Kate Goes Missing

October 12, 2015

On Saturday Ben and I decided to visit Cornbelly's, a much talked up way to celebrate the fall/Halloween season. We thought, "it's a beautiful day, lets go see some pumpkins and walk through a maze!" And so we drove our little family to Thanksgiving Point, expecting to play for a few hours and head home.

We made it about 20 minutes; After playing on a kid-sized boat, we realized Kate was no longer there and we could not find her. It was a terrifying realization. Ben and I of course imagined worse-case scenarios. I asked a mother also sitting near the boat if she had seen Kate; she hadn't, but she started helping me look. When we couldn't find her she went and notified an employee for me - at that point it had been about 5 minutes and I was crying. There is no worse feeling than losing a child and feeling completely helpless! That place was so big! An employee took me up to the information desk (Ben was circling the area) and there Kate was in the arms of another employee, screaming in true Kate fashion. I was so relieved! I do not know how she got away from us. In total we probably only lost her for about 10 minutes, but it sure felt like longer!

I was humbled that so many people were understanding and ready to help us. We went home after that and ate ice cream:-)

A similar experience happened only a few weeks earlier. I had started the car remontely, and somehow the car locked after I had put William and the keys in the car (it's not suppose to be able to do that). Luckily the car was on so he couldn't overheat, but I was nervous! I went back to knock on the door of the woman I had just visit taught, and she called the police for me. They sent the fire department, but while we were waiting, the car turned off. I totally panicked. I thought he was going to get heat stroke. Luckily, the fire department arrived shortly after the car turned off and they pryed the door open with a wedge enough to stick a wire stick in there and pop open the door with the handle. When they got William out he was sweating and crying, but he was ok.

Janessa was so nice - she had done that before and knew how scary it was. Looking back it was no big deal, but it feel like such a big deal when you're going through it. I am grateful for good people in my life!