I'm sure that's what the neighbors were wondering tonight. But before I tell you what went down tonight, I have to first tell you what went down last week.
Last Thursday afternoon we were on our way home from Katie's piano lesson and I remembered I needed to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things I needed for dinner. I considered going on home and dropping off the kids because Aaron was home already, but I thought, well I only need three things and they're all from the produce area, so I can just run in get those three things, and be done. No big deal, right? Wrong! So we stop at Kroger and get inside and the first thing we see are their beautiful strawberries, which are on sale this week. I stopped and looked at them, even though they were not one of the three things I needed. They had a little sample container, and of course the girls had to sample them since they love strawberries. I decided that I would get some later and just stick to my three things so I could get out fast. So I said, "Come on girls", assumed they listened, and I proceed to walk over to get some lettuce and cucumbers. After finding the romaine lettuce, I turned around to check on the girls and only Katie was there. I said, "Where is Sarah?" She shrugged her shoulders and went back over to where the strawberries were to look for her, which was about 20-30 feet away. The refrigerated unit that the strawberries were in is not tall, but with the stuff on top of it, it was tall enough that we couldn't tell if Sarah was there or not. I was sure she was still there 'sampling', but when Katie came back around to where I could see her, I knew by the look on her face that she wasn't there. So we started looking for her. I mean, it had only been a matter of seconds, or so it seemed, since I had seen her, so I thought she couldn't have gone too far. But we look all over the produce section and down a few aisles, and no Sarah anywhere. Then I have this thought run through my mind about how small she is and how easily someone could just pick her up and head out the door. Or how easily my sweet little chocoholic could be lured away with some kind of yummy treat. And then I realized how close the produce section is to the entrance and how quickly she could be gone forever. As hard as I was trying to stay calm, the panic was setting in. I quickly walked up customer service and told them I couldn't find my little girl. They announced her name over the intercom and told her that I was waiting for her at the front of the store. A young employee took Katie and they went one way looking around the store together and I went the other way. But I was torn between going searching around the store and staying by the door to make sure she didn't leave with anyone. I walked around a little and then kept coming back up to the front of the store. It was only a matter of minutes--although it seemed like FOREVER-before I saw Sarah walking toward the front with a store employee. What a relief! I seriously can't imagine what parents of missing kids must go through, because I was about to lose it after just a few minutes. She wasn't crying, but was visibly upset. I called her name and she saw me and came running over to me and gave me a big hug and said, "I couldn't find you." I said, "I know. I couldn't find you either and I was scared." So it was a happy ending to a very scary situation, but it made me think about how we haven't talked to our girls enough and prepared them for different situations that could happen. So on the way home I talked to the girls about how important it was for them to always stay with me when we are in a public place, and to never go anywhere or take anything from someone they don't know. When we got home, we told Aaron what had happened and we talked with them a little more. But I still felt like we needed to prepare them even more, and decided that our next FHE lesson needed to address this topic. So Aaron called Buster Neely, a member of our ward who is a sheriff's deputy, and asked him to come over and talk to the girls about "stranger danger" tonight. He did a great job of explaining different situations that they might encounter and how to handle them. He told them that if they ever had a stranger try to physically take them somewhere to scream and make as much noise as possible to attract attention. The bad thing was that the one that really needed to hear it all fell asleep just before the Neelys got to our house, and we just couldn't seem to wake her up. So, we'll be reviewing with her over the next few days and weeks. She did, however, wake up in time for our activity, which was a ride in Brother Neely's car, with the lights and everything.
They couldn't get both of the seat belts to adjust correctly, so they had to take the girls on a ride one at a time.
They both thought it was pretty cool. We told them it that this was the only time that riding in this car would be cool!
After the ride, we had 'i scream' sundaes for dessert and visited a little before the Neelys had to leave. Thanks so much Brother and Sister Neely for teaching our girls about "stranger danger"!
