Moment of Panic

This afternoon, the kids went for a hike in the forest with the Anderton boys (13 and 10). They were going to explore around a big tree in the forest. My understanding was that it wasn't far away...turns out it was over a mile away. As the sun started to go down, I expected the kids home at any moment. Nathan and I were getting dinner ready. We discussed going to check on them and make sure they were coming home, but we waited a few more minutes. Once it starts to get dark, it gets dark FAST. Nathan went out and started walking down the road in the direction that they kids left, and came across Reda Anderton also going in search of her boys. Reda told Nathan just how far away this place was that they were going, and Nathan rushed back, hopped in the truck and took off, hoping that the headlights would prove to be handy.

When I heard Nathan come back and say he was taking the truck, I started praying and shaking the whole time until I heard the truck returning. As soon as Nathan hit the main road, he saw Boaz and Nelson running to get home, and the others weren't far behind. Thank the LORD!

Lots of tears of relief from the kids and their Mama (me), lots of hugging, lots of thanks to God for His protection.

The kids made it to the tree earlier, played around for a while exploring the "cave" of another tree that had fallen, then decided to take a new path home. Aparently that path lead someone's field, and it was getting dark. The kids were coming up with survival tips like, "we can eat the macabo (root) so we won't starve" but they couldn't come up with how they would make a fire to cook it. They all stopped and prayed together at one point, then kept on walking towards the direction they thought the road was. Asher was crying alot by that point because it was dark and they had to walk across fallen trees through a swampy area. One of the branches he was holding onto broke and fell beneath him, and all the kids heard a hissing noise after that. HOW SCARY IS THAT? Nandry told me that she was trying to keep her emotions under control so that she wouldn't scare Boaz and Asher with how frightened she really was. She kept telling me when she got home how much she missed me and how bad she was shaking as she walked.

Finally they came to an abandoned house and recognized where they were in relation to the road and our houses, but they still had to make the long trek up a big hill and back along the road in the dark.

I think that Noah (the 13 year old) was pretty shaken up, and felt pretty responsible for the whole thing as he came to tell us what happened. We tried to calm his fears as much as we could that we weren't upset about it, just so relieved that they all made it back ok.

We are all the closer now as we "debriefed" with the kids tonight, and all the wiser as to what our limits are as to where and when we go into the forest, and how soon to start coming back!

Another cute thing, that actually set me more at ease, was that the Baka kids were playing soccer near our house, and they all joined in the search for our kids as night fell. I knew that if our kids were truly lost in the forest, the Baka could find them. My biggest fear was that something else didn't find them first.

I'm just babbling on and on now, but it's helping the tension release. Boaz, when he first got home, looked the least upset, just like it was another adventure for him. But later he told me he was very, very scared, just trying to be brave.

Ok, our internet connection is going to go off soon, so I need to wrap this up.