Friday, April 18, 2014

Scared Shitless

     It's been a while since I last blogged. The reason for that is because I have been sick. I am expecting my fourth child in October and I have very difficult first trimesters. I was basically bed ridden for the last 2  months. As you can imagine in and of itself that created much material for my blog but I have been too sick to write. I was finally feeling ready to write and then what happened today eclipsed all of my material from the last two months.
     We are in Israel for passover. I have been here for a few weeks with my two younger kids being cared for by my mother. My husband and oldest son came in time for the holiday. Yonatan loves to be here. He has a whole slew of activities that he loves to do when he is here, including riding the egged bus. He does it a few times a day with whoever is hanging out with him. He knows the bus numbers and where the buses go and he likes to ride to Machane Yehudah (The Shuk) and the city center (Ben Yehudah).
     My parents live in a complex of houses. Yonatan is of course best friends with many of the neighbors and he often wanders around the complex delivering mail and getting treats from everyone, no one can ever say no to that  boy. This morning started off exactly the same way. He was outside hanging out in the courtyard doing his thing. We have a rule that before 10 am he may not knock on anyones door and usually he is pretty good about listening. He also knows he is not allowed to go past the gate at the bottom of the stairs. My husband and I were eating breakfast at the kitchen table periodically checking on him. At one point we both realized we hadn't heard him in a while and so I sent my husband to look even joking to my sister "it's no problem, he always comes back". A few minutes later I was no longer joking about it. My husband came back and hadn't found him. We searched the whole house, we went to every neighbor, we went across the street to the makolet (corner store) which is his all time favorite place because we have a tab there and so it is a mecca of endless treats. We called my Aunt and Uncle around the corner to see if he had gone there for chocolate, as he loves to do. We walked to the post office down the block, to the houses where he loves to steal mail (btw, sorry to all those ppl missing their electricity bills, we have them) and still couldn't find him.
    At this point I decided it was time to call the police. My husband didn't agree and thought we should give it a few more minutes but I knew he was gone and so I asked my brother in law to call them. I gave them his description, I remembered kind of which pajamas he was wearing and couldn't even say for sure if he was wearing shoes since he often walks around the complex with out them. As you can imagine at this point I was hysterical. He is nine, he doesn't speak hebrew and he is unintelligible to most everyone in english. We were at about the 45 minute missing mark. At this point we had a search mobilized. My sisters kids, my brother in law, my uncle, my very pregnant cousin, my other sister and brother in law and my parents were all out looking. All of my parents neighbors joined the search and even the man who owns the makolet was looking, because, as I often say, everyone loves Yonatan.
      A few minutes later the police came. For any mother that has been through this they know that the feeling you have when you have to call the police because your child is missing is terrible, it is indescribable when you have to call them and you know that your child has special needs and may not even be able to identify himself or where his home is to someone trying to help him. The police arrived and I began describing Yonatan and what he is like and his ability to communicate. I told them about his love of mail and his love of the bus and told them they should call Egged (the Israeli bus company). About 5 minutes later a call came in that they think they found him in a neighboring area. One he could only have gotten to by bus. My knees buckled and I became hysterical. My husband was still out searching so I couldn't even find him to tell him. The police would not let me go along because I was so hysterical and they took my sister and Yonatans camp counselor who has been hanging out with us for the holiday. A minute later my husband came back and jumped in my uncles car to get him.
     Guess what, he walked out the door, got on the back of bus unnoticed (and for free) and was taking a ride on the 18 bus to Machane Yehudah. He knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. We were hysterical but he had everything under control. A few stops from the one on my parents corner the bus driver noticed him and pulled over. He evacuated all the riders and called over a soldier that he saw near by who alerted the police. The police already had the equivalent of an APB out and so they knew who he was right away. And THANK G-D he was home safe and sound. When the bus driver asked him who he was and what he was doing he told him "I am taking the 18 bus to Machane Yehudah" and when my husband got there to collect him he was royally pissed that we interrupted his outing.
    Yep, its a true story, I really can't make this stuff up! After clearly explaining to him why he was in big trouble and hugging him for dear life we punished him for hours and made him stay in his room. When we finally let him out of "prison" the first thing he said was that he needed to apologize to the bus driver. He is so damn smart! The only way to apologize to the bus driver is to get back on the bus. I bet, had we not noticed, he would have found his way back home. As I always say about this kid, the fact that he is so smart is going to be my downfall. I think I lost 10 years off my life today.
     Yes, the GPS device is already on order.