We lost James for almost 30 minutes yesterday. It was the end of the Freedom Festival Parade. James had been terrified through the whole parade of all the loud sounds and huge balloons. So he had been on my lap. When the parade finished I set him down, turned to fold up my chair, turned back, and he was gone. We had 2 friends with us, Kaci and Aaron, so they and Robert split up and started searching while I stayed with Lydia and Mary. I said a quick prayer with the girls. After several minutes they all came back empty handed, so Kaci stayed with the girls, I gave my phone to Robert so he could show the picture below that I'd taken of James earlier that morning to the police, and me, Robert, and Aaron split up again to continue searching.
At first the roads had been blocked off because of the parade so we had the comfort of "at least there is no traffic." But eventually they opened back up and we were facing a mass exodus of people AND cars. The "what ifs" were becoming more and more tragic in my mind. I was yelling his name over and over as I searched down the street. Every other time I yelled, someone would stop me and say, "Oh no! Have you lost a kid. How old? What was he wearing?..." and they'd join the search. (Side note: EVERY 2ish year old boy was dressed in a blue shirt and red white and blue plaid shorts. Next year, James will be in something NEON) Each time I'd have to describe him again it got harder to remain calm. My voice would break more, and the tears would start to leak more. I was scared.
I finally turned back to regroup and see if the others had found him. When Robert caught sight of me he ran towards me giving me a thumbs up. My knees buckled from relief, and I nearly collapsed on the spot. Any of the anxieties and emotions I had managed to keep at bay unleashed and I sobbed freely for a solid minute into Robert's shoulder.
Aaron had found him playing happily on an apartment porch down one of the side streets. No fear of being away from us or any idea that he had given us such a scare. I swear! If this kid survives until adulthood in one piece or without giving me a heart attack, it will be nothing short of a miracle!
Robert said later that this was probably the worst ordeal we had had so far of losing a kid. At first I disagreed referring to a time when I lost Lydia in Target, but I take it back. The massive crowd and eventual car traffic made this the WORST! I'm beyond grateful that it ended with us finding him and not with one of the hundreds of horrible scenarios that had been playing in my mind. We said a prayer as a family on the way home thanking Heavenly Father for keeping James safe and helping in quickly reuniting him with us.
Oh my sweet Baby James, you're a stinker!
