"Code Yellow"

Today the boys and I were in Target finishing up some birthday shopping for Allie and getting some things for dinner. We had perused the aisles, found a few treasures, and Jack had just shown me the world's largest lemon in the produce section. I continued my shopping for veggies and suddenly realized that Jack was not with me... and he was no where to be seen. The produce section in Target is right next to the front door, so I instantly scanned that area to make sure that he was not exiting. He was not. I made a circle or two around the produce department. No Jack. I looked on the next aisle. No Jack. Now, I have been a mom for 11 years. I have had kids get lost in a store before. This was different. He was no where near me. I could feel it. I started having a "DO NOT PANIC!" conversation with myself as I began looking for a Target employee. I saw a man in a red shirt with a walkie talkie. He looked busy and on a mission. The thought crossed my mind that I shouldn't bother him, then reality hit me again. My boy was missing! I grabbed him, and I told him that my son was missing. He asked me how old he is, and I said 7. He instantly got on his walkie and said, "Code Yellow". He directed someone to cover the "Green Door" and directed me to the "Red Door" where we stood together. No one was getting out of the store. He got a description - purple shirt, kaki pants - and repeated it over and over on the radio. People were talking back to him asking for the description again and updating him that Jack was not in this department or that. He instructed someone to check the restrooms. Still no Jack. Shoppers were coming up to me saying, "Did you lose a child? What does he look like? I'll go look right now." Even a little boy - about 10 years old - offered to look for him. My heart was literally beating so hard that my ears hurt! I kept thinking of a line of the movie Deep End of the Ocean where a boy is kidnapped while he is with his mom, and when she sees her husband he screams at her... "Kids don't just get lost. People lose them!" I was so far beyond tears that I just stood there, my mind racing, my heart pumping. Several Target employees were congregating around me. I said, "Tell them to check the toys." He did. I kept saying, "He was just right here. Right beside me. We were right here in produce. Right here by the exit of the store!" Minutes were passing. My heart rate was increasing. A few minutes later, I heard the radio say something I could not understand. The man said, "Please confirm." And I heard someone on the other end say, "We found him." I cannot tell you how relieved I was! When I saw Jack, he was walking with that little 10 year old boy and a Target employee. He looked a bit like a deer in the headlights. They had found him near the back of the store. I wanted to rush to him and hug him until tomorrow and yell "What were you thinking!" all at the same time. I did the first. We finished our shopping trip with him "helping" me push the cart and apologizing over and over. I really was not mad at him for more than half a second, but I was very, very shaken up. If Allie's birthday had not been in a matter of hours, I would have left my basket of goodies right then and there just to come home and cry and hold my babies. Several minutes later he said, "I wish that you would get over this Mommy. You are so stressed, and it is making me feel lonely." Okay... some perspective.

When we were talking later about where he had been he said, "I looked for you in the produce department, but I couldn't find you. Then, I looked for you in the make up department becasue you are a girl, and you like make up. And I looked for you in the bedding department because you always look back there. Then, I saw some Bionicles, and I looked at them for just a little while."

I am so very thankful that he was safe! And even though I hope that I NEVER have to relive moments like those 10 or 15 again, I am thankful for the perspective that I gained in them. I treasured Jack before he was lost, but having such a potential tragedy flash before my eyes makes me value him and my other children even more.