When she was little, a favorite "game" she would play when we went to the store was "hide and seek." Only, she failed to tell me that this was a game. And she failed to answer when I would call out to her. I would usually find her very quickly in the middle of the clothing rounders. Except one time I took her to ZCMI at the big mall. It was Christmas time and there were beautiful displays of Christmas trees decorating the store. I was pushing another small child in the stroller, while she held my hand and walked next to me. A moment's distraction gave her the perfect opportunity to "slip" away and play her game. Only this time, after calling her name repeatedly and looking in the normal places, I couldn't see her. Other adults joined in the search and panic begin to well inside of me as I considered all the horrible scenarios of where she could be. With shaking hands and a prayer continually leaving my heart, I dialed her daddy's work number and began to cry when he answered the phone: "I can't find her!" The store security arrived to take a statement and a store clerk valiantly tried to calm me. A "child missing" alert went out over the PA system, as a store full of kindly strangers began looking for my precious child. She was quickly found and restored back to me. I thanked this army of fellow mother's and daddy's who dismissed their needs for a few minutes to help me find my child. My gratitude was immense and I hugged my child and told her how scared I was and how much I loved her.She is grown up now, but she hasn't stopped this unnerving habit of "hide and seek." I never stop looking for her. I never stop hugging her and telling her how much I love her. It never ceases to amaze me how many kind mommy's and daddy's will stop what they are doing to help me "look" for her. I find myself, over and over, calling her daddy up and and crying: "I can't find her!" Only, it is no longer her daddy that I am calling...it is her BIG DADDY...the Daddy of us all.
