I found a lost little boy yesterday .... and returned him of course ;-)

I had another adventure after work yesterday! Leave it to me to find an adventure from my office to my car a few blocks away LOL.

I'm just about to head into the parking lot and I see this little boy, definitely looking LOST. Not crying, not panicking, but definitely had that 'look' about him, and my mommy senses were tingling and kicking in .... lost! So just as I'm about to approach him, he said "MOM!!!". That cinched it! I walked up to him and asked him "Did you lose your mom Bud?" He was whipping his head all around and said "Yeah ... I can't find my family ANYWHERE!!!!!. I just wanted to take a picture and they were gone!!!" My heart just sank for the poor little guy!

For anyone who's been on the Halifax Waterfront at end of day rush hour, you know how many people are walking around down there ... to the buses, ferry terminal, parking lots ... then there's the tourists .... EVERYWHERE! How was I ever going to find his family in that crowd, .... especially since I had to go pick up my own kids at day camp ....I didn't have alot of time ...

Turned out ... here's this little 6yr old boy ... from New York, here on a cruise ship, and they made a port stop in Hfx, and he lost his family, wandering around the waterfront alone :-( Thankfully us Nova Scotians are such nice people ;-)

I wasn't sure if I should try and find his family in the crowd, or take him directly back to the ship. I asked him if he was supposed to meet his family anywhere if he got lost (did they say he SHOULD go back to the ship, meet elsewhere???) did they have cell phones? Yes, they all did (Mom, grandma and uncle, who he was travelling with), but he didn't know any of their numbers. Then he said "I HAVE to be back at the ship at 5 ... it's LEAVING at 5!!!!" It was after 4:30 when he said that .... So ... on the chance I was going to be VERY late getting my own kids ... I made a quick judgement call and I decided to walk him back to the ship, and hand him over to security. Which is what we did :-)

We walked the 5-6 blocks to where the cruise ship was docked and I just kept talking to him the whole way. What was his name, where was he from? Telling him about my boys, going to NY for March Break, talking about the Pokemon Centre ... trying to keep him distracted I guess. Then, just as we were approaching Pier 21, a couple of 'ship dudes' came walking towards us. I stopped them, checked their ID and made sure they were from the Carnival Cruise, explained what happened, and then we all went to the ship. I went as far as I could with him to the security gates, and the 'ship dudes' took him from there onboard.

I was glad he was safe ... but I felt bad for his family cause I knew they were probably frantic!!!! But there wasn't much I could do about it at this point, so I headed back to my truck, and just kept scanning the crowds along the way for anyone who looked like they were frantically looking for something/someone.

I finally pulled out of the parking lot, drove maybe a couple of blocks and I saw a few people standing around looking 'off', and again ... the mommy senses kicked in and I thought "That's them!!!" Turned out it wasn't ... it was a few people who were helping look for him. Turned out the grandmother and uncle were stopping everyone asking if they'd seen a little boy, so some had stopped to help look ... and the mother ... she was 7 months pregnant :-( There was a rickshaw driver taking her back and forth between the ship and waterfront, all over ... looking for him. (for those that don't know, a rickshaw is like one of those carts a horse pulls, but this one's pulled by a human ... usually some 'hot', well built guy lol, a tourist 'thing') So I rolled down the passenger window and yelled at them. Asking if they were looking for a little boy, when they said yes, I said "I found him, I brought him back to the ship, he's fine!!!". Traffic was building up behind me and they're yelling "Pull Over!!! Come tell the Mother!!!" so I did :-)

Someone yelled to grandma (This lady found him!!!) and she ran up to me first and OMIGOD I thought she was going to break me she hugged me so hard :-) My heart was just breaking for them, she was crying and crying :-( Then the mom appeared out of nowhere in the Rickshaw and she couldn't even speak, didn't move ... just cried and cried. I went over to her and just gave her a big hug and started crying myself ... (those darn mommy senses!!! lol) Told her not to worry, he was safe, back at the ship with security, and he was aVERY brave little boy! Then ... with their tears and thanks still in my head, I disappeared into the crowd, off to get my own kids. And let me tell ya ... I hugged them extra hard when I picked them up last night :-)

I thought about that poor mom alot last night. I can't imagine what she was feeling ... knowing your child was lost in a strange city ...and of course I thought of my own kids ... I've always told them never to go with strangers ... just as I'm sure this little guy's mom had always told him ... but he came with me anyway ... I could have been lying to him about taking him back to the ship and just whisked him away instead .... how are our kids supposed to know who to trust if they ARE lost ... especially in a strange city :-( There were no police officers around yesterday. What would my own kid do if he was lost and couldn't find the police ... go with a nice stranger?

I know I could drive myself crazy thinking about all the 'what if scenarios', so I guess I just have to let it go, and know that what goes around comes around, and god forbid, if either of my boys ever gets lost, I've done my good deed, hopefully someone would do the same for them.

Hey!! It's Friday!!! Have a great weekend everyone!!!

K.

P.S. If ya got 'em ... give 'em an extra hug tonight ...cause we all know, it only takes a second and they're gone!