Red Boots and Light-Up Shoes

At precisely 5:00pm today, R, K, and I walked in the rain through our little neighborhood and came to a kids’ shoe store that carries high-quality brands for understandably high prices. After-Christmas sales started this weekend in Spain, so I thought we’d have a good shot at buying each of them a pair of shoes for a discounted price. They both really needed new shoes, too – K was still wearing her canvas shoes that we purchased this past summer that now were a size too small, and R was wearing a pair of B’s old shoes that were still a size too big and had all sorts of holes in them.

Shoe-shopping for the kids is always a tedious chore, and half the time the shoes end up either unworn because the kids decide they’re not comfortable after all, or the shoelaces break within weeks of purchase (this has happened to at least five pairs of their shoes), or the velcro straps don’t stick anymore after two weeks and I have to file a formal complaint when the store refuses to return my money (this happened exactly a year ago). So I didn’t know what to expect for today’s trip, and was not particularly looking forward to it. A couple of days ago I had prayed, “Lord, please, please provide R and K  with some great shoes for a great price.” And wow, did the Lord provide for us in an unmistakable way!

We were the first ones in the store – they had just opened back up after afternoon siesta – and this turned out well because we were given undivided attention. I told them that both of the kids needed shoes and that our budget was 25€, maybe 30€, for each of them. The shop owner’s face fell, and she said, “I don’t know if I can help you, everything here is so expensive. And, yes, we are having a sale, but it’s not even a 50%-off sale yet.” She was very sweet and very apologetic.

She then looked at K and saw her canvas shoes. “These are summer shoes,” she remarked, and she asked her, “What kind of shoes would you like?”

I answered for K, “Something pink.”

She bustled away and came back with a pair of dark-red shoes. She put them on K and brought her over to a mirror. “Do you like these?”

K, who had her heart set on something pink, looked like she was about to cry. She said, “Rosa,” which means “pink” and the shop owner understood her and went and found a pair of pink shoes for her to try on. K’s face lit up and she nodded when we asked her if she liked them, and then the rest of the time she just walked and danced around the store with them on.

As for R, he had told me earlier, at home, that he wanted light-up shoes. I told him he probably wouldn’t be able to get any since they’d be pretty expensive. At the store, the shop owner brought out a couple of pairs of cool boys’ shoes for him to try on. He wasn’t crazy about them, and when she asked him what he really wanted, he told her he wanted shoes “con luz” (“with lights”). I admired his boldness. She rummaged around and found a pair of stylish, very seizure-inducing light-up shoes for him. They were made by Geox Respira, an incredibly-expensive brand. I said, “Those are perfect, but they can’t possibly fit in the budget?”

“I’ll make them fit,” she said. This was going above and beyond anything I ever expected.

At one point while she was busy with R, I walked over to K. She was looking over some of the other shoes, and she pointed up to a top shelf where there was a pair of flowery rubber galoshes. “Boots!” she said. “Do you like those?” I asked her. She nodded, and I said, “Sorry, honey, but you can’t have boots right now. We can only buy you shoes.” She seemed fine with that.

When it was time to check out, we all went over to the cash register. The shop owner opened up a box of red leather boots and showed them to K. “Do you like these?” she asked her. K nodded (she does a lot of that). “OK, I’ll give them to you as a gift.” I don’t even think she had seen K pointing at the flower galoshes.

“No, you don’t have to do that,” I said.

“No, it’s fine. And when it’s raining like this, it’s better for her to have boots.”

She rang up all three boxes of shoes and the price was 49.50€. No way.

“No way,” I told her, “60. Charge me 60!” And I put 60€ down on the counter.

She said, “No, no,” and tried to give me back 10€. I refused to take it, and pushed her hand back. We struggled for a few moments like this, with her saying, “No, you gave me too much,” and trying to give me the 10€ bill and me saying, “Take it, take it,” and trying to push her hand away. It all felt very Chinese.

Finally, she insisted that I take the money, and I could only think to say in basic Spanish, “OK. Thank you so much. You are so good.”

She walked us to the door and said, “While I’m here, I want you to always come to me for your kids’ shoes. We’ll take care of you.”

Wow (I can’t stop saying that). What’s even more amazing is that when we came home and checked out the prices on the boxes, we discovered that R’s shoes originally cost 59.50€, K’s pink shoes originally cost 33€, and her red boots should have been 56.50€. The shop owner showed us so much favor and was so patient with the kids. I feel so grateful and humbled by her generosity.

Nate was funny. After he heard the story, he said that she probably saw how pathetic R and K’s shoes looked and couldn’t bear to let us out of the store without helping us. She probably couldn’t believe our little girl was still wearing canvas summer shoes – in winter! – and this led to her determination to give her some boots to wear for the rain. The other little girls in Spain are fashionistas – they all have boots, cute dresses, cardigans. Even the school sends out notices saying, “Physical Education class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. Please make sure your child wears sweats and comfortable shoes to school on these days.” They wouldn’t need to type up notes like that if the norm was that kids wore comfortable clothes. And here was K showing up at the store with her long-sleeve t-shirt, sweatpants, and canvas shoes on. Nate said that she probably practically screamed, “fashion charity case!” Hahahaha. But I digress.

Above all else, we know that the Lord was showing us, yet again, His provision for our kids. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love watching Him work!

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