All this week the girls and Oma have been busily preparing for their trip to Montana to see my brother Doug and his lovely bride Sarah, and their cousins, Emma, Abbie, Jack, Margaret, and Joey. Today was their departure day, and this morning I was up and making coffee at 3:10am. There was much hustling and bustling as they packed away the last of their supplies (laptops were among the final items to be stowed away — one cannot pack those until the last possible minute!) and got themselves spiffy for the journey. We had scheduled pickup from the shuttle for 4:15, but of course they were 20 minutes late. Oh well, it was only 92 degrees and muggy outside as we sat waiting! Sigh…
At last the van pulled up, and in short order all the bags were stowed, the three girls were hupped up onto the front bench of the bus, and mom was deposited in the place of honor, riding shotgun. I waved them away and prayed for safe journey and no TSA troubles!
Coming inside, I discovered Jacob wandering around, bleary-eyed after being pounced on three times by sisters wanting to say goodbye. I handed him my keys and told him to go out to the cage and lock the gate. Gwinnie had gotten all excited with the unusual commotion in the house, and followed him out to the cage. I looked down at something, looked back up through the open front door, saw the gate open, and neither boy nor dog anywhere to be seen. IMMEDIATE PANIC!!! I ran outside, looked in all directions and saw nothing but dark empty streets! I couldn’t BELIEVE it could happen that quickly and silently — a 13 year old boy just disappearing like that, and the dog too! I ran back inside and woke Paul up, and he got right in the car and headed up the street in one direction, while Jeff got his keys and came out to search as well. I was pacing the sidewalk praying, when Paul drove up, and out hopped the barefoot boy. Gwinnie was reluctant to get out of the car – I think she wanted to go to the ranch! Lol! Oh how thankful I was. Gahhhh I hate that feeling SO MUCH, the helplessness when a child disappears. If it hadn’t been the dead of night it wouldn’t have hit me so hard. Anyway, I had to remind the boy “Don’t go running off to chase the dog without TELLING ME you are running off to chase the dog!! Especially in the DARK!!”
Sigh. It took me a while to come down off that adrenalin rush, but by 5:30 I was sleepy enough to go back to bed for a couple of hours before getting ready for church.
After church I checked my phone and found that my beauties had landed safely in Minot, ND, and were awaiting pickup at the airport from Uncle Doug. I was also quite thankful to hear that the TSA wasn’t too rough on them, although Megan did get a pat-down. I don’t even think Mom was given any trouble with her leg, or I would have heard about it – so that’s good. And by this evening, Meg had posted a beautiful set of pics from their journey and first evening at the ranch… I so, so wish I could be there, but it helps to see them from a distance through her photos. I know for a fact that they are having a fantastic time with their cousins, and Mom is in her seventh heaven getting to hold her littles again!!
