Like many others, our family was enjoying the beautiful weather and sunshine on the weekend leading up the the 4th of July.
We had just purchased a pontoon and were excited to meet up with our friends, Missy Gohman and Craig Erickson, July 2 to have some fun on the Mississippi River. Craig and Missy have lived on the river for 20 years and are experienced guides who led us to a popular sandbar where kids love to play on a rope swing.
It was there my son, Adam, launched off the swing into the water and lost his prescription eyeglasses. Having inherited my severe nearsightedness, he enjoyed the rest of the afternoon using his other senses.
When we returned home that evening, I rummaged through a few old pairs of glasses that hadn’t yet been donated to the local Lions Club and he chose the pair that worked the best. They were not perfect but certainly better than nothing.
With an upcoming trip to Indiana on Thursday, July 6 to compete as a member of the Sartell High School Robotics Team, Adam hoped we could quickly replace his glasses with a new pair. Unfortunately, the turn-around time for glasses is closer to two weeks than two days. Throw a holiday in between, and we just really didn’t have much of a chance.
July 3 arrived and it was Adam’s 15th birthday. We went to the DMV and he passed the driver’s permit test and was photographed for his ID card wearing his mother’s retired spectacles and his favorite DeZURIK hat. We later practiced driving down a quiet street, enjoyed a delicious family meal from Salaama Somali Restaurant in St. Cloud, and Adam made a wish and blew out his birthday candles.
At the end of the day I checked my phone messages. One was from friend Missy, with whom we had gone pontooning on the river. She had sent me a photo of two pairs of eyeglasses that a woman named Melissa Steffes had posted to Facebook. The glasses had washed onto the bank of the north sandbar and were found half buried. Melissa dug them out, cleaned them up, took a photo of them and shared the photo on Facebook. Missy saw the photo and sent it to me asking if one of the pairs belonged to Adam. Unbelievably, the glasses we never thought we’d see again were in the photo!
Missy kindly connected with Melissa and arranged to drive over to get them. She delivered them to Adam around 10 p.m. that evening.
The other pair of glasses were claimed and placed back into the hands – er, eyes – of their original owner with credit going to Steffes as well.
It was a birthday miracle! Wishes do come true!
