Each day, around 11:40ish in the morning a big yellow bus, carrying my Hattie Grace, pulls up to the end of my driveway. Each day I know it is coming and am prepared for it. I put Sophie in her high chair, have shoes on my feet and am at the door waiting.
The bus came early today.
I was not prepared.
Now, I did have the shoes on my feet, but I had not secured Sophie into her highchair yet. And, when I looked up and saw the bus out my window I did the first thing that came to my mind. I set Sophie down on the couch and ran out the front door.
And, somewhere in the midst of my short trip to and from the bus, Sophie managed to lock the door behind me.
As I am sure you can imagine, I freaked out.
I peeked in through this pretty glass window and saw my baby, wide smile on her pretty face, waving and saying "hi mama" to me.
I BEGGED her to open the door - because, everyone KNOWS that a 21month old baby can UNLOCK A STINKIN DOOR ON COMMAND!!! And yet, shockingly, she ignored my pleading.
So, Hattie and I took a trip to the neighbors house. The neighbors who were NOT HOME!!! So, we went to the next house. They were not in either. Thankfully, however, their cleaning lady was in. And I MUST have been in a panic because I was not even slightly jealous of the fact that, hello, they have a CLEANING LADY!!! She was kind enough to let me use the phone, so I called hubbs.
Because Hubbs is about an hour away, he called his dad.
We ran back to the house to find Sophie was now sitting in the middle of the floor with the container full of cantaloupe that she had somehow gotten down from the counter and was havin herself a little snack.
One more reason to panic in that the pieces were GINORMOUS - I could just picture my child choking on a piece of fruit with me unable to get to her.
Finally Dad B pulled into the driveway, along with our niece Chelsea's boyfriend Joel. They quickly began to attempt to break into our surprisingly secure house. By the time they had attempted every last door and over half of the windows Sophie (and her mommy) had gone into full panic mode. I was watching my baby, through that door's window, cry hysterically and beg her mama to pick her up.
They came to the conclusion that the only thing they could do was break a window. Big, strong Joel found himself a rock and got busy. He was hitting it pretty hard to no avail, so finally he put all he had into it and rammed that big 'ol rock through the glass. Unfortunately, his arm also went through the now broken window. He pulled back his bloody arm and, while I wrapped it in a t-shirt, Dad B reached in, unlocked the window and opened it up.
Against my protests, Joel then climbed through the broken window, bloody arm and all, and unlocked the door so I could get to my baby. As she melted her sobbing body into my arms, Dad B and Joel headed out to the ER for stitches.
NINE stitches but, thankfully, no tissue damage done - so his hockey stick slingin guns will be fine. Two hours later I had MOST of the glass - which flew from the small bathroom window, through the laundry room and all the way to the breezeway front door - cleaned up and Dad B came back to take the window in to get fixed up.
I am SO VERY thankful that everything is OK. Even though Sophie was in the house for close to an hour without her mommy, she was NEVER without her Father. I cannot imagine the fear that would have gripped my heart had it not found peace in His presence.
Thank you Lord for protecting my baby through it all and for allowing no further damage or injury to come upon Joel. You were truly here through it all ... as You always are.
