Tuesday, February 07, 2006

A Scare of a Lifetime

I didn't get the best news when I got home from work tonight.

A fun afternoon trip to Walmart with Grandma & Grandpa turned out to be something that could have changed the family forever. I'm INCREDIBLY THANKFUL that I can tell this story because it has a HAPPY ending.

My mom starts by telling me that Braeden walked away from them in the store. Then she goes on to say that they had to close up the store and call a Code Adam. Right then my heart sank --- I couldn't believe what I was hearing! My son? A Code Adam?!? They were in the store, my mom was looking at the videos and my dad was in the next department over. Braeden was with my mom and kept running back and forth between her and my dad. She told him that was it, and to stay by her side. Well, he didn't listen and went off to Grandpa again. So, my dad starts to push the cart with Kaelynn over to my mom, she looks up and asks where Braeden is - and he says "I don't know! I thought he was with you" .... they immediately start screaming his name - 2 employees run over to find out what's wrong and they put out the Code Adam alert immediately. They said a bunch of people started to look for him, older people were asking what he looked like and what he was wearing .... they said it seemed like forever, but he was found in a matter of a couple minutes. A male customer (with a little boy with him) found him.

I was trying to digest this all .... trying to keep my composure. But I couldn't .... I broke down and cried. What if something had happened to my boy?? As I write this, tears burn my eyes again.

I'm ETERNALLY GRATEFUL for that man that pinpointed my son and brought him to my parents. So, with that:

THANK YOU TO THE MAN IN WALMART WITH HIS OWN LITTLE BOY, WHO FOUND MY SON. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

3 comments:

Dana, proud mommy of 3 said...

OH wow Sarah!! That is horrible!!! I'm so glad he was safe and sound. I've had that happen a couple of times and I was a nervous wreck! I also have tears in my eyes! I'm so so SO glad things turned out ok!!!

Rebekah Christine said...

Sarah - I couldn't even start reading your post without crying - even knowing the ending was positive. Just the thought of something happening to any of our precious children is horrible. I praise God for how things turned out - there truly are angels looking out for us.

-Scott (Rebekah's Daddy)
www.HelpRebekah.com

Mackey said...

Oh God Sarah, my heart sank when I read that. Thank the Lord he is O.K.
When my Braeden was about 3 we were at Superstore(big grocery store here in Alberta). As we were bagging our stuff at the check out he wanted to go & play at the play centre which was about 6 steps from the check out. It was just one of those little Fisher Price climbing things. Dave & I said O.K. because we only had a few things left to bag & he was practically right beside us. I kept looking over at him every few seconds & then all of a sudden I didn't see him. I thought maybe he climbed inside the play structure so I went to look & he wasn't there! Immediately I started yelling his name & yelling at Dave that he wasn't in here! I completely panicked! All of a sudden everything became a blur & it seemed like everything was going in fast motion. I wanted everyone to stop moveing so I could look for my boy! I ran over to customer service & told them what had happened & they wanted a description of what he was wearing & it was so hard for me to try to remember because my mind was going a million miles a second. All I could think is some horrible person had my boy! All of a suuden a man came through the "IN" doors holding my sons hand! Apparently Braeden had though Daddy & I had went outside already so he went to see if he could find us! The man asked him where he was going & he said he was looking for his Mom & Dad so the wonderful man brought him back into the store. THANK GOD! I huuged Braeden SO hard & I bawled!!!! Let me tell you, he got whatever he wanted for the rest of that day! That experience left me shaken for days. The "what ifs" kept going through my mind.
Needless to say I have become maybe a bit too paranoid bt some peoples standards but I DO not let my kids out of my site!!! My 4 year old holds my hand at all times! Braeden is 11 now so of course he is not going to hold my hand but even if he is just walking up to the store with his friends that is 2 blocks away I make sure he has his cell phone & he knows he is to never walk anywhere alone. Safety in numbers I say.
Sorry for that long winded comment...I guess I could have just done a post on my blog re: this.:P
Sorry.
Glad to hear it all turned out O.K.( I bet he got an extra big hug at bedtime tonight!?)