So much drama!! There always seems to be high drama around me.. My friend Kellie used to joke about it in Canton, all the crazy things that happen to me, our family, whatever.. Well it has been no different here in Mex City! My friend Aravinda can attest to that! 3 hospitalizations in 4 months here, I am far too familiar with the local hospital.. And a family that is leaving after being here 2 years has never been to the hospital! Last weekend I did EVERYTHING in my power to Not Go To The Hospital AGAIN! I took 1 single -low dose - antibiotic, and within 3 hrs I was having chest & back pains, vomiting, fever & chills & body pain everywhere! I avoiding the hospital by forcing fluids & taking anti-neausea & pain meds...WHEW!
Well all the dramas of hospital trips, broken knee caps, earthquakes & long, long waiting in traffic, sometimes lost, sometimes not... IS NOTHING compared to the stress & anguish I went through Thursday when I came home to an empty house.
I had to go to the store & knew the kids, Zach & Danielle, would get home before me so I left them a note & left the door unlocked, even though they had a key. So when I came home to an empty house, knowing they should have been home 30 mins before me, my heart skipped a beat. I had Pati call to the lobby guard who said the school bus was very late, and the kids just arrived 5 minutes ago & the service elevator (the one they need to use) was out of service, they were climbing the stairs. Whew!
So I went to the stairs to greet them, but they were not there. I went downstairs to look for them, Pati our maid was staying put incase they came home on their own... I looked in the lobby, the playground, the pool, gym.. Nothing! I enlisted the help of security & now 7 guards were combing the complex & 3 were ordered to climb the 17 flights of stairs in the 3 towers to look for them. I was about hyper-ventilating now.. I had a guard call the school because I could not manage to speak Spanish anymore, I was frantic! The school did not answer. I called a friend of Danielle's, no answer, so next I called her Dad.. He was out of the country but would call his daughter.. When he called back, he told me not to worry, my kids were at his house, down the street in a different complex... The kids are not allowed to leave the complex un-escorted, but at least they are safe! The friend calls me, and I ask her to send Danielle home, she tells me she is not there, was not there, has never been there - her dad had misunderstood, because I think I woke him in the night... Now I start crying hysterically!
I cannot reach Patrick, so I do the next best thing, I call our friends Aravinda & Bhavani at work & tell them! They, all 3, leave work, Patrick to come home, our friends to drive to school to confirm they were in fact on the bus! It has been more than an hour that they have been missing. My mind races... There were several workers in the garage -rewiring something, they were new/not usual people in the tower... There were several people working on the service elevator, again, not the usual people in the tower... If the kids had gone to the garage, to check for my car, could someone grab them unseen?? If the kids went to the stairs, they had to pass all the workers by the elevators, could someone grab them unseen?? I cannot keep my self together, each time I try to regain composure, a new scenario plays in my head...
I concoct a new idea, maybe the kids walked .5 mile down the street to the OXXO (like 7/eleven), and then were hanging at the dog park?? So I am going to drive there & decide to stop to tell the lobby guard first... He says that Danielle is in the stairwell right now...
So I race there, and find her, and she is fine! She is with a security guard who found her. She had been playing in the private garden of a resident, with her son who is 3 yrs old!! (Zach was still there). In the 1.5 hrs the kids were gone they did not worry about coming home to check if I had returned, because the mom of the lil boy had sent me an email, so they were waiting for me to get them! I was looking everywhere for them, except in my INBOX!
So, my crying is still hysterical, but now for joy! Danielle was totally confused as to my reaction of course, she never considered what I might worry about! They had climbed the stairs, but the door from the stairwell to our service hallway was locked. For security reasons, I find out now, it opens one way, so we can escape in case of fire or earthquake.. Otherwise it is locked so no one else can enter our service hall unauthorized. So the kids could not get to our service hall, to get to our apt door, ugg! So they decided to kill some time by visiting the little boy 2 towers over, that they had seen at a pic nic the week before. That mom tried to call my house but the house phone does not accept cell calls (dumb LL set it up, we need to change that now that we know that).
So all is well - Thank you God!
We need to do a few things. Get new keys for the front elevator for the kids.. Get the phone plan changed... Show the kids where the Administration offices are, so if they need, the head of security can unlock the door in the stairwell that leads to our service hallway... And finally, I think it will be quite a while before I let the kids come home to an empty house again!!
BTW- where was Kirsti during all this?? She was at a friend's house, helping him with homework. That girl is fortunate to have many friends!!
Friday I spent making LOTS of muffins for all the security guards, who very kindly checked in on me, to make sure I had recovered from my traumatic event the night before...or maybe they smelled all my baking, LOL?? Either way, I am happy to know we have great security guards that do their jobs well, and if I wasn't sure that every one of them knew us, well I am sure they do now! And that's a good thing!!
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