Some of you may know this, but for those of you who don't... I am the only girl in my family with three brothers. During my youth, I was twice lost by my dad. Once, he left me at the soccer fields after practice, (luckily we were kind of close, and I knew my way home and just ran the whole way-I think I was about 8?) I don't even think anyone realized what had happened till I came running in panting, and crying.
The other time was when my dad took all of us kids Christmas shopping at the Fiesta Mall. We stopped to look at a window, and when I turned around they were all gone. My little brain frantically thought. Where would they be? I looked in a couple of stores nearby, and then, assuming that they had left me (again) I went outside to find our car. (Dumb, dumb, dumb, I know) But that's how my little head worked back then. And Fiesta Mall is not like the Dimond Center up here in the north. It has numerous parking lots, numerous levels, and its very easy to get turned around. I was very lucky, and the 17 year old guy that found me took my right to mall security, and I was reunited with my family. I think of this experience every time I see a child straying from their parent at stores. Well, the other night, I was going into Walmart, and I saw a little girl coming out. She couldn't have been more than 7, and she was glancing around, obviously looking for someone. I watched, to see if someone would follow her out...No. I went in the entrance, and continued to watch...nothing. Not wanting to approach her myself, (being a parent, I wouldn't want my kids talking to strangers, even if they're trying to help), so I went up to the Walmart Welcomer, (the one time I was glad for this job) and told them about the girl. She thanked me, and headed out to where I had left her. Not 2 minutes later, I heard the Code Adam over the intercom, and I was very relieved that the little girl was in custody. Then, 2 minutes later, the code was canceled. As I was checking out, I heard someone talking off to the side, I glanced over, and it was the little girl, pointed me out to her mother, saying "that's the lady mommy, she's the one who found me". All I could do was smile and wave. The cashier noticed me waiving, and said, "oh, are you the one who found the little girl?" "Ya, something about it just seamed not right when I saw her standing by herself." These days, with all the media coverage of bad things that are happening to little children, I felt very blessed to be apart of a good story. And I didn't really do anything. Just paid attention to what was going on around me. In fact, I don't know if I would have noticed, had I had all 3 kids in tow. just thought I'd share this story, in hopes that maybe we'll all pay a little more attention to our surroudings. With 3 loud kids, I know I definately need to do this more often.
1 comment:
In Dad's defense, both times that he lost you, he had 6 or more kids in tow AND thankfully, you were always found!
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