The Wanderer

This little girl is going to give me a heart attack. She has recently gotten into the habit of wandering off and sending her parents into an all-out panic. You would think that 42 acres would be plenty of room for a two year old to roam, but not this girl. She was born to break boundaries, and venture off on her own great adventures.

The first time Eden went missing was about two weeks ago. I was inside putting books on the new book shelves we had purchased. Justin was outside blowing leaves off the driveway and Brock, Brandon and Eden were playing in the yard. After a while, Justin came into the house and asked if I had seen Eden. I hadn't. We immediately started searching the property. Our first instinct was to check the lake. It's not deep along the shore, and we've tried our best to teach our kids to stay away, but still, it is definitely a danger zone. Justin hopped on the Mule (kind of like a big green golf cart) and started a lap around the lake. I headed up the driveway toward the road, thinking the chances of her walking barefoot through 15-20 yards of forest to the street was very unlikely, but still worth checking out. When I was about halfway up the gravel driveway, a truck pulled in with a couple of strangers who said that there was a little girl up on the road, trying to crawl through the fence to our property. My heart rate quickened and I waddled a little faster the rest of the way up the driveway to snag my baby girl. Scary!

About a week later, I was outside with Eden and decided to give the dog a bath. Eden was driving her Little Tikes car on the driveway. When I finished drying the dog, I looked up and didn't see Eden. Paranoid after her last disappearance, I immediately panicked, called to Justin and the boys to start looking and I hopped on the Mule to make a lap around the property. Brandon found Eden in the house, playing with her toys.

Then last Friday, it happened again. We were getting ready to have some friends over for a barbecue. Justin was mowing the grass, I was cleaning the house, the kids were playing outside. I realized I hadn't seen Eden for a while, so I went outside to check on her. She was nowhere to be seen. This time, I checked to make sure she wasn't hiding in the house somewhere before sounding the alarm. When she wasn't found, I sent Austin to look in the cabin and Brandon to look in the basement, then I hopped on the Mule and headed straight for the road. I drove all along the edge of our property and found nothing. Then I started a lap around the lake. I passed Justin on his riding mower and asked him to help look. I made two full laps around the property, and two passes along the road. On my second lap, I saw Sadie, the dog, splashing along the lake shore, barking in the water. I stared a long time at the lake, looking for signs of the worst. It was then that I glanced up to the driveway and spotted our neighbor on his four-wheeler carrying my daughter. He kindly informed us that our dog Sadie has been a regular visitor at his house lately. Apparently, this time Eden followed Sadie up the driveway, across the street, and down the road to our neighbor's property. Eden wandered into his dog kennel to visit the doggies, and closed the gate behind her. She was locked in, and our neighbor was about to leave for work on the night shift. If he had not seen her in the dog kennel, we would have had no idea where to find her, and had surely had an all-out search party looking for her all night. Absolutely terrifying.

So now I'm on the lookout for a couple of shock collars...one for Sadie and the other for Eden. In the mean time, Eden is banished to the house...at least until she learns how to open the childproof doors. I swear, parenthood has got to be the most nerve-wracking career in the world!