The Find

This past Wednesday, Annabelle and I went consignment shopping. For some strange reason, when I was buying 3-6 month clothes for her, I only bought sun suits and snow suits. I hadn't bought one single in between outfit, which with the weather starting to cool off a little bit needed to be remedied fairly quickly. So consignment shopping we went. Annabelle is a great shopping buddy. She loves to visit with people, and she will smile at anyone who tells her she's beautiful.

We got to the sale early, and I was overjoyed with the selection of name brands for dirt cheap. I picked up several Gymboree outfits for $3 or less. As I was standing in line waiting to make my purchases, a swatch of red caught my eye. It wasn't just any red. It was Power Ranger red, and it was coming from the pajama aisle. I hurried out of line silently praying, "please let it be the right size, please let it be the right size!". As I pulled it off the rack, I felt like Charlie as he unwrapped the golden ticket to Wonka's factory. The pajamas were faded, the waistband was badly stretched, and they were two sizes to big, but I had never seen a more perfect pair of pajamas in my life. They were the Disney brand costume knock off of character pajamas that are no longer made by Disney. I know this because my little Power Ranger wanna be always insists we check just in case every time we pass the Disney store at the mall. The jammies were marked $3, but I knew in Tyler's hands they would be priceless.

I brought them home, washed them, repaired the waistband, and gave them to their new owner, whose little eyes lit up with joy and amazement. "Are those for me?" he asked while stripping his clothes off. He put them on and just like that in his little mind he was no longer Tyler, he was Jayden, the Red Ranger.

He's had the pajamas since Wednesday, and he only takes them off when we leave the house. The second we get home, he changes back into them. Every time I see him put them on, my heart fills with happiness because I love how something so simple makes him so happy. It's like an episode of Antiques Roadshow. "Ma'am, do you have any idea how much these pajamas are worth? You may have only paid $3 for them, but in the hands of the right child, their value is incalculable." After all, how do you put a value on childhood innocence and imagination?



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