Panicked

Today something terrible awful happened...

The temperature was -20* today, and as a result, the start of school was delayed two hours. It was a cold day...which isn't the terrible awful thing that happened, but it sure added to the distress of what did occur.

This afternoon, the 1st graders had a Chinese New Year parade in the hallways of the school at the end of the day. They were supposed to do it last Thursday, but school was cancelled that day due to the large amount of snow we received last week. I had originally planned to take Kanyon to a dentist appointment in Idaho Falls this afternoon, and then go watch Ammon's basketball game in Firth this evening. Beginning last week, I started asking people to sub for me this afternoon; I asked 10 people, but nobody could. And then when Kanyon's Chinese New Year Parade got rescheduled to today, he didn't want to have to leave school early and miss it in order to go to the dentist. So I cancelled his dentist appointment and we both stayed here this afternoon instead. The Chinese New Year parade was fun, and at the time I was glad that we stayed for it, although tonight I questioned if staying in Salmon today turned out to be the best choice.

 

After the parade ended, I took a photo of his class in their classroom with their painted red dragon, and then I went to talk to a parent of another student in a different room.

 

Several parents of the 1st graders had come to watch the parade, so Kanyon's teacher let some of the kids leave a few minutes early from school with their parents. Since I had just been in the classroom, Kanyon was also excused.

This morning, I told my boys that I had a teacher's meeting after school so they needed to ride the bus home. So, when Kanyon was excused, he walked out to the bus yard. But because it was early, the buses hadn't arrived yet. He went to my music classroom, but the door was locked. So, he thought he would just beat the bus and me to our home (which, may I add is 7 miles from town!!), and he started running along the highway. He made it several blocks before he was picked up by a sweet lady who goes to church with us (he passed 3 intersections and was already past the Napa Auto Parts store). She saw him, stopped her car, picked him up, and brought him back to the school and parked next to my car.

After I was done talking to the parent of the student, I went back to Kanyon's classroom at the end of school to remind him to ride the bus. He was already gone, so I figured he'd already went to the bus. Then I went and talked to the teacher who I'd be meeting with after school and she said the meeting would start in 15 more minutes. So I went back to my classroom, and then started towards my car to put some of my personal belongings in it to take home later. That's when the lady from our church approached me and told me she picked up my son on the highway. I was in complete shock. I hadn't even realized he had wandered off. He had left his backpack in his cubby (with his hat and gloves), his coat wasn't zipped up (at that time it was -2* outside), and he was running along carrying his folder with his cold, bare hands. I thanked the sweet woman, took Kanyon inside to his cubby to retrieve his backpack, spoke to his teacher, and told the other teacher that I could no longer attend the scheduled meeting because I needed to take my son home.

And then I began to have a panic attack and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. It really hit me: on such a freezing cold day, my little 6-year-old boy was found running next to the busy highway. He could've been killed, or kidnapped, or frozen, and I wouldn't have known what happened to him. The possibilities scared my insides to death.

Kanyon couldn't understand what I was so upset about, although I explained it to him several times about the dangers he put himself in, and the choices he could've made that would've been safer.

I feel like I've aged years in one afternoon. The worry and fearfulness and anxiety finally subsided into a feeling of overwhelming gratitude for a good Samaritan woman for saving my son, as well as my heart.