Mother's Worst Nightmare...

There are moments in life as a mother that you just don't want to experience.  I have had two of these with my sweet Brooklyn.  Yesterday was another one. 

Eric was at Priesthood and I was feeding Cooper and talking to my mom on the phone.  Brooklyn walked in and then out.  I figured she went outside to play like she usually does.  A few minutes later, Easton asked where Brooklyn was.  I said, probably outside playing with the neighbor kids. (Like they do everyday in our yard).  Easton went into the backyard and couldn't find her anyone.  So I sent him downstairs and outside again to make sure.  I figured she had left with the kids and went to one of their houses to play.  (Which made me mad because we have a strict rule that they are not allowed to leave our yard without asking.)  So I got my shoes on and we walked through the neighborhood to all the houses to see where Brooklyn was.  We went to the house I figured she was playing at.  All the kids were there playing but no Brooklyn.  Now I was nervous.  We checked another house and then walked home. Looked again around the yard and house.  Still nothing.  We were yelling her name outside, inside and found nothing.  We got into the car and drove around looking...still nothing.  I tried to call Eric, but couldn't reach him.  At this point I was scared to death.  My heart was pounding. Easton and I said a prayer in the car.   I just imagined some creep grabbing her.  I couldn't think of anywhere else to look. It had been about a half hour at this point. We went back home and I told Easton to go into the back yard and yell again.  I was in the process of calling security and then the police.  Easton started to yell again and we heard a sleepy, "What?"  Oh what a relief!!! Brooklyn pops up from the front porch.  She fell asleep on the porch swing.  And she was so tired that she never heard us yelling for her.   Easton had been up on the front porch a couple of times  but never saw her.  I was SOOOO scared.  I hate having those moments where you don't know what to do or where to go.  And of course, Eric wasn't home...which made it more stressful.  It was a relief to find her save and sound.  Brooklyn walked into the house and crawled into her bed and she slept all night.  She was one tired girl.  

This experience brought back the horrible feelings and memories that I had with Brooklyn when she was 3 years old in Lake Powell.  And since I didn't blog back then, I thought I would share that story as well so I have it documented.  I was in Lake Powell with the kids alone.  Eric was working.  It was after dinner on the houseboat and the kids were playing hide and seek.  (Not a good idea on a houseboat)  Easton was sleeping in the far back bedroom.  Two of the kids come in the kitchen and said they couldn't find Brooklyn.  I had just seen Brooklyn run down the hall towards the back of the boat a minute earlier.  The kids know not to go through the back door without an adult but you never know if they actually listen.  We all started to yell her name and look for her. After a minute, we all started to panic.  We turned on all the lights, got flash lights searching the beach, water, upstairs, all the rooms, everywhere we could think.  Easton's door was locked so we thought maybe she went in there and locked the door.  We got the window opened and crawled through and no Brooklyn.  We even looked in the storage area under the boat.  We looked everywhere. At this point, I was crying and freaking out. I thought she fell into the water and drowned.  My brother, stopped me and told me to pray.  I did.  I think everyone was at this point.  It was so scary.  We were screaming her name.  We were searching every place again and again.  After 10 minutes of horror, I went into one of the bottom bedrooms and saw a pillow move.  I grabbed the pillows off the bed and there Brooklyn was hiding at the top of the bed behind the pillows.  I grabbed her and took her upstairs and just cried.  She got really scared because she thought she was playing hide and seek and didn't know why we were all so upset.  She was one great hider!  3 people had checked that room and even felt the pillows, she was just so quite and rolled into a ball.  It was probably the scariest moment of my life. 

All I can say is I better not have another one of these experiences...I can't handle them. 
I am glad Brooklyn was safe both times.