Lost – Dads Share Their Stories
Hey Dad,
Ever lose one of your children (I don’t mean for good) or leave your wife at the gas station? Share your teeth rattling story here. You’re going to make some dumb dad feel so much better…including this one.
You ‘da dad!
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We had recently had our 3rd child, born in November, in Indiana. About 3 weeks later we were flying out to warmer latitudes.
Being the considerate father/husband, I dropped the family off at the curb and went to park in the garage. As I return to the terminal and spy the family up ahead, my wife shows a perplexed/panicked look at me and exclaims, “Where is Lauren?” Simulataneously, I’m asking her the same thing. Suddenly realizing that I had left her in her carseat, in the vehicle, outside, in the parking garage, in December, I sprinted back out and rescued her. Of course, she was sleeping soundly while I was panicking with concern and guilt of being so bone-headed!
We’ve lost a child twice and it was the same child both times, Cameron, our (now) 6 year old. The first time was at SeaWorld in San Diego. I had his baby sister in a carrier, the oldest was with my wife in the gift shop and apparently both of us thought the other one had Cameron. Cameron had wandered off, and once we realized he was missing, we both went into Full Panic Mode. I took off on foot into the park, still carrying the baby and my wife began to mobilize the National Guard (well, almost). I ran frantically asking people had they seen my little boy. One man told me that he had, that someone was carrying him just a few minutes earlier and they were headed to the other side of the park. I raced down there and saw a woman carrying my crying son headed back my way. She told me she had found him by the water ride and had been trying to find us. I thanked her, thanked God and started heading back to my wife, carrying both kids.
Meanwhile, my wife had done a fine job of letting everyone under the sun know of our dilemna. In fact, she did such a good job that, on the way back, I was spotted and assumed to be the ‘kidnapper’ by an elderly lady who physically hit me in the chest, yelling “Somebody’s looking for that baby!”
They say all’s well that ends well, but a couple of years later, Cameron was with my sister at a local festival and he wandered off. We ran all over the place trying to find him, alerting the cops and such. Once again, I saw someone carrying him, but this time it was a creepy looking older guy that seemed a bit shocked to run into me. He claimed he had found my son at the other end of the festival. I thanked him for returning him. He looked around nervously and said “Uh, yeah, I gotta go.”
He has no idea how lucky he was to run into me, Clueless Dad, instead of my wife, who probably would have dismembered him just for good measure.
Cameron now comes equipped with LoJack.
Sunday School:
My wife happens to work as the Early Childhood Director of our church. One Sunday, I decided to stay home from church and our regular activities for whatever reason. My eldest son (then 2 1/2 years old) was not happy that he was staying home from Sunday School. As I started my activites for the day, the house became silent…any of you guys with boys…this should throw up red flags. At first I thought he was playing hide and go seek like many times before. I looked down stairs, up stairs to no avail! I then started to get REAL worried. I looked out the frint door…nothing…looked out the back door with the fenced in back yard…NOTHING…by this time I am in sheer panic mode! I quickly ran to the front of the house again and looked down the street only to see a little body, with some person and her dog! I proceeded with a full on sprint to their location! Needless to say I was not happy with the situation…although I thank God for the gal and her dog! Apparently my son was not happy with our choice of staying home and decided he would WALK to Sunday School which was only 5 miles away! All this wearing a diaper and t-shirt! Todd…SOOOOOO glad God watches out for our little ones!
We visited the Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield when we just had four kids (we now have six). We were with my sister’s family. Our baby had a diaper “blowout” and my wife wanted my help to take her to the van and clean her up. We left our 6, 4, and 2 year old with my sister. Somehow, my sister thought we had taken the 2 year old with us. When we all got together about 10 minutes later, someone asked where the 2 year old boy was. At that point, my sister and I realized that she thought I had him and I thought she had him. We went running back to the tomb and found him walking around by himself crying his eyes out. I have never been more scared or felt so bad as a parent. The implications of what could have happened still cause me to shudder today (he’s 19 now). Thank God He was watching over my son. As he is 19, he still needs to be watched over by God as I can’t be with him at college.
It was at the zoo. Like a good mom and dad we stopped for the potty break just inside the break to take care of any delays that might keep us from our mission at hand. Dad waited outside with the baby and older brother took the 3 younger brother and mom took the 2 girls in with her. Boys exit in one pack and dad passes baby to oldest brother as mom emerges from the restroom. Dad takes care of his needs and returns to his awaiting family…minus one. Completely unaware of our missing youngest daughter, we dash off to begin our late afternoon zoo mission. To see as much as we can in the little time left in our fading day. Conversations of photos, journaling, and sketches permeated the air as we stepped up the pace. A quick question to my daughter and a non-response brought my wife to a dead stop. To which I delivered a “commander of this mission”, what are you doing??? To which she replied, where is Olivia. My heart fell into my shoes as the “commander and protector” realized he had lost one of the troops. This was not Podunk, Homesville we were in. Without a word the entire crew, 7 of us, took off in a reverse run. We had left her in the bathroom. People looked at us like “where is the fire and should I run be running too!” My wife looked like battle experience platoon leader dodging and weaving in and out of the crowd, an entire troop at her flank. A simple command “lost a child” barked as we passed back through the final set of admission gates. Arriving at the summit of the entry she scanned the area and began running again. This time it was not where is she? But where is she! From the look on my wife’s face, she already saw her and not man now beast would stand in her way. Scooping up the distraught child and holding her close, the issue was over. Well until, the teaching moment could be addressed that is.
I wish I could say it was the only time I’ve lost one, but then the day at the ball park will have to wait for another telling.
Blessings,
Rob
Todd, I met you in the Arlington convention this year and I purchased your Father Power book. I just finished reading it and it was awesome. Thank you for your ministry and for your weekly emails. OK, God blessed me with the opportunity to take my family to Paris for a month for work. On one weekend we were touring the Louvre musem. It is huge. We got separated but fortunately she had our oldest son with her. I with a smile on my face figured she had gone ahead and we(my other two little boys) would catch up. Anyway, about a couple of hours later we figured she might have gone backwards, which is what she did. I found her and she was in tears. I felt like a loser husband. Anyway she forgave me and we probably held hands the rest of the day. I cherish her and I quote 1 Peter 3:7 to myself each day to remind myself that my American woman needs me to hold her hand more often than I think.
My wife was leaving to the store and my 3 year old insisted he was going as well. I, of course, told him he was not. She left and immediately my 1 year old had a melt down. I began to tend to him and about 15 minutes later my wife called and asked if Elijah was at the house. I, unfortunately, did not know if he was or not. She proceeded to let me know that his bike was at the end of the driveway by the mailbox (which is about 2/10 of a mile from the house) and then she went into an all out panic:) He was found at the convenience store about 1/2 mile from the house. The clerks said that he walked in the store, crossed his arms, and said “I want some tandy.”
A couple of days later my wife asked where Elijah was; I looked at her and said, “I lose one kid in 8 years and this is how you are going to act!” 🙂
When my oldest daughter (now 13) was two we left her sitting in the middle of wal-mart in a cart. I went one way, my wife went the other at the exact same time, each thinking the other had the cart – and our child. 25 minutes later the intercom announced a lost child. As the description proceded I thought, that sounds a lot like my daughter . . . but no that can’t be. It was. We haven’t done that again. At least not at Wal-Mart.
I start every story on lost children with Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. Might be good to read that tonight for family devotions. We have lost each of our children at least once on different occasions. Maybe I shouldn’t put that in writing. I praise God for a happy and humbling ending. Our funniest lost child story is when our first born who was three rolled out of his toddler bed and then under his toddler bed, so when entering the room it appeared to be no toddler present. After a frantic search of the house, the yard and streets. A sleepy child came out from under the bed confused by the emotional parents!
My 8 year old son is autistic and non-verbal, plus he likes to wander, so that makes for a bad combination. I have had a couple times where he left the house when I wasn’t looking and after running up and down the street frantically looking for him, I ended up finding him in the car…both times. He was sitting there with his seatbelt on and a big smile. I guess he wanted to go somewhere. Too bad he couldn’t tell me where.
I was waiting in the van after church, while my children (4 or 5 of them) got on board, one at a time at their own pace. I actually counted heads and waited patiently for my wife to finish talking to someone, but I failed to noticed that my oldest daughter (10 years old I believe) at sometime had decided to go back to retrieve something from inside the church. My wife joined us, and we casually pulled away….I could see in the mirror my daughter chasing our van and people laughing. Now we have 8 kids, and haven’t left one since! I am so careful not experience that painful (and humiliating) feeling again.
I was in the grocery store when I lost my little girl for a long, horrifying 5 minutes. I had 4 of our 5 children doing some grocery shopping and as we walked up and down the aisles, Mallory (6)spotted something interesting and stopped to admir the object. Well we keep right on trucking through the aisles, when I finally noticed she was not with us anymore. I quickly began to snap at my boys as to her location, as if it were their fault, and nobody knew were she was. I sent the boys one way and I went the other way. I ran up to a guy and asked him if he had seen a little girl in a red jacket and he said he saw her walking up to the front. My mind went crazy, thinking all kinds of wild things about who was she with, etc. As I was frantactally walking very fast toward the front looking down every aisle as I went, my head began to spin, hard to explain, but I saw a girl with a red jacket but it was not my girl. I started back to where we had last seen her and she came walking out from one of the aisles and relief, frustaration, anger and many other emotions came over me. I grabbed her hugged her and yelled at her, for my mistake, of course I apologized later. So I put her in the basket for the rest of the adventure at the grocery store.
My son was 4 when he went missing. We were at a family reunion and I had told him that we would be leaving soon. It was time to go and we could not find him. I searched in and out around the house but no Tanner. I started asking family members if they had seen him. The cousins had been playing hide and seek but they could not find Tanner. My uncle lives in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by a wooded area with ponds and several neighbors with pools. We decided to start searching the neighborhood and after 30 minutes and no luck we decided to call 911. As I was walking I prayed that God would protect him and of course that we would find him. The police show up and immediatly start the questions. They organized a search with all of us including now the neighbors and search and rescue dogs. I remember the police asking if anyone had checked the cars and we all said yes. We had opened the cars called his name looked around but still no Tanner. I was so sick that I could not move I stood for 2 hours in the street turning in circles waiting to hear we found him but still no Tanner. The Police gathered everyone back to the spot I was standing and was getting ready to give us instructions for the next phase of the search. My cousin Mark said, “I HEAR SOMEONE CRYING”, he looked behind me in my parents car and said who is that and sure enough it was my beautiful son. We were all in disbelief because we had checked the car and my dad always locks his doors. When we asked him why he was crying he said “I saw the police lights and thought something was wrong with my nanny”. He supposedly got in the car because he did not want to leave. I also remember my dad asking me why I was not looking for him. At the time I told him I could not move but now that it is over I asked God to protect him and for 2 hours I stood in the street approximatly 4 feet away from him just waiting for him to wake up and cry out for us. God is great and still in the business of answering prayer.
Most stories begin when the parents notice the child is missing. Our story began when the child was returned without us ever having realized that he was gone. Our youngest was three and mad at us for making him eat one pea at dinner. So as we left the table to do dishes, laundry and various other after dinner chores – the three year old unbolted the front door ( which we didn’t know he could do) and walked barefoot down the street in his pajamas. Twenty minutes after dinner, the doorbell rang and my wife asked me to answer it, as she could see that it was a male stranger. When we opened the door – there stood our three year old next to the man we didn’t know who told us he had found him 4 blocks away!! We are so thankful for God’s protection that day. We also installed a bolt at the top of the door!
When we first moved to Texas to pastor a church, my five year old son had developed a habit of wandering off and chasing anything that held his interest. Since my son had down’s syndrome, this is particularly distressing. One Sunday afternoon we looked around and realized that Taylor was missing. After a search of every building on the grounds with unlocked doors, we called numerous church members and 911 in a panic. People were buzzing everywhere when someone who had just arrived came up and asked if he was wearing a blue and white striped shirt. When we said yes, she replied that there was a boy of that description looking at us from the window of the locked youth building. when we got close enough to see, there he was, watching all of us while eating a candy bar and drinking a dr. pepper. did I mention that he also had a bad habit of locking every door he went through?
I can never forget the fear that struck my heart when I lost my 3 year old, now 8. We were at a hotel near Disney world and waiting for my husband outside our room by the elevator. He was delayed, so when the elevator came, i let it go without us. Still waiting for my husband, I didn’t press the button. My husband then called me into the room, which i entered but left the door open. I was gone not 45 seconds when I go back out into the hallway and he’s gone. He had called the elevator and got on! What floor could he have gotten off on? I wished I could have stopped on all floors at once, this was a highrise! We were staying with another mom and her son, and she had taken the stairs at some point and found him. I felt awful that day and grateful as well.
We don’t have a lost child story but we do have a not-yet-found story. Your last paragraph spoke to us when you wrote, “He is watching over your children right now no matter where they are.” We are in the waiting process to adopt a newborn baby and one of the things the Lord has put heavily on our hearts is to pray for His protection for this baby. Thanks for the reminder that He already is.
My wife and I have 4 kids. Number three is a redheaded boy. The day before his fourth birthday, we had dropped off a relative at the Orlando airport and went to the mall next to the airport. We walked into the Disney store. My wife stopped at the front and I took a couple of the kids to the back to the movie. After a short time, I didn’t see the three year old. I asked my wife and she thought I had him. We looked all over the store… then, PANICKED! There is a hotel attached to the mall. Our minds went wild! We found mall security and within 10 minutes found him with a kiosk worker. He had calmly walked out of the store looking for Mom and Dad. The kiosk worker saw him and asked him if he was lost. He said (at 3) “No.” She held onto him and after all the chaos gave him a gift. He wasn’t panicked! We were! Praise the Lord!!! HE had his eye on His children.
One of the scariest feelings you can ever have. My wife and I were checking out of the grocery store when I was paying the cashier and loading up the groceries we then look at each other and notice that our only daughter (I think over a year old) is not anywhere around. My first thought is to look outside to see if anyone is running off with her. I don’t remember being too loud but others helped looking for her right away. We looked down every aisle and came to the bread section. She was standing alone with one tear streaming down her face but not making a sound before I picked here up with a big hug. What seemed like an eternity, lasted only a minute or two. Thank God he was watching her!
Several families gathered on a Saturdy morning —7am at a local elementary school. The pricinpal was also a home school dad. Several dads were talking as kids exited our parked van just in front of the gym door. After talking a few minutes, I shut the van door and walked on in the gym. About an hour later I notices my 2nd grade son (now almost 19 years old) was missing. He had fallen asleep in the van and no one noticed as several kids were exiting. I know that ‘dumb feeling’. mlb
Lost (or not?)
My family and I were shopping one day. Peter, my then 6 yo son, was with me and my then 4 yo daughter was with my wife. We met later and my wife all of a sudden looked at me with a panicked look on her face. “Where’s Emma!?” she exclaimed. I calmly pointed to the child she was holding in her arms (who, of course happened to be Emma). Boy, was she relieved. It was a while before we stopped laughing.
One of my first missing child experience was with my first born son, now almost 12, at our home next to the church I was pastoring. My wife had left early that morning with some of the women from our church to go to a ladies fellowship. At some poinwokewoke and heard some weird noises almost like crying. I ran to my kids room. Abbie was asleep, but Jon was gone. I ran down stairs, looked to the right in the kitchen towards the living room. No Jon. Now the weird noises were sounding more like paniced talking. I looked left toward the side door which was open next to the church, and under my bedroom window. I went to the screen door and looked out( and down). There was my 31/2 yo son crying and saying, “I don’t know what to do,” over and over again. Apparently, he thought mommy was at the church and went to see her. Once outside and a step down he was too short to reach the screen Door handle with much strength. I was relieved and my wife and I had a good laugh later when I told her.
Many years later my five yo son, now 7, and my four yo son, now 6, decided to go visit their aunt about 3 miles down the road. Only they didn’t walk. My next door neighbor knocked on our door, that early Saturday morning. He handed us the keys to our van letting us know that he took them from the ignition. My boys found the keys, knew where to put them, but didn’t know to turn them. With these two I have no doubt that if they had started it, they would tried to get to their aunts house.
But my very first experience was in college back to my first born. Working into the morning, sleeping for a couple of hours, going to classes in the morning, then sleep, then work, etc. One morning my wife woke me to watch my at that time only kid. “You got him?” she asked, like I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t. I laid my head down next to him on the floor, when the next thing I knew my wife was home from her class asking, thinking I was teasing by pretending to be asleep, “David, where Jonathan?” When I shot up with a panicked look on my face she asked a second time, “DAVID, WHERE’S JONATHAN?!!!” Our apartment was VERY small, and you could follow the trail of magazines, toys, books, into the bedroom, then bathroom where we found him in a pile of toilet paper from off the roll. These are just some of the times our kids have ran away from us. Do you think their trying to get away? 🙂 Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helps some people. God is watching over them…and us!
Been there, done that…
After a long day at the local theme park and a late night arrival home, I inadvertantly left my youngest daughter sleeping in the van. I assumed that she had come in with the rest of the kids. About 6am I was rudely awakened to the sound of a policeman’s nightstick banging on my front door. Seems my daughter woke up and couldn’t get in the house and a neighbor (who said that he had banged on every window in the house trying to wake someone) called the police. We were investigated by CPS and they later decided that it was just a mistake (duh) and left us alone. So now we do headcounts more often, (even though we’ve “only” got 6 kids). We’ve also had our youngest two escape from our rooms at Sandy Cove only to be found wandering the halls at 6am or or visiting with the kitchen staff before breakfast. Now we bring door alarms!
I lost my son at Magic Mtn. My wife and I were looking at a kiosk with him at night. Out of my peripheral vision I see a little toehead in front of me and then…gone! I screamed to my wife “where is he?” She looked at me like I had two heads. I asked her again. She said “he’s on your shoulders!” OOPS.
Well we were at the Cleveland Museum of Art with a group of fellow homeschoolers and as we were leaving I asked my wife where our son was whom she thought was with me…so we start scrambling and another mother realizes he daughter is missing also! Well after notifying security we retraced our footsteps and found both kids HIDING in the coat room! They thought it would be funny…obviously we didn’t. So we left feeling a little embarrased but we did learn something about art that day and I was reminded that you must always get a head count every time you start a movement…a painful lesson I first learned in the Infantry! Loved seeing you in Akron.
My parents tell me that when I was an infant, only a few weeks old (back in 1963), the local grocery store had installed conveyor belts that carried your paper grocery bags outside to the front of the store. One of my parents set my child carrier on the conveyor while it was stopped, and later an employee started it while my dad was packing the bags and my mom unloaded the cart. So the bags arrived at the front of the store and were loaded into the car, but I wasn’t.
When my parents arrived home, I wasn’t in the car. Returning to the store they found all of the lady cashiers playing with me. Being a small town, they all knew who I was and simply waited for my parents to return to claim me. I learned of this a few years later when I asked my mom what the sign said that was taped to the store window: “Please do not place children on the conveyor belt.”
We were vacationing on Vancouver Island many years ago, when I decided to go off on my own. I don’t remember too much, except that I thought I knew the way back to our cabin. I soon found I didn’t. I found out later I had turned left instead of right, and ended up in a mirror complex of cabins… it was the same layout in reverse. I was so lost and scared! Then my dad, who had no clue I was lost, had a sense that he needed to go and look for me. God put it on his heart, and practically led him right to me. It was a total miracle… and I hope I never forget this story! (I had forgotten about it until I started to read this… it happened well over 10 years ago.)