Quite the scare

We are counting our many blessings this week. On Monday night Hayden was playing outside, and when Jerry went out to check on him he found the gate open, but no Hayden. I grabbed my shoes as fast as I could and started running around the neighborhood in search of him. Jerry took the van and started driving out on the busier streets around our house to see if he could see him. I had Rebecca with me, just praying we'd find him. After a few minutes Jerry met up with me and said he hadn't seen him anywhere. We split again in our frantic search. We looked for about 10-15 minutes. That is a long time to have horrible thoughts going through your head, not knowing where your son is, and not wanting to think about life without him. Hoping that the Relief Society lesson on Sunday about words of consolation at the time of death wasn't something to prepare me. It was a horrible experience. He'd only been out there maybe 5 min. before Jerry went out to check on him, and we didn't think he could get very far in that time, but the fact that neither of us had seen him made us start thinking the worst, that he'd been picked up by some kidnapper. As I was searching I kept praying and praying, as did Jerry on his search, and I felt peace, and I felt like it would be alright, but I couldn't figure where we would find him. We should have found him by now. Luckilly there was a guy coming to give us a little spiel to sell us food storage. When he came we were out searching, but on his way to the door, he saw Hayden inside Jerry's car! How he got in I have no idea. Jerry is meticulous about locking his doors and double checking. He tried to open the door, but it was locked, he pointed to the door and Hayden unlocked it. But he couldn't open the door. (He can't figure out how to pull the lever, and push on the door.) He said Hayden was sweating and crying. Jerry rounded the corner and said he has never been so happy to see anything in his entire life. He got Hayden and came to find me. We are so grateful to Aaron who found him. We never even thought to look in the car. If he hadn't come when he did, I hate to even think of the outcome. In a weird way maybe it was a blessing the car was unlocked because Hayden had been mad because he wanted to go to the store and buy a toy, but we told him he needed to save more money. He was upset and still wanted to go to the store. If the car hadn't been open he might have started walking. We are also so grateful it wasn't the heat of the day. In the evening it is still HOT in the car. But 15 minutes in the middle of the day can be deadly. We realize we are so blessed. Poor Hayden saw us leave and that's when he started crying wondering where we were going without him and he couldn't get out of the car. It breaks my heart to think about what he was thinking and feeling. Anyway, I know this is a serious post, but since I'm kind of using this blog as my journal I wanted to write this horrible experience to remember just how blessed we are. I know that there are many people who have been in the same situation that haven't had a good outcome. I just bawled all night Monday thinking about how lucky we were, my little boy is such a sweetheart, and just how much I love my family. I think Hayden got sick of Jerry and I giving him so many hugs, and he didn't really want to just cuddle all night.
P.S. We went and bought a new lock for our gate that night, and Hayden has been reminded several times to NEVER get in a car, whether it is empty, or if there is someone else in there that he doesn't know, unless we see him get in and we know he is getting in the car.