Missing person's report aka Freak.Out.Central.

Yesterday I experienced the worst afternoon of my life. Isaiah typically gets off of the bus at 2:45 pm. Since this year he's in the second grade, I've given him a little teensy bit more freedom. Instead of going to wait for him at the bus stop, I go out to the end of our driveway and wait for him. I can see the bus go through the corner (we are the second house in) and then I can see him cross the streets to get to the house. No big deal, right? It makes him feel good, and I can still see him from the second he passes the back of the bus. Except yesterday the bus drove off and my kid was not on the sidewalk.

"OK, calm down, he's probably at school still. Maybe he had to go to the bathroom or something and he missed the bus. Let's call the school."

The school tells me that they will page him and hopefully he will turn up at the office but they give me the number to transportation and they can make some calls to see if he maybe got on the wrong bus. I knew this was highly unlikely because he has the same bus driver and bus number as last year. But I called anyway, just to be on the safe side. No answer. Great. Call the school back. "Nope he hasn't come. Let me call his teacher. Maybe she saw where he went." Shit. This isn't making me feel any better. So I call the cops to see if they can maybe send a car over to the school to see if he's wandering around. In the back of my head I'm hoping that he didn't think he could walk home. It's almost a four mile walk along some pretty heavily trafficked but not fantastically sidewalked streets.

I file the missing persons report, crying the whole time. How tall is he, how much does he weigh, what clothes is he wearing....all questions that I never ever wanted to answer while talking to a police officer. About fifteen minutes later my house phone rang. To my surprise, it was our friend and Den Leader's wife, Mandy. To my relief, she lets me know that Isaiah turned up on her doorstep. He was trying to walk home and realized that he didn't know the way. When he realized he was lost, he saw a trail that they had traveled on during a Scout meeting and he remembered how to get their house. So he went there.

FREAKING OUT. He was unaccounted for for a total of only about 45 minutes, but it was the most terrifying 45 minutes of my life thus far. My police officer friend tells me I did a good thing by filing the report as quickly as I did because if the unthinkable actually were happening, minutes are critical. Thank goodness it was just my kid making a bad decision and nothing worse happened. I'm also very thankful that under the pressure of being lost, he was able to keep his head and figure out a solution instead of continuing to wander around. SO. I woke up this morning with my eyes almost swollen shut from crying for hours yesterday afternoon. But I have my son, grounded FOREVER, safe and sound at home with us.

On a lighter note, I received my copy of "Run Like a Girl: How Strong Women Make Happy Lives" in the mail on Wednesday. I made it about twenty pages in to the book prior to disaster striking yesterday afternoon....but I love what I've read so far and can't wait to get back to y'all with my review. I just know you're all on pins and needles.

Also coming up soon, a big change in my family........stay tuned boys and girls!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!!!!!!!!!!