Today in church, I was sitting in Relief Society (the women's sunday school class) and thinking about how comfortable I was with leaving Makenna in nursery (a place for the 18 month to 3 year olds). I hadn't gone to check on her at all in the last hour and half since I had seen her walking down the hallway towards nursery. I felt safe in leaving her there...in knowing that she was being taken care of perfectly well. This thought ends up being incredibly ironic. And I will tell you why.
Church ends, I proceed to the nursery to get Makenna. I open the door, see all of Makenna's friends...but no Makenna. So I ask Spencer, Makenna's cousin, where she is. He just looks at me funny, like he doesn't know what I am talking about. One of the teachers says, "Makenna? She hasn't been here today." WHAT?!?!
So I think...well maybe she somehow got put in the younger nursery. I walk to the next door. Open it and look. No Makenna. So I ask one of the teachers. She tells me Makenna has not been there. WHAT?!?!
So now I start to panic. The two nursery teachers are panicking with me. I decide to go find Richard to see if he knows where she may be. I can't find Richard...it's after church...I can never find him. So I walk back over towards the nursery and find him almost to the door. I say, "do you have Kenna?" He tells me he is about to go get her. I really start to panic...and tell him that she is not, nor has she been in nursery. He starts to fret and yells out "what?! she isn't in nursery?"
Luckily he yelled this, because one of the primary (the children's sunday school) teachers heard him and quickly told us that Makenna had gone to sunbeams today. We ran to their classroom and found our little girl safe and sound. She was smiling and excited that she had gone to primary with the big kids.
How did Makenna get to primary today instead of nursery? Her sweet cousin, Taylor, who is 10, offered to Richard to take her to class. She asked if Makenna was in the same class as her little brother Dominic and Richard, assuming that Dominic was in nursery with Makenna, said yes. But he's not in nursery...he is in primary.
Apparently she did great. She helped a little girl go to and stay with the class for the first time all year. She sat quietly and listened. My friend, whose daughter it is that Kenna helped, thought it was weird that Makenna was in there, but thought I had talked to someone about it, so she didn't think to do anything about it. Plus she liked that Kenna was helping her little girl to stay in class! We asked Kenna if she liked primary and she said yes, but missed the snacks. :)
I cannot even describe the feeling of thinking your child is gone. It was awful. Terrifying. I shook for an hour afterwards. And the thought of not having her only lasted about 10 minutes...maybe not even that. But it is something I will always remember.
So now you can see why this thought was so ironic. I still feel safe in leaving her in nursery. I just need to be sure that she makes it there first!
