The Little Craft that Could

“What are the positives of social media?” is a question I’m asked fairly regularly by parents and teachers alike. To be honest, I don’t have an overwhelming amount of answers.

But.

A miracle happened to our family yesterday that simply would not have happened in a pre-internet age.

Gather ’round, everyone. This is the tale of

The Little Craft that Could.

At lunch with a friend yesterday, I got a text from another first grade mom friend.

“Is this Beckett??” she asked.

As I zoomed in to the picture she’d attached, I saw a screenshot of a random Facebook post.

“DO YOU KNOW BECKETT’S FAMILY???” the post started.

“I’ve been searching for this boy’s family since Friday. I found this in a parking lot and I know whomever lost it has to be heartbroken. I’ve had leads from different elementary schools, but I can’t confirm that it belongs to the Beckett at their school. If you know a Beckett, please ask if this belongs to them or share if you can.”

“OH MY GOSH” I thought. “What did we lose?? Did I misplace one of the Brooks brothers over the weekend and haven’t realized it yet?!”

Before I could rightly panic, I kept scrolling and found this picture below the post:

“What the heeeeckkkk” I thought. (Out loud, apparently.) My lunch date friend said, “What? What’s going on?”

“Uhhh…I’m still not 100% sure, but I think there’s an Amber Alert out for my kid’s school craft project?” I replied.

I texted my first grade mom friend back. “That’s so weird. It’s definitely my Beckett’s handwriting so I’ll reach out to that lady on Facebook and claim it. Thanks!”

When I found the lady’s profile, I saw that she had, in fact, been searching for us all weekend.

She posted the original post on Friday, shared that post a few days later with an “*UPDATE* – still haven’t found his family!!“, and encouraged others to share her post as well.

They did.

Guys.

By the time I caught wind of this, it had been shared multiple times. There were comments back and forth about all the possible Becketts in the area. There were calls made to surrounding schools asking if this was an art project they’d recently done.

It was a full-fledged, tri-state search.

I mean…Taylor lost his favorite Bible at our own church a few weeks ago and we’re like

Anyway.

I got in touch with the Facebooker and drove to her house later that afternoon, happier at the prospect of making a good samaritan’s year than retrieving the actual craft. The passion and dedication she had for reuniting us with this craft was LIFE.

There are just straight up nice people in this world, y’all.

I could not WAIT to tell Beckett when he got home from school.

When my alarm went off to go pick him up (#proparenting), I practically ran to our meeting spot on the corner.

“DUDE! You are not going to believe what happened with your art project. It traveled the world, man.” I yelled. “Turns out it was lost, but now it is found.”

“…what are you talking about?” he said in his most respectful, non-eye-rolley tone.

“That love craft you made for me! I’ve never actually seen it before, but it has a heart with some ripped up paper and some words and stuff.” I said, still excited.

“Huh.” he replied, undertones of confusion in his voice.

When we got home, I ran to get the craft off the counter. “This one!” I said, shoving it in his face.

My sweet, sentimental, loving boy looked from the project to me, back to the project, back to me before saying – in a clear, confident voice,

“That is not mine.”

I thought he was joking.

“Yes it iiiissss. You made it for me, I’m pretty sure. Remember?”

He didn’t.

“No really, mom, I’ve never seen that paper in my life. I promise I didn’t make it.”

Turns out he wasn’t lying.

IT IS NOT HIS CRAFT.

Soooo, uh, if you are another Beckett’s family looking for a really special project your kid made, we have it.

And if you don’t claim it, we’re keeping it as a reminder of the lengths a precious lady and this little paper went to to make it….almost-home.

*******UPDATE*******

Y’all.

WE FOUND THE ACTUAL REAL LIFE BECKETT THIS BELONGS TO. His mom and I are friends on Facebook from the time our Becketts played 4-year-old summer soccer together. She saw my post of the post from the updated post post and she responded.

Best story of 2018. Thanks for tuning in.