I did the unthinkable. I was incredibly irresponsible on Saturday and lost Elina at the newest biggest mall in Utah, City Creek. This has been, by far, the scariest thing I've ever experienced as a mom. Losing her for less than 5 minutes was worse than the excruciating pain during labor, worse than all the sleepless nights since she's been born, and definitely worse than dealing with her daily tantrums as a 2 year old. My heart is SO heavy writing this post because I have to re-live that scary experience but I feel like I have to because I learned so much from it.
My sister Dom and I decided randomly that we would finally go up and see the new City Creek Mall in Salt Lake. We packed up my two girls and little sister Isa and we were on our way. My brother Robin met up with us because he lives out there and we only see him on the weekends. If any of you know Elina you know that she hates being restricted to sitting in her stroller and will scream at the top of her lungs until she's out. So yesterday when she would jump in and out of her stroller while we shopped was totally normal. Normal until we didn't hear her little voice after crossing a large intersection of the mall.
Time suddenly stopped. Everything was playing in slow motion as I processed the fact that we had just left Elina in a huge store all by herself. My heart sank. We sprinted back to the store and searched frantically for her. Crazy thoughts filled my head when I realized how huge this store was and the endless places she could be. There were doors that lead to small streets outside so my mind was racing. What if she ran out this way to look for me? What if, God forbid, someone took her? What if she got run over by a car outside? I looked over at Robin talking to a tall white man by the front of the store and ran to them. The man led us outside to the very front of the store where his wife was holding Elina, keeping her safe for us. All I could do was grab her and hold onto her so tight as uncontrollable tears streamed down my relieved face. I was so crazy that I didn't even get to thank the nice couple who I will always remember and always be grateful to.
Lesson I've learned from this experience:
-Be grateful for EVERY second I have with each of my kids and husband, good and bad, because I don't know when they will be my last.
-Focus on being a better mom for my kids. They were a gift to me and I should treat them as such everyday.
-Be helpful and offer help when I see that it is needed like the young couple that found her yesterday.
-Last, buy a backpack leash for my Elina so this experience never repeats itself!
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