The worst three minutes of my life so far.

[universalmother]

This weekend, I had one the most horrible experiences of my life.

My husband, son and I had to stop at the mall to grab a quick gift for a birthday party we were going to later on that afternoon. Earlier in the day, I bought Hayden a toy that he would not put down if his life depended on it, and he kept getting in people's way and bumping into things as he was trying to walk and play with his toy at the same time.

As we were walking along, we stopped to check something out in one of the store windows and Hayden was right beside me. We turned around to start walking again and Hayden was gone. I looked at Eric and asked "Where is he?". I spun around to look out into the weekend mall crowd and didn't see him anywhere. Eric and I bolted in opposite directions to look for him. I listened carefully, knowing Hayden would be hysterical when he realized he was not with us, and I was correct. I could hear someone screaming and crying but it sounded so far away that I couldn't tell if it was him or if it was just me, in my own head.

I ran towards Eric and then saw him reach out to Hayden running into his arms. A man walked up to Eric and started talking. He looked just like Eric. Tall, thin black t-shirt and jeans. He said that he noticed Hayden walking closely next to him and talking to him, then Hayden looked up to find that he was not Eric. I felt so bad for Hayden. He starts to cry when he doesn't see me right a way in our house, nevermind at the mall, in a sea of people. He was sobbing, my hands were shaking and I thought I was going to squeeze the breath right out of him.

I don't think more than three minutes went by, but it was no doubt, the worst three minutes of my entire life.

[sofiesmom1]

Sep. 15, 2008 at 1:57 PM

OMG - what a f**king nightmare!