On Saturday the missionaries from our church stopped by to talk to Joe and I for a few minutes. Lucy was napping and Brad was running around with a balloon and making a lot of noise. I off-handedly told him to take the balloon downstairs, and he did. It was much quieter and we spent about 15 minutes visiting with the missionaries. After they left I needed to make a few phone calls and after one or two of them I realized that Brad was being a little too quiet. I asked Joe if Brad had gone outside and he said he didn’t know, so I asked him to check. I made another phone call assuming everything was fine but when I got off I realized that Joe was still looking for Brad. Oh oh…
Our backyard is fenced in, so I’m pretty comfortable with letting the kids play outside. Brad has never left the yard. He knows better.
Immediately we started looking everywhere for him. I ran through the house yelling his name while Joe went to talk to the next-door neighbors who had been working in the yard all afternoon. They had not seen him. I walked quickly around then block hollering “BRAD!” at the top of my lungs and asking anyone outside if they had seen him…they had not.
At that point I started to get really mad. For some reason I was not terribly worried. I was pretty sure he had decided to walk to the park or the school and because Brad has no concept of the fact that he’s only 4 he probably assumed it was fine. I was mad that he had left the yard and that I would no longer be able to let him play out there by himself.
I also kept praying over and over that he would be ok.
Lucy was awake at that point and Joe had her and agreed to stay close to the house while I hopped in the car and drove to the park and the school. I figured I would come across him on the way, but I didn’t. I got out of the car to talk to the people who lived right next to the school and ask them to keep an eye out and at that moment I started to get a little panicked. He wasn’t in any of the places I expected and I didn’t know where else to look. I was just starting to think we actually needed to call the police when my cell phone rang. It was Joe saying he had found Brad.
Joe had gone across the street to ask the neighbors and the neighbor said to Joe like four times “Have you checked ALL over the house?” Finally Joe agreed to come back and check the house again and when he did he found Brad in a CLOSET in the BASEMENT, ASLEEP under a sleeping bag. He was completely out and did not hear us calling his name. He didn’t even know we were looking for him or that anything was wrong.
I was so happy to see him and I couldn’t even get mad because he hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t even gone outside without asking. He had taken his balloon and gone downstairs like I had asked.
I’m sure there’s a lesson in all of this…I’ll try waxing philosophical and I’ll let you know if I come up with anything good. For now I’m just glad he’s ok.
3 comments:
One time when Tom and I were little we were playing hide and seek at our house and we couldn't find Tom. He was just gone. So we looked every where. We checked all the rooms and the closets inside and the garage and the backyard outside. Mom and Dad were starting to get mad because I think we were getting ready to go somewhere. My mom started searching where we had been playing and looked randomly under Tom's bed. There Tom was lying under his bed asleep.
That's so scary that you couldn't find him. I'm glad he wasn't doing anything he shouldn't have been, bless his little heart.
Let's see. Lessons. Yes, lessons. Hmmm. LOOK EVERYWHERE?? That you were right not to have the mommy-coronary that lots of moms have? That he didn't run away to Aunt Tenilles as he had threatened in the past? Gosh. I'm not sure of the "lesson" either. Life. Just life.
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