller parts, I left them up front and wrote a note on them "Dear Stroller Thief, You forgot some of the stroller parts. Love Our Sad Children P.S. The other stroller belonged to our church so you stole from them too!" I admit when I wrote the first part I was thinking about Les Miserables where Jean Valjean steals from Bishop Myriel. "the benevolent Bishop Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, takes him in and gives him shelter. In the middle of the night, he steals the bishop’s silverware and runs. He is caught, but the bishop rescues him by claiming that the silverware was a gift and at that point gives him his two silver candlesticks as well, chastising him to the police for leaving in such a rush that he forgot these most valuable pieces. The bishop then "reminds" him of the promise, which Valjean has no recollection of making, to use the silver to make an honest man of himself."

But in the end I wrote the P.S. on the note because I was so angry! I'm not as Christ like as the Bishop in the story. I asked Aurora "What lesson is Heavenly Father trying to teach us?" she said " Maybe we need to pray." she then disappeared while I was making breakfast. She returned and said "Mom, I went in my room and prayed for us" she then gave me a hug. She is so sweet. I told her "We are all children of God. Even the people who stole the strollers are children of God, they just made a bad choice" "She said "I know" I asked "How do we forgive them for taking our strollers?" She said "I'm not sad, as long as we have our house, I'm not sad." I said " Your teaching me a lot." I'm still stewing over this violation, I made a police report, and scoped my neighborhood, I even alerted my next door neighbor, I called the power company and the gas company to alert them to the fact that I'm now going to be locking the back gate against intruders so we'll have to make arrangements to read the meter, other safety precautions are going to be made as well. I just know that if I go yard sale-ing this weekend I'm going to see my stroller in front of someones house and then what? I realise I really need to work on forgiveness! What would Jesus do? I can't let this anger and fear affect me so. I'm only doing myself harm. They were just strollers, sure they made my life easier, but in the end they are replaceable. What if it was worse...