It only takes a second...

Ava, my beautiful two year old has a tendency of pushing the boundaries.  That is putting it delicately.  She loves jumping off the tallest step even though she repeatedly falls.  She always does the exact opposite of what you  tell her.  She is my fearless toddler who has made my heart almost stop, more than once, because she is gotten into a bag of nuts ( she is deathly allergic) or fallen on her face on the concrete.  I have started growing used to my little boundary pusher until she pushed the boundary too far and almost changed our lives for good.  This happened a few days ago, and completely changed the way I view my daughter.  I hope this post opens your eyes of how quick your life can change and how it only takes a second for disaster to happen.
I had just gotten home from school and I was tired.  I decided to order a pizza for dinner and remembered that I had needed to take the trash out.  I also remembered that this week was recycle week and so I had double the amount of bags I needed to take to our dumpsters.  I then had to wheel our dumpsters out to the street.  we live on a very busy street and it was 5:30 p.m.  I noticed how fast the cars were zooming down the road.  I needed to make several trips in and out of the house so I decided to leave the back door open.  I have several stairs to get to our deck and both of my hands were full of trash bags.
Finally I made my last trip to the dumpster, and so i rushed inside, locked the doors, and washed my hands.  That is when I noticed how quiet the house was.  Usually the house is filled with screams, laughter, and singing from my two girls.  I walked in the living room and I saw Payton.  I asked, "where is Ava?" She said she didn't know.  Thats weird, I will check her room.  I walk in Ava's room and there is no Ava.  I check the bathroom, no Ava.  I look in Payton's room and then my room, still no Ava.  My heart beat starts to become elevated and I noticed my hands are sweating. "I will check in the basement." I jog down the stairs and there is still no sign of my daughter...."Ok, now I am seriously worried."  I go outside and check the back yard.  We have one acre that leads into the woods.  I start yelling her name, still I can't find my daughter.  I don't know how to describe what happened next but I had this terrible feeling and had this thought in my head that said,   "go check the front of the house."  I ran as fast as I could.  There is a curve in our yard and as I was rounding the curve when I saw Ava.  You would think I would be overjoyed but I was HORRIFIED!  There was a car that had pulled to the side of the road and a woman had picked up my daughter and opened the backdoor and was trying to put Ava in the back seat.  Ava saw me and had her arms reached out towards me.  I was still 60 feet away and I ran like the wind.  I am telling you I ran faster then a cheetah.  The next thing I know is I was behind this strange woman, and I swooped Ava up in my arms and held her tightly to my chest.  My whole body was shaking.  All of a sudden this woman turns around and starts yelling at me and telling me what a bad mother I am and starts walking towards Ava and I.  Then the other woman who was driving the car gets out of the car and starts screaming at me that she going to call the police and I am unfit mother.  I didn't care what those women were saying... I just turned my back on them in mid sentence, held Ava as tight as I could, and walked quietly back to my house.  Now for those of you who know me, I am not the type to be quiet if someone is yelling at me. I would normally react very quickly, but I didn't.  In that moment the only thing that mattered was that I had my little girl.
We went inside and locked the door and I burst into tears!  I couldn't turn of the water works, I felt physically sick.  I kept hugging my daughter and told her that she could never do that again.  I couldn't believe that she had gotten out of my house with me right there.  I have dead bolts on all of our doors, I have child locks on all of the cabinets, I have outlet covers...I love my children.  How could this happen?  The only answer I have is this, "It only takes one second for your life to change."  It doesn't matter how careful you are, and how great of a parent you are, It literally only takes just ONE second.  You could be the best parent in the world, but there in no way for you to watch your children, every second of every day.  You do your best, and trust God with them, and know that he is faithful to watch over them better than we can.