The (lost) Easter Basket

Here are some pictures of Eric enjoying his very first Easter basket. I was thrilled to share with him the Easter basket I used as a child that was passed down from my dad, who also used it as a child. The story doesn't stop there, though. This Easter basket was handmade by my great grandparents in Arkansas. It has seen quite a few Easters, I'll tell you.

He almost didn't get a chance to make history with the basket. Two years ago I went looking for it and couldn't find it. I turned the house upside down looking for it. I even went back to the house I had moved in wondering if I had left it there somehow. Sick to my stomach, I called my mom and confessed I had lost the basket. For almost two years I felt intense guilt over losing something so valuable everytime I thought about it. Well, about 6 months ago we cleaned out a closet in our house. The closet is filled top to bottom with plastic tubs holding various things (pictures, christmas decorations, old files...). In the back of my mind I secretly held out hope we would find the basket. We even found a picture of my great-grandparents standing in front of a barn surrounded by baskets just like my precious Easter basket. My heart was so heavy thinking I wouldn't have the chance to share my basket with Eric for his first Easter. I ran to the grocery store while in the middle of the big clean up and when I came back the basket was sitting on a chair in the living room. I was so excited I shrieked and jumped up and down. Little Eric started crying because I had scared the pants off of him. I guess it was tucked away in one of the containers I hadn't looked in and Eric had found it. I was elated! I felt like the woman in the Bible who had lost the coin and found it again.

And, that's the story of Eric's precious Easter basket!