AKA..... The HOTEL STORY
Our recent return trip from Florida was rather uneventful. In fact, you could almost say it was downright boring, except for one unbelievably scary and harrowing minor incident.
The drive home took two days, with the first day being the longest at 13 hours! By the time we reached our hotel, it was nearly 8pm, and most of us were completely exhausted. Those of us that didn't NAP the whole day in the car, that is ;-)
After a quick bite to eat, we made our way back to the hotel, where we had a room on the second floor- yes, all 10 of us in ONE room. After a round of showers and some time to settle down, we were ready for bed- those of us that DIDN'T nap in the car, that is ;-)
With so many people in the room, we had about half in beds and the other half in sleeping bags on the floor. I don't remember the particulars of who slept where, but I do know that Jacob & Noah were both sleeping on the floor at the foot of my bed, which was the last bed in the room by the window and furthest from the hotel room door.
The last time I checked the clock, it was 10pm. Jacob was still wide awake (HE slept in the car all day), but was quietly talking to himself as he lay on his sleeping bag. Zack, Matthew, Emily & Sophie were already snoring loudly at that point, and despite the noise, it didn't take long for me to drift off to sleep. And after a week at Disney World and a full day of travel, I was beyond tired.
So, when the phone in our room rang unexpectedly at 12:10am, it was no surprise that I simply ignored it, chalking it up to a wrong number, and went straight back to sleep.
But I didn't ignore it when it rang again... just a few minutes later..... waking me up from my much-needed slumber......
I WAS PISSED!
But that anger quickly turned into fear as I heard the voice on the other end of the phone.....
Ma'm, this is the --- county police department. Do you have children in your room with you? Ma'm, quickly, can you tell me if you have all your children..... check now!
Still in a fog and not quite sure how to process what I was hearing, I began to scan the room from left to right. As I got to the foot of my bed a feeling of terror came over me and I heard myself say outloud to the officer......
JACOB.
Jacob is missing.
I continued to stare at the empty space where I knew my precious little 3 yr-old should be. The blankets were folded back, and there was no denying that he was NOT in his spot.
In a split second, so many horrible thoughts raced through my mind as to where Jacob might be. But the thought of checking the bathroom never even crossed my mind since I had no doubt that, although I didn't know where my child was at that very second, it was obvious that the police officer on the other end did.
The condition of my child was another story.
The next thing I remember was the officer repeating Jacob's name....
and then I could almost hear the relief in his voice.
Ma'm, you need to come to the front desk RIGHT NOW.
To my astonishment, I heard myself responding Ok, my husband's on his way.
Not, is he ok or do you have him?
I think I was too afraid to ask.
By this time, everyone in our room was awake. Zack understood instantly what was going on, and although the how and why as to what had happened could not be answered at that time, we knew he had to get downstairs immediately.
I spent the next ten minutes sitting on my bed, rocking back & forth....... praying. It was the longest ten minutes of my life.
The next thing I knew, Zack was walking back through the door.... carrying my baby.
Jacob was sound asleep.
He screamed himself to sleep.
After Zack placed him back in his bed, he began to tell me the story of Jacob's late night jaunt.
Apparently, Jacob never did go to sleep, opting instead to leave our hotel room. We're pretty sure that the reason he left the room was because he wanted to go push the buttons in the elevator- those of you who have ever had a 3 yr-old can understand that ;-)
As you know, Jacob is our 7th child, and until this incident, we had NEVER had a child wander out of one of our hotel rooms. They couldn't leave because it was nearly impossible. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS locked the deadbolt on the door.
And this time was no different..... well, the locking of the deadbolt was no different anyway. Unfortunately, there WAS one slight difference. You see, the deadbolt was literally RIGHT above the door knob, giving any small child complete access to the world outside the door.
Yep, all you needed was one bored child, two exhausted parents and the lure of an elevator!
Fortunately, for ALL involved, Jacob ended up wandering right up to the front desk- we're assuming he took the elevator- where the clerk happened to notice him.
The clerk wasn't sure which direction Jacob had come from, and didn't even know if he belonged in the hotel, although he was dressed only in his jammies and had nothing on his feet. He immediately contacted the police, who began by knocking on all the hotel room doors to see if someone was missing a child.
Supposedly, they knocked on our door.... but we never heard them, and they certainly didn't try very hard or keep track of which guests actually answered their doors. And then there were the phone calls. After trying to reach each guest by phone the first time, they made the decision to take Jacob back to the station and call child services.......
THANK THE GOOD LORD that someone was there to STOP them!!!!!!
Our guardian angels were there that night, and they came in the form of 2 loving parents to four small children. They happened to be checking in when Jacob wandered into the lobby shortly after 10pm, and they held him and comforted him the entire time the police were conducting their search.
They said he sobbed uncontrollably until about 11pm, when he finally fell asleep.
When Zack arrived downstairs, the kind father-of-four had Jacob in his arms, all wrapped up in a blanket. He told Zack that the police had wanted to take our baby to the station, but that he had convinced them to give the phone calls one more try. He was concerned that, once child services got involved, it would be a nightmare for the parents to get their child back......
I'm sure he was right.
And I'm so happy I answered the phone the second time.
The police were relieved as well, and they told us that they kept asking poor Jacob questions, but he just kept nodding his head and saying "yes" to everything they asked him! Since the incident happened in such a small town, it was a pretty big deal for the police. They told Zack how they even started to panic as time went on and they couldn't locate the parents.
It took two hours for the adrenaline to subside so I could finally go back to sleep.
The next morning, we took the whole gang down to the breakfast room.....
Jacob had become the talk of the hotel.
You see, everyone knew about the situation because the police had knocked on all the doors and called all the rooms.
And not only were all the guests going on about the "situation," but all of the hotel management was there as well. They were incredibly apologetic about the deadbolts being so low and promised us that they would be sure to have them all moved higher- thankful that the incident ended well.
I'm not gonna lie..... the thought of a lawsuit DID cross my mind ;-)
But I was just so darned happy to have such a good outcome that I was able to let it go..... especially after management promised to change the locks. On the other hand, if Jacob could get OUT of the room, maybe he could have gotten IN to the pool.
I think the hotel needs to count THEIR blessings as well.
In the end, it's one of those situations where things could have turned out so differently, and we just have to believe that God was in control of things from the time we fell asleep...
we are thankful for that.
Here's Allie with one of her friends just after the show!
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