99 cents and a smile.

Abigail and I ran errands today. One of our stops was the Goodwill. I make Abigail a shirt every year with the number of her birthday on it. I browsed through the shirts looking for something plain in her size. A few feet away there was a whole pile of hats. Baseball hats, straw hats, a sombrero, baby sun hats, and on and on. Abigail tried really hard to stay with me, but I could tell that the shelf was beckoning her. So as I finished, we walked over.
She picked up a few hats and looked them over. I had no plans of getting her one. Just to indulge her curiosity and let her enjoy them for a few moments; until she found the red one that is. 'Mama. Wook at dis hat. I yub dis wed hat. It's budiful.' She never asked for it. But oh, how her little face lit up! Being the sucker great Mama I am I told her we could buy it. After all, it was only 99 cents.

(while I would have preferred a hat picture from another angle, this was how Abigail wanted me to take it)
So she put it on and beamed as we walked through the store to pay. One of the woman working there saw her and smiled great big, 'Don't you just look adorable.' Abigail stopped in her tracks and wrinkled her face up. She sort of huffed and then proclaimed, 'I NOT howwible.' The woman and I stood there laughing with tears running down our cheeks as I tried to explain that she had said 'adorable' not 'horrible.'

We finished our shopping and went on to the next store. Every last penny of that 99 cents was made worth it while we were shopping there. Abigail danced through the store singing a song about her red hat. She found a mirror and stood in front of it dancing, singing, and watching herself in her fun new find. She giggled uncontrollably as she walked by displays and the brim of her hat bumped into things. The joy of having this wonderful new hat just exuded from every part of her little body. It couldn't be contained, and dancing, singing, jumping, wiggling, giggling, and running had to take place. All of her joy spilled over onto others as well. A grumpy older couple angrily discussing what type of juice to buy both smiled and watched her, whispering to each other about how cute she looked. The man slouching on a bench waiting on his wife to get done shopping sat up and watched her with a smile across his face.

This 99 cent item that I decided to indulge my little girl with brought a smile to everyone's face who saw it. I would say that in a world where pain, sorrow, hatred, and bitterness run ramped; I paid very little to bring joy not only to a little girl (and myself) but to lots of other shoppers who were reminded how to enjoy simple things. Next time we go shopping I think I'll encourage Abigail to wear her red hat.

P.S. Red hats, when not upon a head, double well as a drum for singing along with 'Nothing but the Blood of Jesus....'