knowing where to buy safety pins

We were in Asia 3 1/2 years before we went back to the states for a bit.  And when we came back after spending 7 months in the states, we had a LOT of things that we packed up and brought back.  Things that we thought we couldn't find in Asia.  Kitchen things, crafty things, kid things.  You get the picture.

One of the things I brought back was a box of safety pins.  Because I'd never seen safety pins in our city before.  I love to shop and find fun new things, but I'd never ever seen safety pins.  However, not even a year after we came back, guess what I found?  In a junk shop full of teeny tiny things--a little like a Where's Waldo shop.  But I found safety pins.

There's something so sweet about knowing where to buy safety pins.  We use safety pins.  And when we don't have them, there's a million times that they could be useful.  It's so simple, but when we first came to Asia, we couldn't find safety pins.  We didn't know how to say much more than hello or 1,2,3. We kind of just survived.

It took 5 years to be able to find safety pins.  But there's something about knowing where to find them that makes me feel thankful that we know where to buy things and live life here now.  I walk down the same streets that I felt like I would always just tolerate, and I realize that I really love living here.  I love that there's a market across the street and that I know what flour to buy there and that I can get evaporated milk in the vegetable market.  I know it's so simple and maybe even silly, but my heart really overflows.