Dear Gage, you gave me a heart attack!

Yesterday before I left for work. I was trying to get dinner ready, get Remington ready for scouts, get myself ready, finish some laundry. You know typical stuff. I ended up leaving later than I normal do. As I was backing out of the driveway I saw Gage in the backyard playing, Remington was waiting for his ride to scouts and Coleton was at a friend's house playing. I called Ryan to make sure he knew Gage was outside. He said he knew so off I went.

I got to work and was just getting settled. I had been there about 30 minutes. Ryan called and said he couldn't find Gage. I asked him where he had looked he said everywhere. So I went to talk to my manager to see if I could sneak off to help look. I figured he was just at a neighbors house playing on a swing set, sand box, trampoline or petting one of the many cats around. My manager was on the phone so I waited a few minutes when she got off I told her Gage was missing and wondered if it was alright if I left for a little while. "Get out of here." she said. So I gathered my stuff and left. Sure that Ryan had not really looked and I would find him in no time. I am almost home and Ryan calls to tell me he checked all the usual places that I assumed Gage would be and he wasn't there. The neighbors were out helping look for him.

Panic then sets in.

My brain starts thinking what if he wandered out on the street and got hit by a car. What if hes on the street and someone finds him and calls the cops and they take him away. What if he gets kidnapped. You know all the worse possible things that can happen. Well I pull into the neighbor hood and see multiple people out looking. I stopped down by the mailbox to get out and a little neighbor boy says that Gage is at my house. I yell to my other neighbor to let Ryan know and then I jumped in the car and drove home. Sure enough there on the porch with 2 strange, pierced, scroungy, long hair teenage boys is my baby.

RELIEF!!

They told me they saw him wandering by their neighbors house and then he started to walk toward Canyon Rd. They called to him and told him to go home. Then they watched him and wondered where he lived. Somehow they made it our house. They told me "we're just trying to do the right thing". THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

I've always been a little judgemental of kids who look like that. Always thought that they are up to no good. I think I will try to look at them differently now. They probably aren't bad kids and these boys didn't have to stop my little boy from wandering on down the street barefooted with his jacket on upside down that they helped him flip around. They didn't have to try and figure out where he lived and why he was so far from home. They did though and I am grateful!