God shows His care through a teddy bear

I mentioned yesterday that we were on vacation last week. We vacationed at Smugglers Notch in Vermont. All I can say is "WOW!" The accomodations were truly top-notch.

I also mentioned that we went to some thrift stores. Well, we also did some of the usual vacation things. We went to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory so our kids could see how teddy bears are made.

We got the brochure that mentioned kids making their own bear at the end of the factory tour. [They're called "Make a Friend for Life" bears. You can see information about them here, but the real bears look nothing at all like the ones in those pictures.] That sounded like something our kids would like, so we called and found out it was $20 each. That sounded pretty reasonable for as cute as Vermont Teddy Bears are ... until we got there and realized those bears looked nothing like a regular Vermont Teddy Bear.

My kids could sew a cuter bear as a first sewing project all by themselves - really. These bears looked like someone either punched their nose into their face or ran over them with an 18-wheeler. Maybe both. They were completely flat, even after being stuffed, with no snout. I can't find words to describe to you how truly awful they looked. I've seen bears at Dollar Tree that were cuter than those bears.

I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here, but I do want to warn anyone else who might visit and tell their kids about making these wonderful bears after the tour. Don't do it; you'll be terribly disappointed. Our kids were.

The tour, however, was absolutely fantastic. We all enjoyed it, even my husband.

The bears they make are also fantastic - but pricey. The smallest ones start at $36. A 15" bear is $60. Of course, my kids both wanted one of those 15" bears, but it just wasn't in the budget. If I'd had the money, believe me, I would have bought them both a $60 bear as a splurge because we were on vacation. I'm sure you're all familiar with a mother's heart.

Since I couldn't afford the bears from the factory, I promised my kids what I could do - I could sew them each their own customized bear that looks remarkably like these teddy bears. I've made jointed teddy bears before. I even found the pattern.

Then we got to talking about which fur was their favorite, and we hit on a problem. My son's favorite was the one with fur that's spotted like a cow. I've never seen that kind of fur in a fabric store, so I wasn't sure I could replicate that one. Oh well. I could certainly try.

Fast forward four days ... We were headed out of town on our way home. We were going past a Goodwill store that we had been in on Monday. We almost didn't stop, but decided at the last minute to take a quick run through to see if anything new came in.

We walked by the toys on the way to the linen section, and my son grabbed something and started getting terribly excited.

"Look, Mommy!! It's a Vermont Teddy Bear!!"

Do you want to take a guess what fur it had?



Yes, it was the cow fur, just like he had wanted. I nearly cried right there in Goodwill. I think my son almost did, too.

Since we had been on the factory tour, we knew everything to look for to make sure it was a genuine Vermont Teddy Bear.



We checked the tag and saw the price - $2.99! (This is the $60 bear.)



Sure enough, it was the real thing!



We outfitted him at another thrift store for $2.00, and we even found him a bear-sized cell phone (Build a Bear brand) at another thrift store for $0.75.

Can you guess whose little boy got a powerful lesson on God's care for His children? Of course, we made sure to tell him it wouldn't happen like this all the time. But God has done things like this for us over and over and over.

But wait! That means that my daughter didn't get one. Hmm, I'm all about fairness but my kids know that life isn't always fair. And I can't always make it fair. It's a basic life lesson that many parents are trying to shield their kids from. Not this parent.

My daughter was fine with me making her a bear to her specifications. She's generous like that. But my husband and I decided that we would be looking in the toy bins at thrift stores a little more closely from now on ... Would you guess what we found yesterday?



How about this guy (or girl, if you ask my daughter)?! Not only that, but we found him at our local Goodwill, the place that's notorious for taking anything remotely of value and putting it into a showcase for close to the same price you'd pay for it brand-new. Obviously someone has never heard of Vermont Teddy Bears, and I'm thrilled that they haven't. He was only $0.50!



The look on her face says it all, doesn't it? This was the exact bear color that she wanted! Are you overwhelmed yet? I certainly am. God is so good to our family. I hope "little" lessons like this stay with my kids for a lifetime. I hope my kids remember that God cares about children and the big "little" things that concern them.



It reminds me of the verse in the Bible, "Or what man of you, whom if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:9,11, italics mine)