the biggest scare of my life.

we lost mikey this afternoon!  for all of three minutes, but they were the SCARIEST three minutes of. my. life.  phil had a rare afternoon off so the three of us were in an asian supermarket browsing around and filling our cart with snacks.  we are champion snackers.  mikey was getting restless just sitting in the cart, so we let him out to walk around in the aisle.  when i’m alone with mikey, i keep him in my sights at all times, but i’ve realized now that i get way more lax when i know phil’s around thinking one or both of us is there to watch him.  phil disappears around a corner as i pick out some fruity drinks.  phil returns and asks, “where’s mikey?”  i look at him and say, “i thought you had him!”  we both look all around us thinking he must be somewhere nearby.  he wasn’t.

we come out of our aisle still thinking he’d be around the corner.  he wasn’t.

panic increasing, i run out the doors thinking he might have gotten outside somehow.  the store owner sees me and asks if i need help with anything.  i couldn’t even speak.  it seemed at the time that if i said it out loud, it’d really be true. 

i run back inside and see phil who still doesn’t have mikey.  the store owner approaches us again and asks what’s wrong.  phil says, “we lost our baby.”  he makes an alarmed grunt and takes off looking for him.  his reaction scares me as i realize this is really happening.  phil runs outside as i dash up and down the aisles calling, “MICHAEL!  MICHAEL!”  it’s a smallish store so i make it all around and run into phil again.  neither of us saw him anywhere.

there are just no words for how we felt at this moment.

suddenly, phil points past the checkout lanes and i turn to see the store owner carrying mikey (who is holding two yan-yan containers in his hands) towards us.  relief floods over me and i feel ready to collapse with thankfulness.  turns out he made his way behind one of the cashiers and no one seemed to notice him there.

the store owner tells us he knows what we’re feeling because he has two sons and one of them recently went and hid and they couldn’t find him for two hours.  i was so thankful for this kind man.

i realized today just how precious my little boy is to me.  children truly are a gift from the Lord and we are so thankful to know that He is in control.  and that mikey is safely asleep in his crib upstairs. 

but i’m still feeling .

this whole walking thing is over-rated in my book.