I don't even know how to write this. It happened yesterday, but my heart keeps reliving it and each time is just as devastating as the first. This will probably be long as I have a lot of feelings to sort through, so sorry up front about that...
We went to David's brother's graduation yesterday. It was long and tiring for the kids, especially when you consider all of the sitting in the car on the drive to get there, but it was great to be there for his special day. When it was over we left the building which is in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. There were several tables set up with punch and cookies for the graduates and friends and family to sit and talk and take pictures and celebrate together. It was quite the ordeal to actually get outside though because of the hundreds of people who had stopped to stand around and chat and such. Micah and Sarah ended up with Gracie as we were leaving the building, and David and I ended up with Micah and Sarah's kids and Benson and Sammy. Shortly after that David and I were separated by the crowd as well, and Benson and Sammy and I made our way out of the building alone and went to search for the others outside. David took Gracie to get some lemonade and cookies and were just leaving the tables when I found them. I passed Benson off to David since he was breaking my arm and took Sammy to get some treats and shortly after made my way back to where the others were.
About a minute later I realized Gracie was no longer with us.
Gracie used to wander a lot when she was little. I dreaded going to the park or to play-dates because it seemed like while other moms would sit and talk and relax I would have to chase Gracie around because she was always getting herself (and sometimes others) into dangerous situations or just running off to explore alone and far away. She grew out of that, and is actually really helpful in keeping tabs on her brothers at times. She has always been very social and shows no fear even among large groups of strangers. When I realized she was gone I feared the worst. Someone had seen this happy little social girl of mine and taken her! David immediately started looking for her. I watched in the little area that we were in. Micah and Sarah went looking for her. I waited with Sammy, Benson, Asher, and Elsa for one of them to come back holding hands with her and saying, "Oh she was just sitting on the grass eating her cookie," or "she was just behind us and we couldn't see her." When that didn't happen right away my heart began to fall. I began to cry. A lot. A kind family (another graduate and his parents) came over to me to see if they could help. They went inside to find a way to make an announcement to all of the people gathered there that a little girl was missing. They came back with a bull horn. Micah stood on something high and asked everyone to look around them for a five-year-old red-head named Gracie in a brown and teal dress.
When no one saw her I new that the worst was true.
That my little girl wasn't there anymore.
I took the bull horn from Micah and toting Benson on one hip went to go make the same announcement inside yelling her name in the bull horn as I went into the building. But still no Gracie. It had probably been about 20 minutes by then and I had been praying all that time for my little girl to be found and returned to me. Then I called 911. The woman who answered the phone was very calm and patient and asked me questions about where I was (I had no idea) and what my daughter looked like. We talked for a couple of minutes and all of a sudden she was telling me that my daughter had been found! She was trying to tell me where she was (I had no idea where that was either) and finally just told me to go outside and the person who had her would find me. Those 5 minutes that I waited for a security guard from somewhere in the area to bring her to me were probably the longest five minutes of my life. All I could do when I saw her was grab her and hold her tight and thank the man over and over who had found her for returning my child to me. I wanted to reach out and hug that man too, but I couldn't make my arms let go of Gracie. I sat there on a step just holding her as people came up to me and said, "Is this Gracie? We were praying that you would find her." I don't even remember how many people said that.
"We were praying for you and for Gracie."
I asked Gracie what had happened and she said she had gone to get more lemonade and when she came back we were gone. We hadn't moved so I can only assume that she got turned around somehow as she was coming back to us. She said when she couldn't find us she went to go and try to find the van. The van was parked a couple of blocks away and when she went looking for it she went the wrong direction. She said she had crossed a street and that she had looked both ways for cars, and that "a man with brown skin helped me not walk in front of a truck." She also said the man in the truck was a "police man." That man asked Gracie her name and phone number. Gracie gave them our old phone number. But that man assumed that Gracie was from the graduation crowd a block away because Gracie had a cup of lemonade in one hand and a cookie in the other and I think he could see the crowd. He called 911 and the 911 dispatcher connected the two of us. There are honestly no words that I can think of that could adequately express the gratitude I have for those to angels here on earth and the woman from 911 that made it possible for me to get my daughter back. And I am so thankful to all of those people who prayed for us. My sister-in-law even said she saw a group of people standing in a circle praying that Gracie would be found quickly and safe. There are so many good and wonderful people in the world, and I was humbled and thankful to see so many go out of their way to help us.
Families are forever and thanks to Heavenly Father and so many of His wonderful children, mine is still all together.
