dailydiatribes

I'm baaaack!!  With lots of good stories to tell.  But I am going to start with the horror story, which happened on our very first day at the happiest place on earth!
We went to Animal Kingdom first, since it seemed like a good way to get our feet wet.  Lots of opportunities there to sit down and the lines are not quite as brutal as the ones at Magic Kingdom.  The day started out great, cool in the morning, sunny and generally perfect.  We tromped around Dino World, I got to ride the flying triceratops ride with the babies (thank God for Dramamine!!!) and we took a chance and stayed in the Dinosaur line after the ride broke and got on after only a 20 minute wait!!
My leg was even holding up rather well, thanks to the many medications I was pumping into my body.  We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and stuffed ourselves silly, thanks to the "free" appetizers Tim got for joining the VIP club (we did get seated quicker, though and the membership is good at Joe's Crab Shack) and the volcano cake they brought for Josh's birthday (hey, it was his birthday all week, everywhere we went!!!)

After lunch, disaster struck.  We were heading up to the Lion King show and the parade had just let out.  I was gimping along behind everyone as usual and Layton was trying to mess with his camera and carry Emma on his shoulders at the same time.  I stopped with him for a minute and grabbed Emma so he could arrange his camera.  We stopped for maybe 45 seconds and then caught up with our group.  "You have Anna, right," Tim asked me.

"No, I never had her," I said.  And we all looked around and realized SHE WAS GONE!!!!!  Some of you may know that I have a little problem with anxiety anyway, and this did not set well with me.  The parade had just ended and there were literally thousands of people milling around us.  We all panicked for about 10 seconds all staring wildly at each other, wondering what to do and then we went into war mode.  Tim went running for the restaurant we had just come from and Layton went another way.  Kristie rounded up the remaining children and super glued them to one spot.

I ran into a store and told the lady I had a missing child could someone help me?  She said in just a minute as soon as I help this other customer.  I gaped at her, but I don't think she understood what I said, because 10 seconds later she looked at me and asked what I wanted again.  "I've lost my 5 year old daughter and I need to know what to do.  Can you put out an APB???"  She said no, but she went out with me to look. 

I looked over to where Kristie was standing with the other kids and she was gesturing toward an umbrella across the walkway.  There were a couple of Disney employees standing there helping folks.  I ran over and repeated my story to a lady with a walkie talkie and she took over, thank God.

"Ok mom, you need to stay calm," she told me.  I described Anna and what she was wearing (white shorts, pink tank top with a hood, white socks with pink border and tennis shoes...I will never forget it!!!)  She immediately notified security and every employee in the park was on the lookout.

At this point, I was ready to run off, but she kept telling me "stay with me mom, don't go anywhere."  She calmed me down a lot and I felt as much peace as anyone can when in that situation.  I watched people passing by, laughing, holding their children and I hated each and every one of them.  I wanted to grab them, shake them, scream at them that my child was missing and they needed to stop enjoying their goddamn vacation and help me find my child. 

After a very tense ten minutes, security radioed they had found her.  My Disney angel employee told me to stay where I was and they would bring her to me.  I was trying to motion to poor Kristie across the street that everything was fine, but I was too overwhelmed myself to make much sense.

I don't think I have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to describe how I felt when two employees walked up leading Anna by the hand.  I literally fell to my knees, grabbed her and wept.  Poor Abby was in hysterics by this time and she fell on me and wept on me and Jordin decided to join in, so there we were, all weeping hysterically in the middle of the sidewalk.  It was really quite touching, I'm sure!

I thanked the security folks profusely and hugged them all a lot.  I was so impressed by the way they handled it and how promptly my child was returned to me.

Here's the weird part of the story.  All morning, I had been drilling Anna on what to do if we got separated.  I have no idea why, because I don't remember doing that any other time we went to the park.  Maybe it's because we didn't have a stroller for the first time or maybe it was just my natural paranoia.  The entire time we were waiting for her, I was praying that she would do what I told her.

 I have to brag that my drills paid off because Anna caused herself to be found.  As soon as she realized we were gone, she walked up to a park employee and told him (her, not really clear here!!) that her name was Anna.  He/she asked her last name and she told him/her.  So it does pay off to drill your kids on what to do in case of emergency.  I'm not sure how much scarier this would have been if I hadn't drilled her so thoroughly on what to do. I am so proud of her and I told her so as soon as I stopped weeping.

Of course, then we had to wait for Tim and Layton to return.  I told the security lady we might have to put out an APB on Tim....just look for the guy with the beard and glasses shoving people out of the way and screaming "Anna" in a tortured, Sylvester Stallone shouting "Adrian" kind of voice.  Luckily, the men reappeared shortly after Anna and we resumed our day of Disney, but with the new mantra of "Do you have Anna?"

So that was the first of many adventures in the magical land of Disney.  Stay tuned for further installments!!