Amazing creatures were performing for us everywhere!
This bear kept the boys pretty entranced as it would take a few steps forward and then just as many steps backwards. Hmmm, sometimes I feel like that bear! :)
We were curious to see where we measured up to the bears we were visiting, so we thought we'd find out.
Not too shabby!
Notice the dinosaur? The Zoo is currently having a dinosaur exibit that sounds pretty neat. We opted out of going there today, but in honor of it there are dinosaurs all throughout the park. I'll touch on the dinosaurs a bit later in the post.
After visiting many animals, we were off to ride the long train!!
I was experimenting with some of the different settings on my camera and couldn't help but take a few more pictures of these cute boys!!
I just love it when they are loving to each other. It makes my heart happy!!
After the train ride we were ready to head home. We took a quick look into the penguins...
and then stopped one last time to see the Sea Lions as they were being fed.
This is where our day turned.
I realized I couldn't see D. I couldn't see him anywhere. My friend, Sue couldn't see her two boys that are a bit older than D either. She was pretty sure that they had run ahead because they knew we were getting ready to leave. She headed up to try and catch up with them. Both of us thought it was odd that the boys would leave without us--especially as just a few minutes earlier, D hadn't been able to see me for a minute and when he did see where I was he came to me with tears in his eyes saying he couldn't find me. After looking over the area one last time, I headed up towards the entrance/exit. Truly, at this moment I was feeling a great deal of fear. I was trying to stay calm, because G is extremely sensitive to situational emotions and I didn't want to cause him any more fear than he was already experiencing when he realized that we didn't have D with us. As we were quickly heading towards the exit I just kept praying in my mind, asking Heavenly Father to please protect the boys.
I reached the entrance, found Sue and saw that she didn't have the boys. I asked G to stay up with her and I headed back to look for D. I was running as I pushed J's stroller down the hill back to the area we had just been. I looked and looked, but the boys were nowhere to be found. I went farther into the Zoo, to places we had been earlier and couldn't find them. My mother's heart was hurting as one of my greatest fears was taking place. After searching as much as I thought was possible in those areas I headed back to the entrance, hoping Sue had found the boys in the mean time. Again, I was running up the hill, continuing to pray--pleading with my Heavenly Father to please protect the boys and to help us find them safely. When I reached the entrance Sue had reported the boys as missing to the reception desk. They hadn't been found yet. At this point, G was all but sobbing as he kept asking me "what are we going to do?" and "where is D?" I was on the verge of tears once again, but as soon as G saw that, I could see his fear increasing. I put my arm around G and said that we needed to find a place where we could say a prayer. We walked around the corner and we hugged each other as I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to please protect D, to calm him and to help him be found so we could all be together again. I thanked Heavenly Father for prayer and then closed our prayer. I tried calming G once we had finished praying, letting him know that we were doing all we could, we had asked for Heavenly Father's help, we had the help of the zoo employees and we would find him. At this point it had been about twenty minutes since we realized we couldn't find D. Shortly after, we received word from the zoo employees that the boys had been found at the entrance to Dino World--the exibit that we hadn't gone to, and that they would be brought up to the entrance by zoo employees. My relief was huge! For a split second I also got pretty angry. How had D run off and gone so far? What was he thinking? That anger soon fell away again to such huge relief that he was okay.
After waiting about 40 minutes we saw the golf cart that was bringing the boys. I was so grateful to the employees for taking care of our boys. As Drew got off the cart and came over to me he hugged me and said that he couldn't find me. I held him tightly and cried as I said that I had been so scared when I couldn't find him, that we had been looking and looking and that G and I had said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to please keep him safe. He just about crumpled in my arms then and started sobbing. G came up to us and hugged both of us. With J in his stroller, we were all together again.
I've really taken a lot of time to think over the day. We had a special Family Home Evening about what we do when we get lost or what we do if someone comes up to us and tries to hurt or take us. I also had to get over my feelings of being responsible for allowing a situation to arise where I didn't know where one of my children were. It was an extremely emotional and stressful day.
I'm so grateful for how things turned out. I know that there are many families in the world that have experiences just like ours, but they don't turn out the same. For about a half hour I felt a fear that I hope I never feel again. I love my boys dearly. I am grateful I get to be their mother. I know Heavenly Father loves each of us too and that He hears our prayers. I will try to do a better job at keeping my boys safe. Now to move on. Sigh....
1 comment:
Been there, done that. Know that awful fear. So glad it turned out okay!
Post a Comment