My wife and I had a big scare yesterday. My 8 year old special needs son (he has Down Syndrome) was missing for about 15 minutes yesterday. He apparently walked out of the house while my wife was helping one of my daughters with her piano practice. When she went looking for him, and couldn?t find him anywhere, she discovered that his crocs that normally sit next to the door were gone. She went outside and looked up and down the street and couldn?t see him. She called me in a panic, and I told her to hang up immediately and call the police, which she did. I am, of course, at work, 45 minutes away (but of course on my way home now). One of my neighbors works nights, so I knew he would be at home sleeping, so I called him and woke him up. He immediately went outside to look for him and drove around the neighborhood to look for him. About the time the police were arriving, my neighbor found him not quite a block down the street. Praise God!
We are incredibly blessed to have found him so quickly! He is vulnerable in so many ways. Of course all the usual dangers are there, abduction and so forth, but one of the biggest dangers to him is that he is not yet aware of the dangers of traffic and cars. He could and would, without knowing better, run out in the street from behind a car. This could have ended very badly for us. Praise God it did not!
Wow, that is a scare. Luckily they found him. One thing about children with Down’s Syndrome, they like routine so, I’m a little surprised that he would have even attempted such a thing but he is just a kid and doing what kids do. Playing
Very glad all turned out well. Please consider either a service dog or just a pooch family pet for him. Female dogs can be especially protective of children.
So glad nothing happened to your son. I know how scary losing a disabled person can be. Our daughter has some disabilities that limit her judgement and we have lost her a few times for short periods of time. Panic sets in quickly.
Another thing I noticed in your post; nice that you have nieghbors you can trust and depend on. We hear so much these days about how people don’t even know who lives next door to them.
Those GPS things for at risk kids and adults have saved many. I think it is an excellent idea.
Kids like yours were my Dad’s life’s work. I understand your challenges and also the special gifts that come with having a child with downs syndrome. They are gifts, too. Never forget that. When things seem to be a crushing burden, remember the priceless gifts that offset that burden a hundred fold. You have been given the special blessing of caring for one of God’s most special children. You are a blessed man.
Dittos to the other posts, but especially kbproctor’s. The Lord has chosen to give you and your wife special challenges, but also given you special rewards.
FWIW, having a kid go missing is not one of the special challenges. My wife, a very good mom, was an emotional wreck after experiencing the same thing with one of our non-special needs sons one day. It can happen with any kid. I’m really happy that your experience had as happy an ending as ours did!
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of really good neighbors like that. This one in particular has told me before that in a situation like this, that if he does not wake up the first time I call, that I should just keep calling until he does wake up. He was out the door within seconds of my calling.
And we are also already looking into those gps locator things. Also buying some alarms for the doors so that we are alerted when a door is opened.