Did You ever see "Deep End of the Ocean"?

THIS is my worldShe is one of the most
fantastic gifts I have ever received.

And today, for some of the longest, heart-stopping moments of my life, We lost her.We did the car boot today (big yard sale in a HUGE field with whatever you can fit in the boot--trunk-- of your car) so that I could part with the some of the things I collect.

About 11 am, we did the child head count for the umpteenth time,
and came up one short.

No one could remember the last time they had seen her-- everyone thought someone else had her.
My husband canvassed the huge field swarming with strangers, while I stood at our stall willing her to come back to us. It took every bit of will power I had to stand there and not run screaming through the crowds like a psychopath.

Several people joined in on the search and became as panicky as I was.

A boy about 10 described what she was wearing and said he had seen her going towards the entrance.
Everyone headed that way. Except me.

My decision NOT to leave the stall was based on two things: The first being that maybe this wasn't such a big deal and she would somehow be in the car that I had checked 15 times already--if I left, then she might wander off.

The second made me finally understand something my mother did years ago.

I was 18 years old and dying in a hospital in Little Rock Arkansas. When my mother was told her "baby" wouldn't make it through the night, she refused to catch the first plane out of Arizona. She told me later that she felt like that would be giving me permission to die and she wasn't going to do that. Instead, she spread the word and in my little town of people where everyone knew everyone, a prayer vigil began. She arrived a day later and after a week more, I was released-- to the amazement of the entire Intensive Care floor.
So, the second thing influencing my choice to wait by the car:

if I didn't give into panic,
then there really wasn't any danger
and this wasn't really happening.

At one point, a lady looking far off into the distance said "Your boys are running back the direction your husband went, he must have found her!"

J2 turned his face our direction and waved. I thought, "Oh thank you, Lord!" and kept watching for my husband to appear. I finally spotted his head coming through the hedges by the entrance... he wasn't carrying her, so I waited until a break in the crowd would show me he had her by the hand.But he was walking too fast to be holding a toddler's hand.

My heart stopped. It had gone from trying to beat itself right out of my chest to complete silence. "This isn't happening. This isn't happening. Oh... my... my child is really gone!"
The stall, the car with the keys in it, my handbag with my military ID and cash, our car boot things and the British pounds we'd made meant absolutely nothing. The lady (who had become my left arm) and I began walking quickly. Just walking-- anywhere-- because standing still had killed my hopes.

We'd made it about 20 yards when a chorus rang out, "We have her!"

Tears sprang to my eyes. I ran for my baby -- held in a man's arms. His grandpa-like face shined love, hers... Inquisitive and oblivious to this dangerous world.Apparently she had crawled into his car, sat in his front seat and took apart two packs of cigarette papers while he loaded his unsold plants into the back of his car.

Thank you Lord that he was a kind man.
Thank you that it was HIS car she decided to visit and not someone else's.
Thank you Lord that we did NOT become (but easily could have been) that family on the news desperate for our child saying, "We only took our eyes off of her for a moment!".