Adam.

I'm finally going to post about this. Rewind the last few posts and insert this one after our picnic in the mountains.
We came down the mountain and went to Wal-Mart for some supplies. Well it was a pretty crazy day at Wally World, crazier than usual, and Rachael was stuck in the cart. We went to the back annex of the store to meander through the Christmas stuff. We figured it was more or less closed off so we let her out to run around, of course keeping a watchful eye out. Then, she bolted. "Nate," I said, "Go grab her please." So off he goes, and 20 seconds later comes back empty handed. "Where did she go?" "I don't know." So we each go our separate ways, in panic mode. I go to the fishy section where we had spent about 20 minutes, Nate went to the toys. After about one minute of looking, I truck it up to the customer service desk, cut in line, and tell them I can't find my daughter. They asked me to describe her. "Two years old, curly hair, black shirt, purple pants." One the intercom comes the announcement, "Attention Wal-Mart associates, we have a Code Adam." Then goes on to describe Rachael. Nate said that as soon as the announcement was made all employees he could see immediately stopped what they were doing and started looking around. About a minute and a half later, some sweet angel wearing a blue shirt brought my little stink bug back to me, still clutching her huge roll of Thomas the Train wrapping paper. She had been hiding in the Men's clothing racks. UGH!! I kid you not, people, she literally bolted across the store in a matter of 20 seconds. I was so scared I had a break down as we walked to find Nate.
Afterwards, as we're driving home, Nate brought up a few thoughts he was having. "I wish she was older so we could punish her." Haha, me too honey, never the less, she is only two and thought we were playing a game. "What if that had been the last time we'd ever seen her?" SO SAD!! But really, to be honest, if I HAD to choose a time, that would be pretty close to my last perfect day with her. A beautiful picnic in the mountains, and then she was pretty dang cute looking at the fish in Wal-Mart. "Shishie!" Obviously I'm glad to have her back, but we'll definitely be leaving her in the cart or on her puppy leash from now on.

Interesting things on Code Adam we learned after we got home:

1. Named for the son of the America's Most Wanted host who was kidnapped
2. Started by Wal-Mart
3. If a child is returned by anyone other than a store employee the police need to be called (so if you ever hear a Code Adam and see the child, maybe don't take him/her up, find an employee. I don't know how strict they are on it...)
4. The exits need to be sealed until the child is found or for ten minutes, then the police are called and Code Adam is lifted (I don't know if they sealed the exits in our case, it would have been interesting to see)

Thankful for Code Adam and thankful to have my princess back!!

Picture taken on Sunday while playing dress up