Scared Me to Death

On Saturday I experienced my first REAL scare of motherhood.  I've already had plenty of scares... Jonas' birth situation, a fender bender when Marco was 2 months old, Jonas falling off a chair... but NOTHING like this.

We were getting ready to go out and celebrate my in-laws' birthdays.  Everyone was home... my in-laws were in their room getting ready, Mauricio was in the bathroom, Mirella and Alfredo were playing with Jonas in the living room and I was primping.  All of a sudden, I think, "hm, where's Marco?"  So I walk to the living room and notice that just Jonas is there.  Then I ask Mau if he'd seen him... no.  Oh, well then he's got to be in the room with my in-laws, watching Gabba or Barney, right?  I knocked on the door and my father-in-law answered... "Hey, Marco's in there with you, right".  "No".  But he's a kidder, so I gave him a face.  And he replied dead serious, "Nicole, he's not here with us".  Ok, at that point, I freaked.

We start screaming, "Marco!" and we notice that the front door is closed but unlocked.  So Mauricio runs outside screaming his name.  A neighbor from the cul-de-sac comes by and says "oh, that's your little boy?  I saw him over there, and there was no adult around... I didn't know who he belonged to".  Where is over there?  ACROSS THE STREET!!!  The house across the busy street had a toy car wagon sitting on the porch and Marco had wandered over there to go check it out.

I'm standing in my driveway to take this picture.  See the house behind the stop sign with the blue car parked outside?  THAT'S WHERE HE WAS!!!  Hello!?  That's far!  How long was he out there alone?  To wander a bit... spot the toy... walk across the street.  O.M.G!

When Mauricio got hold of him, he spanked him, right there in the street.  Then he spanked him again when we got home... with no pants.  Then he went on time-out... a looooong one.  Then we had a real stern talk with him.

All the while I was hysterical... bawling.  Thinking of all the things that COULD have happened to him!  He could have wandered into the back yard and gotten into the pool... he could have gotten hit by a car backing up, or hit by one on the street... he could have been harmed by a stray dog... he could have been taken!  My heart was simply shattered!  Thank the Lord Jesus that He was protecting my baby from harm... and all that really happend was a big scare!

We kept telling him that he always has to be able to see Mama or Papai.  If not, he's gonna go away and never see us again!  I don't know if he really understood, but he was crying a lot.  I think he was worried because I was crying so much and he never sees me cry.  So much for my brainwashing with Nemo... wasn't quite as effective as I thought.  But I'm not giving up... every chance I get I'm drilling that into his head.

Now, we make sure that the chain is always on the door.  Whenever someone leaves, I make sure to get up and chain the door.  We have to be diligent about it to ensure that this wont happen again.

I have never been so scared in my life!  But God is GOOD!