I think I had more than my share of adrenaline pumping yesterday.
Starting at 3:30am when I got up to attend to a fussy little boy. I got him reaccommodated in the bed and then as is my custom, since I was already up, took a quick peek at Mic. ...and her bed was empty. My heart was instantly in my throat as I began to force myself to CALMLY look for her. Our bedroom is one independant room, with one door that leads outside, she had to be in the room somewhere! In the dark, I checked her brother's bed, not there. I checked the floor, nothing. I turned on the light. Panic was rising. My daughter was not in the room, she couldn't have just disappeared into nowhere, and if it were the rapture we'de all be gone! Heart pounding I went to tell my husband. He knew right away by the tone of my voice what had happened. And calmly informed me ......that she was in our bed! Apparently while I was in a very deep sleep, she got up, came to our bed, pulled on hubbys feet until he woke up and pulled her up to give her some huggies and there she was all snuggled up asleep and I was none the wiser. It took some time for me to get my heart rate back to normal.
The rest of the morning and afternoon proceded fairly uneventful. After a nice late sunday lunch and laying Mcqueen down for a nap we decided to take a real quick trip into the store to get a couple things we were needing. The sun was shining hot and we only planned to be gone about an hour, Mic had just used the toilet and finished a tube feeding so I didn't bother to bring the diaper bag or any supplies of any kind with me. Sweaters seemed like a silly idea too, the car was toasty hot from the sun. One thing lead to another and it took us a little longer in the store than planned as we left evening was coming on fast and some thick storm clouds were forming. "Its going to rain hard," I observed as we got in the car to head home. We were about a 1/2 hour away from home. I noticed that it was exactly 7:07pm on the readerboard of a nearby shop. Some big drops splatted as we pulled out of the parking lot and by the time we were about half way home the water was coming down in literal sheets that made visability difficult. The down town area of our colonia among many other areas of the city is notorious for its poor drainage problems. And as we neared down town and hit some exceptionally high water areas the motor of the car sputtered, ahead was higher water, lane reductions and heavier traffic, getting stuck there would be a dangerous and costly affair. It didn't look like we'de make it through. We turned back. The cell phone battery died so we had the added stress of not being able to communicate with my MIL who expected us an hour ago and had my son with her. My husband decided to try to get to a Wal-mart with a covered parking garage where we could call and wait. But the rain, traffic and poor/no visability made entering from the front impossible and going around the back we couldn't get through the high water to get there. We took another side street but the water was so high we decided to drive up onto the wide sidewalk instead. We sat on the sidewalk with the motor running feeling a bit safer and trying to decide what to do. The water was rising quickly and dark was coming on. Just than a bigger vehicle passed on the street and as it did we could feel our little car loose the sidewalk with the movement of the water, rocking and floating briefly. Thats when we got a little scared. As dark continued to take over, my husband told me that he was going to try to get us out of that street and to higher ground but if the car died we'de need to leave it and walk somewhere, we couldn't risk floating off at the currents mercy. (this morning we saw photos in the news of stacks of cars in our area that had been parked outside their houses and did just that, the water current pulled them along and stacked them up like dominos). My husband reved the engine and I prayed hard and our guardian angels pulled us out of there! We began to snake our way up and down dark hilly streets looking for higher ground and a safer place to wait and try to formulate a plan. The temperature had really dropped, so we were cold to boot. We sat in several different spots and periodically drove on a little further looking for a way out, but all lower streets were severly flooded and impassable. We finally took advantage of a slight slowing in the rain and I knocked on the door of some strangers and asked to use their phone so that we could at least let my MIL know that we were OK, just stranded. By this time we also had puddles inside the car, and my sandled feet were soaked. As we made our way through unfamiliar neighborhoods up on the hill we saw an easy chair and a boulder in the streets, pulled from somewhere by the current and left in the middle of the road as if someone had carelessly tossed them there. We also saw a heavy metal and cement man hole cover completly lifted up by the upcurrent of the underground drainage, and several small rock and mud slides. After much wandering through water laden streets, waiting in akward spots and praying fervant prayers, we were finally able to pull into our driveway safe and sound at about 10pm.
Only once we were inside and trying to wind down did I realize how incredibly tense and worked up I was from the three hours of cumulative stress and danger. And most of all THANKFUL that in the end what could have gone wrong in so many different ways and places didn't. THANKFUL to have my whole family safe and sound and together. THANKFUL for a roof over our heads and a mostly dry house. THANKFUL to GOD who really does take care of us and for his mercy and protection. YUP, I'm feeling pretty thankful today! : )
