Where's My Baby Boy, Jerry?!

My first grader, Zach, often comes home from school and tells me his "bad" news. Most are horrid injustices in the eyes of a six year old. Things such as not being able to go outside for recess or running out of toothpicks for his art project. The worst "bad" news ever was not being able to do math activities! Math activity time is Zach's favorite thing at school!

I was totally unprepared when Zach came home to my mom's house, Wednesday, with "bad" news. Zach came in, ran down to the basement and washed his hands as he does every day. Then he casually came in the living room were Iwas watching TV and said, rather calmy, "Mom, I have some bad news." I was tempted to brush him off until the next comercial but trying to be a good listener asked him what his "bad" news was today. Imagine my shock when he informed me Jerry, his 5 year old brother, hadn't come home with him. In fact, he hadn't seen Jerry get on the bus at all! I quizzed Zach a bit to be sure what I was hearing was correct. Sure enough Jerry was lost!

The first few weeks of school, Jerry was having trouble remembering to get off at his bus stop so I figured he probably was still on his bus and decided not to panic, yet. I immediately called the school and let them know Jerry didn't come home with Zach. They were about as surprised as I was and said they would make a few calls and track him down. I ever so patiently waited for my phone to ring. Fifteen minutes later, it finally rang! Jerry was nowhere to be found! They checked the bus and he wasn't on it. With relief, we figured out they had checked the wrong bus. So again I left things in there hands as they made more calls.

The minutes slowly ticked by. With each passing minute my heart started beating faster. My mind began wandering. It shouldn't be taking so long to call the right bus! What if they didn't find him, then what! Finally, I got the call I'd been anxiously awaiting for! They found him!!! He was on the wrong bus! Two of the drivers were substitutes resulting in the buses getting out of order. Jerry was used to getting on the last bus in the line and hadn't noticed that it wasn't his until after he got on. My poor little boy had tried to tell the bus driver he was on the wrong bus, but he was sitting too far in the back to be heard. When all the other children were dropped off he moved to the front of the bus and made another attempt to be heard. By then the driver had gotten the call from the school and was bringing my Jerry home!

As soon as I heard the bus pull up in front of the house I went out to meet Jerry. My brave little guy came running up to the house with a relieved look on his face. Then he completely lost all that bravery. The tears came streaming down his face as he tried to tell me who was responsible for putting him on the wrong bus. Fighting back tears, I held him in my arms. I hugged him over and over not wanting to let go...but my job as a parent is to let go. We constantly need to "let go" of our little ones as they grow up. All the while, trusting that God will protect our babies as He protected Jerry. Today, when you find yourself resisting letting your little one go remember that God is with them, watching over them and protecting them and although we cannot be forever by their side, God can!