My Heart Skipped A Beat

So yesterday we had scary moment. You know one of those ones that you dread as a parent.

We had gone to the Native Friendship Centre for a welcome dinner for the exchange students coming in from Toronto. Ben needed to be there as well as the parents. We took Sam along as well because sometimes he can be a handful for other people. He was so exited that he was going to be included. We had dinner, with a little bit of a show as some of the girls sang some traditional songs. I was able to Meet Charity, Ben's "twin" from Toronto. What a Sweetheart!
After dinner the Toronto kids headed over to UNBC because they are staying in the residences there and we went downstairs to have a quick meeting to go over the schedule for the week and the meal plan. Sam started reading a magazine in the hallway and Mike and Ben went into the Games room. I was standing in the door to the office right in front of Sam. After the meeting was over I went into the game room to get Mike and Ben to say it was time to go. It took a few minutes for them to stop their game and when we went back out in the hallway Sam was gone. We thought at first that maybe he had gone out to the car with Erin who was our ride home but NO. We checked the entire building thinking maybe he got lost looking for a bathroom, but again NO. We went outside and some said they had seen a kid walking up third so then we thought maybe he had gone out for some fresh air and got locked out and decided to try and walk home. So we had people walking up and down the sidewalks, driving all over the place, still nothing.
About 20 minutes after this all started I waved down an RCMP vehicle and asked them for their help. One of the officers knew Sam because he does some volunteer work at the school and I of course had my camera with me that happened to have a picture of Sam balancing on some balls in the yard earlier so we knew exactly what clothes he was wearing and everything. They put a report out to all cars and went off to help look. Not even 5 minutes later I got a call on my cell telling me that they had found Sam and he was at the reconnect building. Now that is 9 blocks or so in the opposite direction from our house. We headed down there right away. It turns out that a wonderful lady and 4 teenage boys had seen Sam walking down that way and thought he was a little to young to be walking on his own. When they tried to talk to him he wouldn't stop but they could see he looked scared. They went and got some staff from Reconnect to talk to Sam and bring him inside. They had phoned the RCMP at the same time I was talking to the officers in the car, which is why we found him so fast. After the officer checked my ID to make sure I was who I said I was he took me to Sam.
He was sitting in the office with some extremely nice people and I had to the best I could not to completely break down as I asked Sam what happened. Well he tells me that he thought I had left without him! He was so focused on his book that he didn't notice I had walked into the games room to get Mike and Ben. He thought he would just walk home on his own, but he went the wrong way and got lost. After a tearful we didn't leave without because we could never forget him, we went home.
After I watched him walk into the house I just started to shake and cry. Things could of been soo much worse and I am so grateful they weren't. I am also glad to know that Sam did remember not to talk to people he didn't know and to wait until he found people with uniforms that he knew would be safe to talk to. This as also taught me thought that the kids need to know where home is no matter where they happen to be in the city. I think that will be our next family home evening activity... to drive to various spots around PG and to point the direction home, as well as go over some other safety rules like if you do get lost to find a safe spot with a phone and to call, I always have my cell on me and the kids all know the number.
Anyways to end to post on a happy thought I thought I would add the pics of the night... first the one of Sam balancing on the balls that helped get us the description of the clothes he was wearing and then the other one is of Ben and Charity, exchange twins.