I've been a parent for 13 years. Out of those 13 years, I had never lost a child. Well, one time Emery thought she was lost even though we were at our neighbors house. I was there, but I guess she went outside and started crying in the front yard and a stranger stopped to help her. She showed them where she lived but, of course, nobody was home. We were all over at the house she was outside of. So the police were called and eventually we realized she was gone and found her quickly. Anyway, this is the story of how Finley got lost and found us again.
A couple weeks ago, our friends invited us over to go swimming in their pool. We just met these friends a few weeks earlier, but had hung out a few times and gotten to know them. I watched her kids a few times. We had never been to their house before because they had just moved. They moved to the house next door to where they used to live. The pool is at their old house which they were now renting out to renters, but they still had access to the backyard and pool. When you walk out of their new backyard, if you walk all the way to the back, there is a gate. You go out the gate and there is a little alley or walkway that goes down a long way in both directions. IN order to get to the pool, you walk down the alley a bit and go through a gate to the next backyard. So we did that and got to the pool house and started swimming. I get really stressed when it is just me with the kids at a pool. Even though they can all (except Finley) swim pretty well, I still watch them very closely. I constantly count all the kids to make sure they are accounted for. I was doing this the whole time I was chatting with my new friend Chrissy.
The kids had a blast swimming. They wanted to keep swimming for hours, but it was time to get out and head home. I stayed at the pool cleaning things up and making sure all of my kids got out safely. While I was doing that, the girls said they wanted to go back next door to see their chickens in the other backyard. Finley wanted to go with them, so I put her shoes on and let her run over there. Sadie and Zac were taking their sweet time getting out of the pool. I helped pick things up. I wasn't going to leave the pool area until all the kids were out and the cover was on. I'm just paranoid. After about 10 minutes or so I realized I hadn't seen Finley in a while. I wasn't nervous because I was by the pool and I knew she wasn't in there. So I started looking and asking around if anyone had seen Finley. Nobody had. About 5 more minutes passed and I decided I should go find her. I knew she was with the other girls in the chicken coop.
When I walked back into the other backyard, she wasn't there. My hear sank. I KNEW she wasn't in the pool, but my brain kept going back there thinking she was. I looked around both backyards and started to get a little bit nervous. We went inside to see if she went in looking for a snack or something. She wasn't there. I ran back to the pool house which was being watched by the oldest boy of the other family. I went inside and pulled the cover off of the hot tub not wanting to look just in case she was in there. Thankfully, she wasn't.
Then I started to panic a little bit. The kids all joined in the search. Sadie and Zac ran down the alley path, Emery and her friend looked around the yard, and I was looking behind the treehouse, in the shed and everywhere else I could. My hands and fingers went tingly and my throat and mouth were so dry I couldn't even swallow. Chrissy and her daughter came over and said a prayer with me. Then we started looking again. I went to the alley and knelt down and prayed. Where was she!??
I finally called Rob who had been at home working and told him to come over. Then I ran out to the front of the house just in time to see someone pull over to say hello to Aaron, the husband of Chrissy. It was his brother in law who happened to be driving by and saw him outside. He informed him that we were looking for my daughter and he offered to drive around to look for her. I told him that would be great even though I didn't know this guy. So Aaron hopped in with him since he knew what Finley looked like and they started driving. At this point I was thinking all of the bad things that could have happened to her. My mind kept going back to the pool, and now I was wondering what kind of neighbors they had and if one of them had seen Finley and snatched her up.
It had probably been about 30 minutes and I started thinking "at what point do I need to call the police?" I was mentally preparing myself for that phone call when one of the kids yelled "My dad found her!" A wave of relief went over my whole body. She said he found her at someone's house that they knew. I ran outside thinking they would pull up any second with her. I was waiting and waiting. Nothing. Then Chrissy, who had been out looking in her car pulled up in her driveway and I told her they said they had found her. we waited outside just long enough for me to start doubting that they had actually found her. Then they pulled up. I ran over and grabbed Finley only to have her taken away by Sadie and the other kids who all wanted to give her hugs. She wasn't crying or anything. She had a big stuffed animal that she was holding. Then I looked up and saw the police car pull up. And Rob pulled up right after that. I had sent him a text that said "found her" with no more information than that. He was hoping that we hadn't found her unconscious in the pool. Poor guy was a bit worried. My bad.
Here's what had happened: Finley went to the backyard next door to look at the chickens. Then she decided she wanted to come back to where I was but when she ran out into the alley she missed the turn into the gate of the other backyard and ran all the way to the end. There was some really tall grass in some parts and some pokey bushes and plants. I was so glad that I had put her shoes on before she left. She ran all the way to the end of the alley and found herself in a neighborhood, where she ran up to someone's house and rang the doorbell. She is so brave. I can't believe she did that all on her own. It happened to be a house of someone in the same ward as the friends whose house we were at. They said she picked the perfect house to go to. The lady is so nice and she knew just what to do. She ended up calling the police and then Aaron and his brother in law drove past and saw Finley with the police officer. It was pretty far away. We were all surprised that she had made it that far on her own.
Later that night, I got a text from my friend with a video from a ring doorbell. She said the lady whose house it was sent her a text that said "Oh my goodness, I will have to show you the Ring video. I think she had a ministering angel, she was talking to someone. I'm so glad I could help. I hope everything turned out ok."
Here is the video. She is clearly talking to someone. It doesn't seem to me that she is just talking to herself.
Poor thing. She looks pretty scared, but also so calm. I believe she had some help from on high. All of the kids told me they had said their own prayers while they were looking for her. I was praying too. Heavenly Father answers prayers. We got home and we sat on the couch and talked about what had happened. That's when she sent me the text of the video. How cool to see how Heavenly Father answered our prayers so quickly. It's a pretty special experience we all shared. I'm grateful for help from heaven. :)
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