I’ve been avoiding posting this photo for 3 weeks now, because it still gives me the creepy crawlies to think about it. And here’s the story why:
We had decided to do dinner at Costco after doing the shopping and the kiddos didn’t hold out very well for us. They wouldn’t stay seated, wouldn’t actually eat much and made more noise and mess than the whole affair was worth. And at the very end of it all Rhys spilled his soda all over the floor and he and Avery both tried to ‘help’ dad clean it up. During all of the commotion I finally ended up picking up Avery to help keep her out of the puddle and I noticed Rhys sneaking awayfrom the corner of my eye. He was moving slow and toward the interior of the wear-house so I didn’t think too much of it as I turned to get a visual on Quinn.
Of course Quinn was being a punk and decided to start running toward the front door. Again, he’s a smart big kid and knows to stop at the entry door so I didn’t worry about him as I grabbed the cart and left Eric to go look for Rhys, who I now couldn’t see anywhere….
My heart started to race just that little bit that a mom’s heart does when she instinctively knows something’s off… I quickly yelled down to Quinn and asked him where his brother was to which he shrugged his shoulders, and then I saw him. IN THE PARKING LOT being chased after by one of the shopping cart workers.
There was some commotion at the front doors as I was trying to get through them to get to my baby. People standing there staring and asking ‘who’s kid is that’, so I literally had to just push my way through them all since none of them could apparently hear me yelling ‘excuse me please!’. Leaving Quinn holding the cart I ran over to the lady just heading into Costco who had scooped up Rhys and met her in the parking lot. She told me that he had run in front of a car and then continued on her way into the store with the shopping cart worker.
About 30 seconds later Eric comes walking out of the store with his freshly refilled drink and sees me holding both Rhys and Avery in my arms and looking a bit wilded eyed while he himself looked a bit confused. I explained what had happened and he got a bit quiet. Amongst the chaos and the battle of wrestling our screaming kids into their car seats and starting the car to drive home, we were both a little quiet right then. I asked if we could say a prayer before we left the parking lot and I broke down in sobs as I thanked the Lord for watching over my baby boy and sending his servants to assist us in a time of need.
I’m sure there were numerous unkind words said about me that evening, but I didn’t hear them. I’m sure there were tons of rude stares and gawks given in our direction, but I didn’t feel them. I only felt the love of my Savior and my family as I put them all to bed and sat to ponder on the day’s events. I had come close to loosing my chunky monkey, my nose honker, my silly face maker. I had could have lost the best neck hug a mom could ever ask for, and the cutest most protective brother to his twin sister, Avery. But I know that the Lord has a big plan for this boy of mine. This beautiful child who fought so hard just to be here in this world will not be so easily taken from it.
just love,
//kelly
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