Day 23

Today I am grateful for several Angels watching over my son tonight.  It was just Day 4 when I was saying how grateful I am for the ICI.  Well, tonight I am grateful there’s a safety net when humans do what they do best; make mistakes.  Wednesday evenings I have class.  Every Wednesday afternoon the same person from the ICI calls to ask if my youngest is going to the ICI, whether he needs to be picked up, if so from where, and where is he to be dropped off.  I gave my usual answer: he will be home for pick up and dropped off at the baby sitter’s house.  They already have the address since this is not the first but the umpteenth time.  It’s routine!  Well, my oldest texts me when he gets to the baby sitter’s house from Basketball so I will know both kids are at her house safe and sound.  7:30pm rolls around and nothing.  I text my oldest who texts back that he is at the baby sitter’s house but my youngest is not.  I begin to worry.  I shrug it off because I’m thinking maybe they are running late with drop-offs; an hour late!  At 8pm, my upstairs neighbor texts me to say she has my youngest son.  Wth?!  Apparently, the ICI had a new driver who negligently dropped my son off at my apartment building instead of the baby sitter’s house because he hadn’t gotten the memo about where he was supposed to take him while I am downtown in class.  So, he drops off my 6 yr old at a building where no one is home and pulls off thinking that since the first of a double door was unlocked that meant my son was “in the building”.  No.  My son was left outside on a busy street in Chicago for about 1.5 hours unattended crying occasionally calling out my and my oldest son’s name because he thought we were upstairs but weren’t coming down to get him.

By a miracle, 2 young men walked by and rang my neighbors buzzer not knowing if anyone was home but hoping someone was.  Through the intercom, they told her some little kid was downstairs outside her building crying.  She came downstairs and instantly recognized my son.  The guys asked if she could at least take him inside so he’d be off the streets which she of course did.  I don’t know who those guys were but I prayed a special prayer of favor and bless on them for taking the time to even stop and care about some random kid they didn’t know.  Class wasn’t over yet but as soon as I read that text, I grabbed my coat, bag, books, and yanked both pass the pregnant student sitting next to me whom I hope I didn’t hit in the head/face/etc while I was rushing to exit the room.  I heard my professor say, “the class isn’t dismissed until 8:30pm!” but I wasn’t paying her any attention.  I got on the phone and cussed for about 30 minutes realizing what had happened.  Then, I called everyone from the ICI whose number I had until someone answered their phone.  When one guy did answer, I began to tell him the story but by then I was so grateful he was ok I was finally able to cry at the fact that one turn of events could have made this the worst night of my life.  He promised to find out what had happened and said, “I know words don’t mean anything right now but I am sorry this happened to you”.  You’re right….words don’t mean shit right now.  But, I’m grateful my son is alive, well, and unharmed.  I explained what happened esp since he immediately thought I had abandoned him and then I went on about my life even emailing my professor to explain why I so rudely rushed out of her class.  I swear, some days you just can’t make this shit up!