Today one of my worst nightmares came to pass. I lost one of my children. Princess is found now, but it was awful. As a parent, there is nothing worse than that panic that you feel all the way to the pit of your stomach. But there are some bright things that came out of this experience.
Princess went to activity days (a church activity for those that aren't LDS). She attends at a house that she is familiar with and we drive there every day because we carpool with this family. Ben always teases me because I am a little overprotective and I never let Princess walk alone. I can't help it, I am overprotective and I just have fears. Her activity was just up the street on the opposite side of the neighborhood, but not too far. I had a busy day and told Princess that she could walk home afterward. After the activity was over she called me and told me she was on her way. In the meantime I was bustling around and finishing dinner. You know how it is at dinner time when everyone is hungry and crazy...I got the last of the dinner prep done and looked at the clock. It had been about 25 minutes since she called. I suddenly got a feeling of dread, but tried to keep it together. I told G-man to ride his scooter to the end of the cul de sac and see if Princess was coming. He did that but couldn't see her. So I told Ben to get in the car and drive up the other street, which it was a possibility that she had gone down that street. Now I'm really panicking because she isn't there either! She's no where to be seen. I am FREAKING OUT, all calmness gone. I'm about ready to load up Mase and jump in the other car....
Then the phone rings. The caller ID reads a number that I don't recognize. I pick it up, and it's Princess! I have never been more happy to hear another voice in my life. She meekly told me that she got lost. She handed the phone over to a woman that calmly told me that she rung the doorbell and told her she was lost and she needed to call her Mommy. She said she was calm and totally collected. (I'm thinking, I'M NOT!!!) She gave me the address and I ran out to the cul de sac to see if Ben's car was around. I saw him going door to door on the street just over from us and yelled that we had found her!
So he got the address and rushed to the house. She had walked a little over a half a mile away and to a house on a fairly busy road. When she got home I was waiting outside and she just sat in the car after Ben pulled up. She finally got out, burst into tears and asked if I was mad at her. My heart skipped a beat, literally. She was worried that I would be mad? I was so scared!! I hugged her hard and told her that I wasn't mad and to come inside.
After getting up to the dinner table, we asked if she wanted to talk about it and she wasn't sure. I let her take her time to open up. She finally told us that she thinks she missed a turn and then just got really confused. Her surroundings seemed familiar so she just kept going.
Silver lining. She told me that as she realized she was really lost, she said a prayer and she felt that Heavenly Father would help her. The next blessing, we've always talked about what to do if you're lost. We tell our kids that if you know you're lost, you stop right there and wait for a Mommy who has kids and tell them that you are lost. In this situation she is on a busy road where there are houses but no one walking by per se. So she said she went house to house looking for a car that was out that could hold "more than two people". She found a house with a van in the front. She walked up to it and checked for car seats. She saw it had car seats and then she walked to the door and told the lady she was lost. What a smart girl she is! She didn't panic. She kept her cool until she saw me. I fear she will have fear about walking, and we will be teaching her about street signs. We will work though it.
The saddest thing? I now know that Princess gets her sense of direction from me, which is absolutely no sense of direction. :)
Overall it's been a crappy week. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
