A Blessing in Trashy Disguise

On Monday I was heading out to take the trash can on wheels to the curb. It was to be whisked away by the kind men on the big truck which my kids love to watch as it pays it's weekly visit to our neighborhood. I hit the garage door button and stepped down into the garage towards the rising double-car door, when suddenly it stopped rising before it should have. I checked the sensor and did all the normal troubleshooting but this door wasn't going to work. Something was wrong. It became clear that the trash just wasn't going to be able to go out that day/week. I had to leave because a friend was waiting on me and I couldn't fight with the garage door any further. Thankfully, I was finally able to get it to close all the way. Later that evening, Cal and I realized it was in fact broken and we needed to replace a part.
Rewind now about 3 days... DJ somehow got my set of van keys and was pushing the lock button so she could hear the honking of the van outside. I asked her to stop and explained that the neighbors probably didn't appreciate having to hear our van horn disrupting their day. She stopped and a few minutes later I went to get the van keys where she left them but they were no longer there. I searched and searched that entire day. No keys to be found. This was very frustrating for me because if there's one thing I am fairly consistent about, it's keeping my keys put away. I continued over the next few days to keep an eye out for the keys that were missing but never found them.
The night of the broken garage door I laid in bed and I began to think that it was very possible Elle threw the keys away. We have caught her several times putting spoons, toys and other things in the trash. So I decided I probably needed to go digging in the trash for our second set of van keys, which would cost about $250 to replace because of the keyless entry option.
Today I got out the heavy duty yellow rubber gloves and opened up that huge trash can on wheels. The stench of a week and a half worth of trash, in July, in the South is more than I care to explain. But I dug in between breaths of fresh air. After the first bag I began to question if it was even worth it since I didn't know for sure that the keys were in there. So I prayed and asked God to help me find these keys if they were in fact in this pile of maggot-infested rubbish.
I became very focused on the next bag because I calculated in my head that this one was probably in the right order to have been put out on the day the key went missing. I got a fresh new trash bag and emptied one item at a time as to be sure I wouldn't miss anything. I saw one of my favorite coffee mugs that my mom had bought me with pictures of the Grand Canyon on it. First I though, "I didn't know this got broken. Caleb must have thrown it away." Then I realized it wasn't broken and Elle must have thrown it away. Next I found one of Bry's favorite little Lego guys, also not broken and Elle probably struck again. Finally, I saw an icthus key chain attached to my key!!!! Yes! I found it! I was totally worth digging through the trash heap for!
So am I happy that our garage door is broken? No. However, I am very thankful that I didn't get to take the trash out that day. I'm also thankful that I realized Elle had probably thrown them away and that I had the crazy ambition to search through the trash for them. In some really odd way, God showed me today that He provides. I am thankful for that. He is still on His throne even when I'm in a trash heap.