A parent's worst nightmare...almost

Last night was Family Home Evening which meant a slightly later bedtime for the little kids. Karcyn and Calvin headed to bed just before 8pm instead of their usual 7:30.

Karcyn is really good about going to bed, saying her prayers and tucking herself in. I just have to go kiss her goodnight. Calvin, on the other hand, has been a little resistent lately. They share a room with JJ and sleep on a bunk bed. Karcyn's on the bottom, Calvin sleeps on the top.

I had Calvin go potty and we went through our little routine. As I said, he wasn't being very cooperative, so I told him if he didn't choose to be obedient, I would have to turn off the hall light or he wouldn't be able to listen to the "Scripture Scouts" music. He didn't like either of those options, so he complied, albeit begrudgingly. I tucked him in and actually didn't kiss him goodnight. He was too far for me to reach on my tiptoes, and it took SO long for me to get him to actually lie down that, instead of asking for a kiss, which would require him to sit up and stretch in my direction, I figured my loving stroke of his hair was good enough.

Cooper had already put himself to bed and I went to rejoin Jared and Jake in the family room and kitchen. Jake was finishing up the dishes and Jared was rocking with JJ, watching updates on FOX News. I checked Jake's work on kitchen duty and then started to make and pack Tuesday's lunches. Jake got on the computer for a little bit and I read an article or two on Jared's iPad.

Then I remembered I needed to fill out some paperwork for Jake and started working on that when Jared decided it was safe to lay JJ down in his crib. "Safe" meaning: Calvin and Karcyn are asleep and won't wake up JJ by their talking or playing around. All was quiet in the bedroom wing of the house.

As I was working on the papers for Jake, Jared came back into the kitchen with JJ still in his arms and asked, "Where's Calvin?"

"Whatdaya mean?"

"He's not in his bed."

I put my pen down, happened to glance at the microwave clock that showed 8:47 and walked authoritatively past Jared telling him, "Don't worry, he does this from time to time." Sometimes, especially when he has no interest in sleeping, Calvin sneaks down from his bed and sleeps with Karcyn.

I walked into their bedroom. Karcyn was asleep. Jared was hot on my heels and loudly whispered, "I already checked their room."

No offense Jared, but I know how the male species looks for things, so don't take it personally while I go back and check for no other reason than for my own peace of mind. I had to squint as my eyes adjusted to the dark and using the light from the hallway, bent over and reached around on Karcyn's bed. The only thing sleeping with Karcyn was the cat. There was, however, a big mound by the foot of her bed. Sometimes those kids build little forts of pillows and blankets around themselves before falling asleep. I patted around the bulky mass, but all I felt was a bunch of artificial stuffing.

I stood upright and checked the top bunk. I pulled all of Calvin's blankets back and made sure he wasn't tucked down in a corner. Calvin's bed was empty.

At this point, I was running out of ideas. I quickly turned on the overhead bedroom light and checked all of those places again in case I had missed something in the darkness. I looked in their closet, I looked under the crib and under the bunk bed. No Calvin. How is it that of all her kids, the one that was missing was the one this mommy neglected to kiss goodnight?

I turned off the light and we left the room. I went into Jake and Cooper's room. Cooper was stirring and he groggily said, "I already told you Calvin isn't in here." Jared obviously looked in there before coming to find me. But I checked the beds and under their bunkbed and closets anyway.

I left that room and we started calling for Calvin throughout the house. Jared had looked in the living room behind the couches and in corners. I looked under the dining room table. As I surveyed the area, I took note that the front door was still bolted shut. Calvin's been known to leave the house without our knowledge, but usually when the big kids are out front or he sees someone he knows. We looked in the family room. Jared, with JJ still in his arms, opened up the door to the garage. Calvin also likes to go out to the garage and play. It's a place we usually find him during the day when he's not in the house.

Jared exclaimed, "Ohhh!" I thought Jared had found Calvin and that his exclamation was because Calvin was making a mess by intentionally mixing the cat food in the water dish or adding water to the litter box and smearing the clumps all over---speaking, sadly, from experience. What he found, however, was that the garage light was on and the garage door was open!

This was extremely concerning because it just so happens that after dinner, when we were getting ready for family night, Jared had gone out to the garage for something and noticed I had forgotten to close the garage door when I came home earlier. When he brought this to my attention, I looked over in his direction and asked, "Did I?" I saw that it was dark in the garage and then heard Jared click the button and the garage door close for the night.

Jared just stood on the landing for a second while the weight of what we just realized washed over us. He handed JJ over to me and without saying a word, immediately left the house and started calling for Calvin as he quickly walked into the darkness across the street and down the path to the nearby playground.

That's when my heart stopped beating and plummeted to the floor. Refusing to believe my baby was out there, alone and in the dark, I countered, "Calvin can't reach the button to open the garage." Jake corrected me and said, "Yeah he can. I've seen him do it." What? He can? It still didn't make sense. How could Calvin have gotten out there without any of the three of us seeing him? He can be super sneaky and we can be distracted, but I'm confident I would have noticed him. We were all in the family room area after the kids went to bed. Calvin would have had to walk through the narrow path through the kitchen and the family room and in his bright yellow t-shirt and athletic shorts no less, to get to the garage. It wasn't adding up. I couldn't get my mind to accept that Calvin left our home undetected. At night. In the cold. But stranger things have happened and the heavier truth was that we couldn't find Calvin anywhere. And the possibility of Calvin leaving our house on his own was certainly more believable than someone taking him from our home. But once he was out there all by himself...all it would take is "opportunity" for this situation to go from bad to horrific. I shook my head in determination. I couldn't let my mind go there.

I passed JJ to Jake and hustled to the backyard barefoot and in my jammies. I started hollering for Calvin. Surely he would answer if he was out there, right? Nothing.

This wasn't good. I ran back inside and headed to my room. If Jared didn't find Calvin, we were going to have to get help. What do we do first? Call the cops? Tell our neighbors? If we got others involved that would make this real. I threw some socks on. While I was in my room, I searched it also. I looked in our bathroom, the shower stall. I looked under our bed and in our two closets. No Calvin.

I left my room and met up with Jake in the hallway, who was holding JJ. Jake said he was starting to get really worried. Not really acknowledging him, I instructed Jake to please put JJ in bed and told him we were really close to leaving to get help and I would need him to stay here at the house. I also asked him to start looking in all the cupboards and any other small space he could think of.

Coming back in from his search outside, Jared found us in the hallway only to report that Calvin wasn't at the playground. I didn't know what to do next and I don't really remember what happened next. I just remember Jared opening the small hall closet where we were standing, the door opening towards me, blocking my view and I heard a very relieved, "CAL-VIN!!" I think it was actually Jake whose voice I heard.

I pulled the door out of my way and saw Jared squat down and fish out Calvin from beneath the heap of coats and backpacks. I'm surprised he even saw him.

Jared said, "Calvin? Calvin, what were you doing, Buddy?" Calvin was limp with sleep, his hair matted with sweat. He laid his head instinctively on Jared's shoulder and remained asleep. We weren't going to be getting any answers out of him tonight. Jared and I locked our eyes which both reflected relief and love for the little boy he was holding in his arms. Once I knew he was safe, I smiled, shook my head and through gritted teeth said, "I'm gonna kill that kid." That was when I started to actually feel my heart, pounding in my chest as I considered a handful of "what ifs?"

It sure is hard not to overreact when it comes to the safety of your kids. We would have turned the house and yard completely upside down before calling the police. But we were pretty darn close. I had even checked the dryer. That closet--was one of the few places we hadn't looked yet.

This morning, Calvin didn't say a word about waking up in his bed as opposed to the hall closet. And when we asked him, nonchalantly, why he went to the closet last night, he said he didn't feel like sleeping in his bed. Of course.

As for the mystery of the garage door....we concluded that the light must have been turned on when Cooper went to get the broom to sweep after dinner. As for the open garage door, the only thing we can deduce is that when Jared closed it, the cat must have walked under it, activating the safety sensor that made the garage door pop back up. Those two things combined to create a very scary possibility for us last night. I made note of the microwave clock after Jared put Calvin in bed for the second time. 8:53. This ordeal lasted only six minutes.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our happy ending!