Lost and Found

 

Yesterday Elliot gave me quite a scare. I had taken all three boys with me to the elementary school to register Oliver for Kindergarten. The registration took place in the school library and was staffed by volunteers from the PTA. It was set up sort of like an assembly line. At one table they checked all your proof of residency documents, then at the next they took note of the health forms and vaccination records, etc.  They had set up an area near the front as a play area for the kids who were accompanying their parents. Oliver and Elliot ran right over and immediately started playing with the blocks.

With Andrew asleep in the stroller I started down the gauntlet of the registration bureaucracy, glad that Oliver and Elliot were otherwise occupied. Occasionally I would glance over to check on them. After a while I noticed that I couldn’t see Elliot. There were bookshelves that were just a bit taller than he, so I guessed that he was just out of my line of sight. But I excused myself from the “Home Language Survey” table anyway, just to make sure he wasn’t getting into trouble.

He wasn’t there. Oliver didn’t know where he was either.

Where was he? Had anyone seen a little boy with a blue hat with a bulldozer on it? Yes? Really? You saw him wander out the door? Really, you watched a two-year old walk right out the door by himself and didn’t think to stop him? What kind of idiot are you? [That last part was internal monologue.]

The school is made up of a number of small, one story buildings. It’s set up so that every classroom opens directly to the outside, there are no internal hallways, so when he wandered out of the library he wandered outside. I started yelling his name and scanning the crowd for him. School had just ended so there were literally hundreds of kids running around shouting and laughing, parents chatting, people everywhere, but no sign of Elliot. I starting running like a mad woman, frantically calling his name. A million different horrible scenarios played out in my head. It was so loud with all the kids running around that no one seemed to notice my distress but someone must have alerted the school officials because they tried to page him over the PA system. [Like that would have worked?!?!… oh, they want an Elliot to report to the office, I’d better march myself over there right now.]

Anyway, what happened next is evidence to me of God’s hand in my life. I got the distinct impression that he was on the playground. Admittedly, that might have been less of a spiritual prompting and more of an educated guess, but at any rate after I circled the library building I headed for the playground. Of course, I discovered there is more than one playground. I noticed at least two, both with many different play structures.  I didn’t know which way to look, my eyes darted every which way but then, in what can only be described as a miracle, I saw him.

From about 100 yards away, through the crowd, my eyes locked onto a little blue hat. It was like a moving Where’s Waldo picture, but I found him. I ran over to him and with shaking hands I scooped him up and said, “Hey Buddy, I was looking for you!” I was so relieved to find him I didn’t get mad or try to figure out a way to discipline him, I just hugged him close to me.

I love this kid so much but man, he is a challenge.

And this is why I no longer think those tacky toddler leashes are such a bad idea.