A Truely Thankful Thursday....No Joke

Joining my friend Tricia in a Thankful Thursday post....in a little different format than usual.

You see, yesterday morning I was reading one of my favorite blogs Our Little Tongginator and enjoying myself oh so much. Tonggu Momma wrote a great post on 10 Things I've Learned about putting her child in Kindergarten. Funny! And it was such a great post I was thinking about expanding on her post with one of my own and encouraging others to do so also. You know, give the ones that haven't sent a kid off a taste of the craziness...

Anyway, so I had that pea sized thought rolling around in the empty cavern that I call a brain cavity.

At the appointed time, Songbird, the rat and I headed off to the bus stop to pick up Mighty Mouse. We stood around waiting with all the other moms or dads and masses of kids. The bus pulls up and the kids start pouring out like a truckload of sand.

But wait. Mighty Mouse is usually one of the first three off.

Where is she?

So Songbird is walking back alongside the bus looking in while I'm asking the driver where my daughter is. About that time the radio goes off and there is a missing boy. The driver finds the child on her bus and radios back. So they have the missing child. Except everyone is now off the bus for our stop and I'm still standing there.

With no MM.

I'm quite sure the look I was giving the driver was a cross between those photos you see of Charles Manson and Jack Nicholson in The Shining. So the lady gets her name and checks the whole bus, one seat at a time. (I swear I can hear the clock ticking during all of this.)

No kid. So she calls dispatch and they alert all the buses.

We wait.

So I inform the driver that if MM is scared or intimidated, she is not going to answer.Info passed on. Still. We wait.

After about 5 minutes the driver says she is sorry but she has to get this other lost kid that is on her bus to his mother. She must leave.

Ok. So I get that. But. Letting that bus drive away is the last thing on earth I want to do. That is where she is SUPPOSED to be. That is the last place I saw her. That is the place with the radio I can hear them looking for her with.

The driver tells me to go home by the phone.

What phone lady??? We didn't sell the %$%*%*$$#@@!!! house in Texas! I can't afford a phone!

I do have my cell but it is going bad. It either cuts off incoming calls or locks up. And yes, I had just ordered a new one the night before....but that don't help me now.

So I have the depots number, go home and try to call them. Of course the number is busy. It took me two days to get through to them when I was trying to get them assigned a bus when we got here. Why would today be any different???? Multiple failed attempts. Ready to scream.

So I try to call my husband. Of course he is not answering either phone.

So I call the school. "My child did not get off the bus!!!!" So the lady takes my info and tells me she has been listening and they are looking for her. My response? It's been over 7 minutes since that call went out....how big are the buses that we don't have an answer? And my daughter is Chinese and will probably not respond if they are just calling her name. Oh, she remembers my child - she will get right on this and pass info along. (Just so you know the Chinese comment is to give them another clue what child they are looking for - not that she doesn't talk because she's Chinese.)

So I'm told she will get with dispatch and to wait for their call.

You have got to be kidding me.

And now my phone locks up and no one can call in and I can't call out.

So I re-seat the battery while saying unkind things about Motorola.

Phone works.

Phone rings.

Dispatch has located my child. They will deliver her home in about 20 more minutes. And I need to tell my child not to talk to her friends and get in the wrong line or whatever. Whoa. Now she gets an earful about adoption issues and what THEY need to do to ensure my child is on the right bus. Hate, hate, hated to do it but had to throw out the adoption issue card. Not something I really wanted to share with the bus depot.

So the school is trying to get through and I answer that and we are all good. Same conversation about someone needing to ensure my kid is on the right bus - because she is not going to speak up if she's not.

ARE. YOU. HEARING. ME?

So MM is delivered to my house...where I have been standing outside for 45 minutes waiting.

She comes down one step and falls onto me and wraps herself around me like a crazy monkey.

She has reverted to Velcro child.

Needless to say it was a rough night. She told me she wasn't scared or anything but she had to be touching me for HOURS afterwards. Actions do speak louder than words.

And at this point I am emotionally drained. My hubs took us out to dinner since I couldn't unstick Velcro baby and was not feeling like a domestic goddess at that moment...more like a domestic basket case.

And it was a night full of nightmares for MM...but not night terrors so it was better than it could have been.

And this Thursday, I am just very THANKFUL have my daughter back.