I do believe in miracles

I do believe in miracles.  They don’t have to be big, and they don’t have to be showy, flashy, fancy, or incredible.  They can be simple and sweet and amount to someone who just wants to do the right thing.

I have 3 kids; all 4 of us have bikes.  Very nice bikes.  Very expensive bikes, but by the grace of Elvis, I didn’t have to spend a lot of money on them.  ($25 for all 4 total)  In fact, two of them were free.

So, we have established ownership of said 4 bikes.  Sunday afternoon, my youngest, Newt, looks out our back patio door only to discover we now have 2 bikes, not 4.  The girls’ bikes were still there, but mine and my son’s bikes were gone.

In times past I would have completely blown a gasket, yelling, screaming, cussing, throwing things, slamming things, generally scaring the crap out of the kids, and basically accomplishing nothing.  Thanks to therapy, I’ve learned how to remove myself from a situation put it in perspective and not let it create huge amounts of undue drama in my life.

We live in a less than ritzy part of town, and our neighbors are kind of shady, and with all the kids in the neighborhood roaming free every day after school without any parental supervision, I knew it would be impossible to even begin to venture a guess as to when the bikes actually disappeared and who would have taken them.  Might I also add at this point, I did not have them chained up like I usually do; I was just too lazy to do it after the kids rode them a few weeks ago.  So, I am partially to blame for the missing bikes.

I was also prepared to go out and replace the two bikes; after all I wasn’t out any initial money.  With autumn and winter coming on I also realized our bike riding opportunities were getting limited so I figured I had a few months to replace the bikes.  And besides, Christmas is still a few months away, maybe I could convince Santa to help replace them.

So, in a nutshell, I was out two bikes, and was going to have to replace them, and didn’t have a clue as to where they were, or who could have, would have taken them.

Last night, we get a knock on the door.  Open it up, there’s a kid from my son’s bus stop and his mother.  Turns out they have my bikes.  The neighborhood terror and a buddy of his had stolen our bikes and taken them over to this kid’s house.  The mother obviously wanted them returned, as she didn’t want her son in trouble for possession of stolen property.

Needless to say, after the whole story was clarified and I was informed off all the pertinent details to make a police report, I followed Ms Nice Neighbor and her son to their house and got our bikes back.  

My son’s bike has a broken seat, which can be replaced, but I look at it as cheaper than a completely new bike.  My bike is all in one piece and not torn up at all.  What I thought was virtually impossible, (my getting the bikes back at all) happened in a most unexpected way.  I did remember to lock all 4 bikes up last night so we don’t have to go through this again, ever.  I found out that all of our neighbors are not as seedy and shady as I had once thought.  There really are truly good people out there who still believe in doing what’s right and teaching their kids to do what’s right.