Lost and Found

Yesterday we went out and somewhere along the way I lost my cell phone. The store I was at when I noticed was kind enough to call it-- someone said hello, realized I wasn't one of his friends, and hung up. He didn't answer again. I called my husband, let him know that I'd lost it and we would be at the park, and he continued to call a few times (he also called T-Mobile, and they added 50 minutes to each line so we wouldn't go over, and gave us options for what to do if we didn't get it back.) When he got to the park we discussed it, and he decided to call a few more times. I prayed that my phone would return to me, and afterwards felt that I should send a text message to call my husband's cell if found. A few minutes later, while he was again on the phone to T-mobile, another call came in. Someone wanted to return my cell phone! He said, "Where are you, so I can come get it?" "Sunland Park." They were right in the parking lot 100 feet from us! He went and got it and thanked them (it was missing its cover but I didn't care!), then I went over and thanked them. It was a grandfather and his two teenage/preteen grandsons. I found out that the younger grandson had been the one to find it. I offered to buy him an ice cream or something to thank him and he broke into a shy smile but refused. I guess that the constant calling made the guy who initially found it nervous. He decided to take the cover and ditch the phone. Right before I texted my phone (hmmm... right after my prayer?), this honest young man saw someone take the cover off a phone and drop it on the ground. He picked it up, and saw the message, and made the call. Hooray!

Only five short calls were made, and nothing important was lost (I can get a new cover! It's the phone numbers that I've been too lazy to store anywhere else reliable that I don't want to lose! And I wouldn't have been too thrilled to pay $100 for a new phone, either.) Hooray for another answer to prayer!

I'd love to hear your stories of lost things that were returned in unexpected or special ways. :)

And speaking of lost and found, my uncle used to be a locally-famous record producer and DJ. (This was a loooong time ago, in Phoenix, AZ.) I was idly googling my maiden name and came up with this CD (I'd heard that there was a CD out but not seen the blurb for it yet.) Apparently he is still rather respected by aficionados of the music of his heyday and they keep making compilations of the music he produced. I don't remember which one but one of them has my dad's name on the back for one song, too; he tells the story as such: "One day when I was about 15, my brother Mike, your uncle, came in and said, 'Hey, I wrote these words and I need music for them. Write me some music to go with them and I'll give you half-credit for writing it.' [My dad is a self-taught guitar player, got a guitar at age 12 and taught himself to play by listening to the Beatles. He's always been very musical. He now plays at a semi-pro level, and can listen to almost any song and immediately play it.] So I strummed a few minutes, set down some simple chords and a melody, and the cover read 'Words and music by Mike and Bill Lenaburg.' When we had our school dance at the end of that year, the band who was playing covered that song, and they said, 'I hear one of the guys who wrote this song goes to your school. Bill Lenaburg, will you stand up? Let's give him a hand!' It was the only dance I ever went to where there was no shortage of girls wanting to dance with me all night!" (I guess my dad was kinda a skinny kid. ;) ) I didn't actually know all of this until a few years ago; when they started coming out with these compilations my dad started telling all about his big brother Mike and how he idolized him growing up. I guess Mike was a really big influence on my dad, and one of the reasons he's stayed into music all his life is time spent with my Uncle Mike as a teenager.

How about you guys? Got any cool family stories you discovered in the last few years or so?