abigail–the one time abi took a field trip

Our November hashed up some crazy adventures and one of them was Abi’s sporadic fieldtrip.

I am always at the bus stop… and one Tuesday afternoon, I was there. But as the bus came and went, Abi didn’t get off the bus. I stood at the stop as all the children filtered to their homes and I stood childless. There is not another feeling in the world that could be worse than that feeling. And the other part that was awful is that I didn’t know what to do!

So I called the school to see if she missed the bus. They were all over it. Props to the school. I couldn’t be more thankful for them. They even called the police and had forwarded them photos of her. So nice! But back to the story, I was in a panic. It was amazing how everything shut down but faculties that I didn’t know I had, started in full force. I instantly wanted to protect Brooklyn, especially from my growing panic. I didn’t have an emotional outburst, but my brain kind of shut down. I had to take major baby steps to get something done. I called Dan and my mom – I so wanted to cry to my mom, but got off the phone just in time to hold it together. I also felt a growing sense of need to listen to the Holy Ghost. I was grateful I had been working on my prayers and scriptures more during that time. I know it helped.

I went to my neighbors and had them start knocking on doors. I used facebook… it was so helpful to just quickly upload a photo of her. And I had instant response. The neighborhood kids went out in full force too.

Sadly, her friends told their mom she got off the bus with them… but that wasn’t the truth so it made me sad that we as a human people become passive with people.

The school confirmed that there were no kids left on the buses so either she made it on our bus or got on another with a friend. But her teacher confirmed she got on her bus. So that narrowed it down to the three bus stops before ours… all of which aren’t in our ward boundaries.

I started getting frustrated with our bus driver. All the kids have tags on their backpacks with their stops on them. The divers are not supposed to let kids off at different stops. However, Abi’s driver was new and assumed Abi was a part of that stop. That really ticks me off still. He didn’t do his job and it caused a LOT of strife… a lot.

The police started to ask me a lot of questions and I tried answering them… I was just trying to keep it together. We came to the conclusion she must have gotten off at a friend’s home. In the meantime Abi had tried calling me, but I was on the phone so much I didn’t get her voicemail for over 45 minutes. She was at a friends home. That was it.

To make a long stressful story short, we found her at a “friend’s” home after an hour and a half. My second tick off moment is to this friend’s mom. The mom didn’t think twice that my kindergarten daughter got off the bus with her daughter. It wasn’t a “safe” environment at home either. It made me MAD… but I am working on my forgiveness.

I held her so close when I saw her come out of the home. There is no feeling like that feeling as well. I could tell by her face that she didn’t understand at all what was going on (which means the mother didn’t explain or ask questions). But I let the police chat with Abi before I chatted with her. It really helped diffuse my anger and put things into perspective. I also let Mima chat with her because my mom was SO worried and concerned about her. So her tears and Abi tears from that also helped me diffuse. I am grateful for the Holy Ghost guiding me in this. The situation could have been disabling and not a learning experience if I had not had the Holy Ghost to guide me through the situation.

Here’s to my hope that she has learned her lesson and we won’t have to do that ever again. Ever. Like ever. I may not hold myself together if it does.

I am so grateful for my community. I had support all over the board and had myriads of people check up on us that night, bring us goodies, and cry with us. The support still hasn’t stopped since the neighborhood boys make sure she is on the bus everyday. That has made a huge difference for us in how we feel about where we are.