Fear....Straight Up

Last night the whole family went to Bellevue Square for dinner and to watch the Snowflake Lane production. It is always fun to see the high school drummers dressed up like little drummer boys and to see the "snow" falling from the sky. We tried to go to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, but it was almost a two hour wait, so we decided to go next door to Red Robin. I didn't mind so much, but some of the family weren't so happy. After dinner we rushed outside to get a spot right up near the street so Erika and Mitchell (my niece and nephew) could see everything that was happening. My sister and her husband and the kids went in one direction to reserve our spot and the rest of the family was going to the restrooms and what not.

As we walked out of Red Robin we ran into Donnie who screamed at us "WE LOST ERIKA!!" We all started to freak out. I had Trevor (my other nephew) in a Baby Bjorn and John and I took off running in one direction while my mom and dad went running in another and Donnie in a third. It was absolutely the worst feeling in my life. We started shoving people out of the way and screaming her name and asking people if they had seen a little blond girl walking around with a purple jacket on. John and I saw so many girls her size wearing purple jackets. It was horrible to say the least. We ran up and down the one side of the street screaming frantically. John found a cop and told him we lost Erika and they said join the club. There were also two other children that had gone missing that night.

All of this to say, that Erika is one smart girl. She went right back to where she knew we all were last...right out in front of Red Robin and Cheesecake Factory. She had been yelling for Mom and Dad and some couple realized she was lost and wouldn't let her leave where she was until her parents had gotten there. Erika told them the names of her parents and they were not going to go anywhere until Kim and Don were found. Donnie ran back that way and found her and wouldn't let her go the rest of the night.

We were all freaked out and panicking. It was very traumatic for Erika as well as Kim and Donnie and the rest of the family. needless to say, we got to enjoy the show! I couldn't imagine the feeling if that was my own child lost in a crowd of hundreds or thousands of people right along a busy street. Thank God for that couple.