I can honestly say....

There is a recent blog topic making it's rounds amongst many of the blogs that I follow, so obviously it happens often. But I, yes, BUT I can honestly say I have never had to use Code Adam. I have never lost or misplaced my child or children long enough to warrant Code Adam to be issued anywhere. Don't mistaken me for a perfect parent because I am not. When the boys were babies I read this STUPID STUPID article that said parents of multiples were more likely to have a child abducted than parents of singletons. I don't think I went crazy over this, but it certainly heightened my safety measures.

Then one day while we were living in northern Virginia we were at Tysons Corner, a big beautiful mall. The boys were in 3rd grade and Jr was in 2nd. My mom, Mark, the kids and I were all enjoying a leisurely day at the mall. Mark was in the book store with the boys while Mom, K80 and I were just a few stores down trying on some clothes for K80. The boys were specifically told that Mark was in the store with them. If the boys stayed together they could look on their own in the book store. Well after a little bit, the boys apparently couldn't find Mark, he never left the same section of the book store. So the boys set out to find us in the mall. They came a few stores down to where mom and I were and couldn't find us. We were in the changing room the moment they came into the store. So they set out to find the mall cops, and they found them. (Think Paul Blart Mall Cop!) The mall then proceeded to make several announcements for "the lost parents". Funny thing, the announcements can ONLY be heard in the hallways of the mall, not in any of the stores. And since I was in a store and Mark was in a store we never heard it. (Does that makes us bad parents or a poor mall intercom system?) Mark did finally hear the "missing parents" report and together we went to the mall security office. Caleb and Seth claimed their missing family members and we lived happily ever after.

I recall the discussion with them later, telling them that they did the right thing going to the mall cops, but they also did the wrong thing by leaving the bookstore. Even if they thought dad had left, they should have told the bookstore people and not wonder the mall looking for a mall cop.

Did we panic, I don't recall panicking, but I do remember being embarrassed. Was I worried; they were together so I knew they would fight off, flee from or scream their way from any "bad people". They were on a mission to find us. They knew what to do and because of our parenting they did it without question.

So why bring this up, well a blog I recently read was making light of the fact her child got lost in the mall. They locked down the entire mall to find him 30 minutes later hiding. Can you imagine what it would take to lock down an entire mall. I am thankful my children never hide from us, they RUN to us. We have strong independent outspoken confident children who know who they are, what they stand for and we love them very much. I pray they always run to us and not from us.