Friday, January 27, 2006

24 Hours in My Life

Last week we had a horrible scare. I will start with little details first.

Wednesday afternoon...C&C's friend Lauren came over for a play date. Kristin called and asked if Caleb(3 yrs old) could come play at our house while she went to the dentist, knowing that I would be teaching voice lessons and Caleb would be unsupervised. This was fine with me, as a lot of my friends do this on Wednesdays.

3:00pm Kristin dropped off Caleb while I was in a voice lesson, so I didn't see her. At 3:45 my last lesson began. I decided to have all 4 of the kids come down to the basement with me for this last hour. They played in the garage, rolled the balls, colored, all very quietly. At 4:35 Caleb went upstairs. At 4:40 I asked Chloe to go upstairs to make sure Caleb wasn't getting into trouble. At 4:45 the lesson ended and the rest of us went upstairs. I asked Chloe where Caleb was, and she said she couldn't find him. We casually looked in all the rooms-under beds, in closets, all the bathrooms-in bathtubs. No sign of him. We called his name expecting him to giggle as he usually does playing hide and seek. No sound. I went back downstairs and see that my front door is unlocked. This scared me completely. I ALWAYS lock my door. But there it was, UNLOCKED! I went outside calling his name. Just then my voice lesson's mother(who happens to be a good friend) pulled up. She and I searched around my building first, then ran through the rest of the subdivision. Nothing. No one had seen him. By that point we had multiple neighbors out helping in the search. We looked in the ditches, at the clubhouse, in the pool, everywhere. Finally we realized it was time to call the police. My friend Debbie called the police from my house while I drove up and down the 2 very busy roads that are on either side of us. I drove into every neighborhood. Nothing. I said a prayer, and felt that we were doing everything right. I called Ty, Caleb's dad at work, and left an urgent message on his voicemail. I called Kristin at home and left an urgent message there. Neither of them have cell phones. On my way home I pick up a policeman that is directing rush hour traffic at our intersection. He hadn't seen Caleb, nor were there any reports of a 3 yr old boy being found. 5:15pm He rode back to my house with me, where we found several police officers waiting for us. Also inside the house was Lauren's (C&C's friend) mother, Cindy. Cindy had shown up to a house full of police officers, and me gone! Debbie and her daughter Melissa were at the house with the kids, and told her what was going on. Brian had come home during this time too, and had begun looking around the neighborhood, along with at least 15 neighbors, and 10 policemen. More police officers showed up over the next 20 minutes. I am questioned over and over again. By this point I knew he couldn't possibly be hiding or roaming the streets. He had either been taken, or was dead. Memories and emotions from last May when my dear friend's son died came rushing back. I knew I was going to have to move, and that Kristin was going to hate me forever. So many emotions, so many thoughts, such horror. 5:41 Cindy comes running outside telling us that Kristin had just left a message on the answering machine, saying that she had Caleb, and not to go looking for him! I called to confirm this, and then the police officer also spoke with her. He told her that policemen were on their way to her house. Just then a firetruck pulled up. Everyone was informed that the search was over.

So that was my traumatic recollection of the story.

To be fair, and to answer questions, here's Kristin's side...

When Kristin knocked on my door, Caleb came from the garage and unlocked the door. She assumed that I had sent him, since she knew that I was teaching a voice lesson. She didn't want to interrupt my lesson, so she took Caleb and left. She also was in a hurry to pick up Ty from the train station. When she got to the train station and ended up waiting 40 minutes. When she got home, she heard my messages, and called me to let me know she had Caleb.

At Kristin's house...the policeman took Kristin's statement, and then said, "Ma'am, we had 20 police officers, 2 helicopters, and the Amber Alert out looking for your son. Next I suggest you interrupt your friend and let her know that you are taking your son."

She of course felt absolutely horrible about this. We have all been a bit traumatized about this. Many lessons were learned, and fortunately it all turned out ok.


Since the title of this post is 24 hours...Thursday morning I had to go see a general surgeon. It turns out that I have a hernia at the edge of my caesarean. It is likely that it was not stitched together tight enough. (Is it too late to file a lawsuit???) So today I go under the knife to fix my hernia. It shouldn't be too bad, but it still makes me nervous. I was pretty emotional when I was told about the hernia and needed surgery, but that was because I was still recovering from the trauma of the previous evening.

It's time to head to my surgery, I'll write again soon.

4 comments:

Chas said...

Holy Crow!! Just confirms my thought that all children should be implanted with some sort of GPS System.. How very scary.. I am glad everything turned out and you don't have to move. Sending good vibes for your surgery, that is no fun either. Take care.

Deanna said...

Wow - that is definitely scary! Glad everything turned out ok in the end.

Speaking of 24 hours...Todd and I are finishing watching the 2nd season of 24 and are total addicts!

Todd said...

Shouldn't have trusted those Yale doctors to cut on you...

Beca said...

I cannot even imagine how scary that would be. What a relief that all is well.