The badminton set

Our firstborn. 

He's a determined soul of a person. When he sets his mind to something he digs in deep and gives it his all. Whether it's grades, sports, chores, or even money. 

It was the beginning of May that he decided, I'm gonna save my money for a badminton set!

I was like really?

Yes, badminton.

So for two months he saved every penny. When his sister would be off spending money on trinkets, he would just sit back and say, "I'm saving."

By the time we went to Indiana he had around $45 dollars saved, and he was ready to make a purchase. That's another thing about Pierce, a purchase is usually a slow process. He looks and looks, and really tries to make the best decision he can. Sometimes it's quite painful, but I try and appreciate it and just shut my mouth.

It was the day we decided to go shop for the set, "it's time to go, go grab your wallet."

For some reason he couldn't find it. We had several days left, so I said don't worry about it we will find it later and maybe go tomorrow?

But later kept turning into later, and then it dawned on me, his wallet was lost.

We searched that house high and low. We turned clothes inside out, dug through bags of trash, I had my parents searching, my sister searched, and I just got a sinking feeling it was gone. I knew that we could get the money back to Pierce, but his heart was broken. He had worked hard for that money, and it was something he was proud of. It was more than just the money.

The family had been at the house the day before the wallet went missing, so I took to the text in an effort to find that wallet.....

Then I had a tip....

Cody had last seen it. It was a real life tip, and he told me to check with Jaclyn.

 I felt like a needed to develop a lost wallet hot line.

Between all this looking and texting Pierce let me know he had no plans of ever saving his money again. "What's the point? All that work for nothing! I'm just going to spend my money the moment I get it from now on."

Of course I gave him a big pep-talk about that attitude, but I got it. He was just frustrated and mad.

But around 8 hours later on that Monday, I saw this wonderful message....

The wallet had been found. Glory be. Pierce was asleep when I found out, so I had to wait till the next day to tell him the good news. Oh, and because his grandparents felt sorry for him they gave him  the money before the wallet had been found, so that stinker made off with LOTS of money by the end of the trip.


We came back home with all that money, and then it was finally time to go buy buy that blessed badminton set.

The work, the saving, the anguish of what was thought lost. It all ended here.

Now it's all set up and he's playing daily. ALONG WITH THE REST OF US, IN THE 98 DEGREE TEMPS.

Oh and once he finally bought it, he decided to go on and blow the rest of his money on water guns. Ha!

So what's next?

More family badminton games, and a new quest to save money to buy Nerf guns. HELP US ALL.