Monday, August 9, 2010

Gone!


Last Friday we went to some car/motorcycle races. I was quite surprised that it was a very family friendly place. Seeing that there were many families there. Lots of kids waving checkered flags=) We sat in the first bleacher since Kenz is very mobile now and I knew she would not do well just sitting for a few hours. There was plenty of room between the stadium seating and the race track. They kept things going at a good pace, plenty of different races. Each lasting no more than 5mins? The last two races of the night were longer though, maybe a total of 30 laps. Kenzie was getting fussy so I thought I'd take her out to the truck feed her, change her get her a little more settled before we left. I knew my husband had lots to get together back at the bleachers plus the kids to get to watch...so I headed back to help him.


Now the way the stadium is set up is there are two entry points to the seating. I could take the first one and walk all the way down in front of everyone to where we were sitting, or I could walk behind the bleachers and go to the 2nd entry way which is right where we were sitting. I chose to walk behind the bleachers. As soon as I got there everyone had this worried look on their faces. Our friend Beth said to me "Caden is gone!" What! I look to my husband. He said that he had told Caden and Keira that it was almost time to go and he had bolted. What and you just let him?? I didn't quite get what was going on. So my daughter points down in front of the stadium saying she saw him. I look and start walking wondering where she sees him. I ask a few people on the way to see if they saw him. "No!" I walked all the way down. He was not there. My heart was pounding! So I turned back around walked back and hoped to see him back with my husband. Nope. Our other friend Joe took off to look in the bathrooms, my husband to look by the concession stands. Nothing. The minutes felt like eternity. My heart was racing and I was screaming inside. I handed Kenz off to Beth and told Keira to stay with her as well. I started just running and thinking how can I get them to stop the races..it was sooo loud there is no way he could hear me yelling for him. As I was yelling very loud and in a panic. My only thought was if someone took him they would have to bring him to the parking lot to leave. I knew I had to get to the parking lot and stop whatever cars are leaving. I had never been so scared! I just kept pleading "Please Lord No!...Please Lord No! I ran right to the outside of the ticket booth and there he was walking towards me. My heart leaped and I grabbed him and picked him up and asked where he was? Crying he told me he went to look for me over and over he just kept saying he was looking for me.=( I NEVER told the kids I was leaving to get Kenz ready at the truck. They were so engrossed in the race he never realized I had been gone for a while. So when my hubby said it was time to leave he bolted after a woman who he thought was me and followed her, in front of the bleachers, she was a ways a head. If I had taken just a few more minutes we might have crossed paths. I'm pretty sure he was walking in front of the bleachers as I was walking in back of the bleachers. But, I had never been so thankful to see him. At the time it felt like I was in a dream. Luckily it was a good ending! And the owner gave Caden a checkered flag as he knew he was missing. It took my heart until next morning to feel less anxious.

How about you...have your kids ever gone missing?

2 comments:

Dana said...

I might have told you this before ... but we lost Foofie for a bit on her second birthday. We thought she might have gotten lost in the tall grasses of the meadow/wetland behind our house ... she had gotten into our car parked on our driveway and shut herself in. It was a hot day and thank the Lord we found her within a few agonizing minutes.

Nikki said...

No you didn't tell me that..Ugg, scary!!!