It was a great morning until I realized that I left the bottle and formula at home and that I forgot to feed Noah breakfast...not to worry I brought enough snacks for a small village so no one was hunger.
The Daegu Arboretum as lovely. A cool breeze, late summer flowers, trickling brooks....that is until I lost Noah...for 30 minutes. Yes, I was the crazy, crying, yelling, white woman with the baby, a ton of snacks and a missing son.
It was horrible. There was a moment right before Noah was found that I thought he was gone forever. I'm still not really over the whole thing and I'm not sure I will ever get over it. Poor Myra got so stressed out that she went into stressed out sleep mode while I was crying, screaming, running all over the park looking for my dear son.
I don't speak Korean so that made the whole experience even more horrifying and terrible. The lovely locals at the park kindly over looked my craziness and with the precision of a military operation found my son. When I say everyone at the park, I really do mean everyone, got involved to help me. Despite the language barrier - one man got the park to announce that my Korean, English speaking son was missing, a grandma took all my belongings so I could look for Noah faster, men and women stopped what they were doing and started looking in every nook to find Noah - amazing and wonderful! I love Korea!!!
Finally, a sweet woman yelled "Mother of Noah, we found your son." Relief. Noah was all the way outside of the park (almost 1/2 mile from where we were playing) entertaining a group of older women. Our reunification conversation went like this,
"Noah what are you doing?"
"Sitting here with these grandmas...I was looking for frogs because I'm a big boy and can do that all by myself now...but then they made me sit with them."
"Oh, you are a big boy but you are NOT a man."
The whole experience showed me a few things -
I love my son with an intensity that goes beyond anything that I have ever known
Family is something everyone understands despite language, color, race, religion
It is always better to get involved to help others than to turn away
Slow down in the morning and eat breakfast!
8 comments:
What a relief that he was found. I can't even imagine what you must have felt for those 30 minutes. That's a LONG time. So glad everything worked out okay.
Wow. Thank God for all the wonderful people in the park that were helping you. How scary. Glad things turned out okay. HUGS.
I have chills running up and down my arms. What a horrible horrible situation for you. Oh little Noah. Didn't I just say he was looking like a teenager in one of your last posts??
Oh, Leah, I'm sorry you had to experience that and I'm so glad he's okay!!
30 minutes is FOREVER!
I'm freaked out just reading it. Nothin scarier than that. You're going to need a tall drink.
BTW- leaving your stuff with someone is one thing, but be careful- one of the things that use to happen at a *famous amusement park* was kid stealers would target those with 2 kids- get one away from the parents and the parents would instinctively split up to go looking. The freaking out parent with the other child would be approached, sympathetically and generously, by a very kind concerned momma looking lady (sometimes with a stroller) and offer to sit with kid while the parent went looking. Yup seriously. Freaked me out so much, first time I heard, I haven't gotten over it.
Did he find any frogs? JK glad to hear your big boy, not man, is ok. I remember hiding from Mom in Dept. stores in the racks and getting the same frantic reaction. So much harder to keep track of 2. ILY IMY. Pete.
My goodness! That is terrifying. What a relief to find him safe and unharmed. That has only happened to me once so I know all about those crazy tears of distress and despair. Yes, next time eat breakfast.
I can't wait to see how your Hawaii trip was. So fun.
So sorry, I was logged in as my bro-in-law. That last comment was Annie. :)
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