...it was THE worst feeling a parent could have, a lost child. you drill safety into your children, you tell them that strangers are dangerous and will take them away from you yet when they are in trouble and lost, you want them to seek assistance from someone near them.
we happen to be out of town at a function that was outdoors where hundreds of people present. David decides he wants to play on some bounce house attractions they had for the children to play on. daddy darrow buys him tickets and he is a 'happy little boy' going from one to the other in full stride.
this one particular one is very large and is an obstacle course of sorts with two starting points. David attempts to climb on the left side and falls, bounces off the {bottom} pad and lands on the ground with his elbow breaking his fall, he looks at me with an embarrassing look yet determined to win this fight! he succeeds, as he always seems to do, and continues his way through the rest of the course. we arrive at the exit to see a child come out that had started at the same time as David but on the right side, I quickly tell daddy darrow to go to the other side as David might come out there and be upset someone was not waiting for him, daddy darrow proceeds to the other side of the spaceship bounce house.
I stand in waiting for a few minutes and NO ONE is coming out of this left side, I get a quick thought that maybe he is out already and he is with daddy darrow and they will be walking up anytime now, not wanting to move just in case I stand my ground. time goes by, 2 extremely long minutes and I now know something is wrong. do I stay here, go to the other side, grab the attendant to go look for him, scream his name, about to have a full panic attack I see out of my left eye 2 police officers walking up with David whom has the most terrified look in his eyes I have EVER seen and hope to not see again anytime soon. he was shoeless, wearing socks only and 2 huge crocodile tears he was trying to hold back until he saw me as I quickly knelt down to grab him up, yet not too fast as to scare him. he tells me "i not find you mama, where were you? I tell him "I was waiting right here for you baby" the officer told me he had made it almost two full vendor rows over, probably making his way to the fire truck that was parked a few rows back from the landing strip. I'm thinking he was going to them since he KNOWS 'they help people' when they need help!
I had to stay calm as to not freak him out yet let him know he was a brave boy and that he did a good job in finding help. I asked him what he told the officer and he said he told them "I can't find my mommy" and he said they told him we will help you find her. we made our way over to daddy darrow on the other side and reunited everyone and took a break from the bounce houses...
the rest of the day was uneventful although David stayed close by and wanted to try the other 2 bounce houses that he had not gotten into, one was a little larger w/same entrance and exit which he came out of pretty fast and said "I don't like that one mama, that one will lose me" and we trotted off to the smaller one he liked much better but was obviously still shaken as he came to the mesh and checked on "me" frequently...
it is hard to believe this is something you know every parent will experience yet something that is the most fearful thing you will experience as a parent!!
