We are a month into summer and have enjoyed a trip to the beach with our awesome neighbors, cousin camp, church camp and a new home based business for the girls.
Cousin camp pics will have to be posted after I snatch them from Pops. The kids had some new experiences this year with a trip to Medieval Times and Fossil Rim in addition to all of the cool crafts and activities that they do at the house.
Since blogger would not post my pics in order we will skip to the trip to the beach. We headed down to Port Aransas with 26 of our amazing neighbors for 3 fun filled days of playing in the sand and waves. We were blessed with great beach weather which means that we had big waves that made for great boogie boarding but no undertow to drag us out further than we wanted to go. A few afternoon sprinkles brought some relief from the hot sun and left us with even bigger waves.
On our second day I was relaxing on the beach, eating my lunch and visiting with friends when I noticed that I could spot every kid (there were 14 kids in our group) except for Reese. There was a pretty good current that carried you south down the beach as you rode the waves and we had a rule that when you saw that you had floated away from our spot you had to get out of the water, come back to our area and then you could get back in the waves. I walked South along the beach thinking Reese had just floated a little too far in the waves. After 5 minutes of walking I headed back and recruited Soren and her friend Riley to help me. Another 5 minutes and we did not see her so I headed back and told all of the neighbors. With no hesitation they got up and we headed down the beach in search of little Reese. By now it has been 30 minutes since I had seen her and I made the call to Pete (he was not able to come on the trip due to work) to let him know what was going on and to ask him to start praying for us to find her. A group of us walked over a mile down the beach with no luck.
By now it has been nearly an hour since I had seen her and we were very far away from our spot on the beach. I remember knowing that she was not in the water and I knew for sure that we needed to head South and not the other direction along the beach. I assumed that when she got out of the water she was confused about which direction to go to get back to our spot. It is 18 miles of beach and it was packed solid with umbrellas and people so everything looked the same.
I decided to go back to our spot, get my car and take it as far as we had walked and then continue walking from that spot. When I got back to where the remaining neighbors were keeping watch for her to return I decided to call 911. They were so amazing and understanding. They sent patrols in each direction and had me ride in the car with the one heading South.
By now word had spread to all of my friends and family to pray for us to find Reese. The officer and I are riding along and it has now been an hour and a half since I last saw Reese. I am confused. Reese knows my cell number. She must be crying, why hasn't someone approached her and asked if she needs help and had her call me? Maybe she is so upset she cannot remember my number? My heart aches for my sweet girl; how scared she must feel by now.
I am holding it together because I am on a mission, but the frustration and fear are building. I prayed constantly for Jesus to hold her hand and to help her find me or one of the 26 people we were there with. Pray pray pray and search.
And then I saw her. I knew it had to be her. It was a black and blue suit. A girl. She was the right size. It has to be her! At the very moment that my phone beeped that I had a text, I spotted her. I jumped out of the car and ran over to a little girl stooping down to gather a shell and add it to an arm full that she was carrying. We made eye contact and then I grabbed her in my arms and started sobbing and apologizing to her. I kept repeating "I am so sorry for letting you get lost!"
She was not crying when I found her, but my outburst brought her to tears and we had a good cry together. After we calmed down, we got back in the patrol car and headed back to our spot. We passed a few neighbors who were still walking and searching and let them know she was found. There were so close and would have found her within minutes. She was about 2 miles down from our spot. I was right, she just did not know which way to go when she got out of the water and chose the wrong way.
In the car I told her that I needed to make a few phone calls to let friends and family know she was ok. The call to Pete was first and I could hear the relief in his voice. I had given him quite a scare with my short phone call saying she was lost at the beach and no follow up (I wanted to keep my phone open in case Reese called). The rest of the family was notified and we all rejoiced and praised God for answered prayers.
It was then that I remembered that I had received a text message at the moment that I spotted Reese on the beach. I checked it now. It was from Kara, my prayer warrior sister. She was praying hard and decided to txt me her prayer. It said "God, you know where Reese is, now show Sara where she is." Wow. At the very moment. Thank you, Jesus, for showing me the way and keeping Reese safe from harm.
When we got back to our spot, I sat with Reese under the umbrella and wanted to know what happened. I realized that she did not look scared or lost and that was why no one offered to help her. I asked her if she knew she was lost and what was she thinking and feeling? She said "I knew I could not find you but I knew that you would find me." I was so grateful that she was not afraid and upset and felt so good that she had such a sense of security and confidence that I would find her.
I asked "were you scared?" A definite "no." "Did you cry?" No hesitation, "No." Then I questioned "did you talk to anyone?" and she looks surprised at me and says with a little bit of frustration "No! You told me not to talk to strangers!"
We had a talk about when you are lost who you can talk to and decided that we needed to add a new rule to our beach rules and that is that mom has to give you a land mark besides a beach umbrella to be able to find our spot. She seemed totally fine and unfazed by the whole incident. I tried to impress on her how many people care about her and are so happy that she is safe. She just wanted to know if she could go get back in the waves now :)
Once again I have to express how blessed I am. The sphere of people that I had helping me that day is so large. The number of prayers that went up on my family's behalf is baffling. Thank you to all of you who joined me in the search for my sweet Reese. Join me in rejoicing and giving God all of the glory for her safe return.
The Port Aransas police department has my eternal gratitude as well. Not only did they help me find Reese, there were no questions asked and no guilt laid on me as a parent. They were awesome.
Despite that hour and a half, our trip was amazing. We enjoyed hours and hours of exhausting beach play, great fellowship, awesome food and safe travel. It was definitely a trip to remember.
this is what is left after a meal at the crazy Cajun.
neighbors Tom, Clint and Ryan about to tear into some Cajun grub
the kids ordered sausage, corn and potatoes. It was dumped on the table for them to dig in!
luckily this is the only shark we saw on our trip!
Soren and Reese decided they wanted to earn some extra money and Pete suggested that they make and sell homemade dog treats to the neighbors. We are a dog loving street and there is plenty of opportunity, so they ran with it. It was a great success and will continue with it for the rest of the summer.
Mother's Day. Found these pics, too and wanted to share. I received hand made gifts from the girls for Mother's Day. Those are always the best!
Reese's Art Show. Reese finished up her spring semester at art school and here is one of her faves.
Last elementary field trip. Soren's 6th grade class enjoyed a trip to the aquarium to finish out their time in elementary school. It is really a great group of kids. It was a pleasure to be with them.
Tori, Riley, Soren and a classmate (sorry, do not know her name)
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