Our little runaway...

Steve had an off-site meeting last week which meant he made it home before dark. To celebrate, he decided he would take the kids for a bike ride while I stayed behind with Bennett while he was still napping. As usual, Hunter threw a colossal fit for one reason or another and Steve made it clear he would not be going with them on the ride if he couldn't pull it together. Minutes later I hear the garage door open and the house went silent.

Fast forward 10 minutes - we have a home phone but haven't given the number out to many as we rely on our cell phones. We've lived here for almost three months (however the phone wasn't plugged in for the first month) and we have only received one legitimate phone call on our home line - a neighbor got the number from the church directory to inform us we would be receiving irrigation water that day. Yet I answer the phone nearly every time it rings only to dash the hopes of some poor salesman on the other line. However, I'm getting tired of answering nearly 10 sales calls a day.

This particular afternoon I had already received several calls and was annoyed when I heard the phone ring once again. I answered it expecting to quickly decline the million dollars that was awarded to us if only we would send a $500 check as a courier fee. But it wasn't a salesman. They introduced themselves, and I didn't know them and the butchered my name pretty bad so I knew they didn't know me as well. "Do you have a little boy, maybe 2 or 3 years old?" My heart sunk - Hunter was with Steve...wasn't he? It couldn't be him. The man described where he was (two streets away) and described what he was wearing. It was Hunter. The man said he was running down the street in hysteria yelling for his dad on the bike. Of course, Steve was long gone which left a sad little boy without shoes on running down the street.

I quickly left the house as I jogged down the street to pick him up. Two ladies started walking him back to our house when Steve came across him and I met up with them. I was sick to my stomach. Hunter stood there with swollen eyes and I got choked up. He is definitely mischievous, but he hasn't scared me that bad before. Usually it's just within the walls of our home that he gets into trouble. Immediately my mind starts to think of all the awful things that could've happened to him.

As we made our way home a lady driving by pulled over and made sure he was making his way home safely, we pointed out where we lived just in case she ever sees him out and about again. While Steve was on his bike he had people flag him down which is how he knew to turn around and come and get him. My heart was full of gratitude that there were enough people looking out for him that afternoon that he made his way home safely. There were many calls made that afternoon as the people in our neighborhood searched for the parents of a distressed little boy. Thank you. I hope that it doesn't happen again, however if it does, you know how to find us.

Hunter is now on serious lock-down.