911

I guess there's a first for everything.  We had a pretty dramatic afternoon yesterday (Saturday the 19th).  I was peacefully trying to take a nap in my room, something that is NOT uncommon in our house, when all of a sudden Lindsey comes bursting into my room.  The next few sentences happened like this:

Lindsey: "Mom, Mom!!!  Kate said she saw Ethan running outside and he crossed the street!!!!

Mom: "Right now?!?!"

Lindsey: "Yes!!"

Mom: "Alright, run outside and see if you can get him."  (Mind you I, took my jeans off to sleep, so I had to throw them back on.)

So I get all dressed and run outside to start looking for Ethan.  I run next door to the park (during 3-4 soccer games) and look at the playground and search for rouge "players" on the soccer field. (As I'm writing this, I'm noticing that I'm making it funnier than it actually was.)  He wasn't there, so I run back home and jump in the car and drive down the road where I thought he might've gone.  After a couple of blocks, and checking in apartment parking lots, I go back home and double check the house (sometimes he's REALLY quietly hidden in a bedroom).  Nope, not there.  So I decided to call our neighbor, Brent Dickson, and have him check around his complex.  After I got off the phone with Brent, I thought it was time to get some professional help.

Time to call 911.  They ask what my emergency is (missing child) and they ask his name and age, and then they ask my address and phone #.  Then they transfer me to the Cheney Police.  They asked me for the same info and also asked what he is wearing (no coat, but luckily he had shoes and socks.  It was COLD outside.  Actually, now that I think of it, he probably wouldn't have run away, or as far, if he didn't have shoes on).  At this point I tell them that Ethan has special needs and that he probably wouldn't respond to his name.  He also has an ID bracelet with our previous address.   They told me that they just got a report of a boy running down 1st Street (this is our 'Main Street' and is a 4 lane, BUSY street) towards Safeway.  At this point my heart is racing and my stomach is full of butterflies.  They told me to stay home and call them if he came back home.

So I'm sitting on our front walkway and I start crying.  Parker was sitting next to me and he scoots next to me and starts rubbing my back.  Then he asks "Why are you crying"?

"Well, Ethan ran away and I don't know where he is, and the police think his is by Safeway and if he tries to cross the street, he doesn't know to look both ways, and he might get hit by a car.  It's really scary".

"Oh".

About 2 or 3 minutes later, the phone rings and it's the police.  They found Ethan at the public library (in the OPPOSITE direction of Safeway) which is about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile down 1st Street.  A lady found Ethan and grabbed him and called the police.

When I got to the library, there were 2 cops there and the lady that found Ethan.  One of the cops was hold Ethan in his lap in the car looking at buttons and things, and the other one was talking to the lady.  When I walked up the cop with Ethan I could see his face get a great big smile and he said "Mom, Mom"!  So the cop gave Ethan to me (no questions asked; which, looking back, was weird) and we got hugs and kisses.  I prodded Ethan to say Thank You to them, and of course I said thank you through lots of tears.  One of the cops gently told Ethan that he can't run away because it makes Mom worried and worries the police.

So, there was a happy ending, but now my mind is racing with all the possible outcomes that could happen if he tries this again.  We are now looking on the web for different locator devices for situations just like this, so we don't have to go through this again.

Ethan, of course, doesn't show that he even knew that something bad happened or that being that far from home and being in a police car fazed him.  I'm not sure what's going on inside that little brain of his :)