And then the Fire Truck Came

We've had a pretty bad week. The worst of the days, at least for me, was the day the fire truck came.

I had parked my van behind Adam's car, so when he left for work in the morning he moved my van out in front of our house. Since another car was parked there also, Adam blocked our mailbox just a little. Later on in the morning, I realized our mortgage needed to go out in the mail and the mailman had already gone down one side of the street. I grabbed my keys and told Connor (who was playing in his room) that I'd be back in a sec, and went to move the van back to the driveway and put the mortgage in the mailbox.

Just so you realize, I had gotten in late the night before so I didn't wash my face and had old makeup on. I definitely had not showered and had just pulled my crazy hair up with a hair band, and I threw on an old sweatshirt (without a bra) and just walked quickly out figuring I'd be back in about 30 seconds.

I was wrong. As I was walking out, I thought I'd just go ahead and lock the door. I knew I'd be just a sec, but I was going to be inside the van and there were some people outside. When I was done, I came back to the front door to unlock it, and realized I didn't have my house key. When I left on my trip, I put it in the diaper bag for my mother-in-law to use, and I never got it back out. I immediately knew there were no unlocked doors or windows, cause I'm pretty careful about that. I went over to C's bedroom window, and yelled through the window that I was stuck outside but I'd be back in a few minutes. He was okay for a bit, but then he started crying that he wanted me to pick him up, and I felt my panic level rise about 3 points.

Just then my neighbor walked outside and I went frantically running over to her begging for her cell phone. I called Adam and he said he'd be home as soon as he could. So then I went back to C's window to wait. I was so scared something would happen to him that I just wanted to keep him talking to me through the window. His window was about even with my mouth, and unfortunately some cat had decided to do his business in my flower bed just below the window so I was straddling that with my bare feet and trying to sound calm to C. Then I remembered a bucket on the side of the house that maybe I could stand on and avoid the you-know-what. So I ran around and got the bucket, forgetting that it had been outside all winter...and when I went to stand on it the bottom gave way and I fell through. Awesome.

So I started looking around for other options, and noticed my neighbor's woodpile. I grabbed the biggest log I could find...and somewhere in my distressed mind I thought my adrenaline would help me carry it or something. Nope. I almost fell over about three times on the way back to the window. I got up on the log and started trying to talk to C again, but this time all I got was total silence. The kid doesn't go anywhere fast, so I really started to freak out then. I didn't know what to do, so I just went back to the front porch and cried.

Just about then, as the old makeup was streaming down my cheeks, the mailman showed up. When I told her my disabled child was stuck in the house, she immediately called 911, and after telling me the police were on their way went on delivering mail. I went back to the porch, just in time to see Adam pull up. He rushed out of his car with his key and unlocked the door...and not 10 seconds later up pulled the fire truck.

Okay, so I have to say this part confused me greatly because I wasn't sure exactly what they had planned to do with the fire truck to help me out. Were they going to climb up the ladder and come in through the chimney? And because it is little Shelbyville, behind the fire truck came one of the fire station SUVs for backup. And I knew they were all thinking I was crazy because I obviously did not appear locked out. So I looked up at Adam, who was hugging both Connor and me, and said, "You gotta go out there and tell them you just got here. I am a mess and I can't go out there."

So Adam walked outside to talk to them...and just then C noticed the super cool fire truck parked in front of our house, and insisted on going to see it. I was so happy to have him back, I just wanted to do whatever would make him happy. So I walked him and me outside--crazy hair, makeup everywhere, bra-less and all--to see the fire truck. And wouldn't you know it, a guy from our church just happened to be driving the truck that day. Double awesome. I was hoping maybe I looked so crazy he wouldn't recognize me, but with Adam and C there I guess there could be no mistaking me.

So what's the good part of this? Well, I will tell you how impressed with my husband I was. I was sure he was going to be mad at me, but he didn't say a thing. He just hugged us, and then was sad when he had to leave us to go back to work because he was worried I was upset...just exactly the reaction I needed to feel a little better. And C was so excited about it all that for a few days he told every new person we ran into that, "The firemen helped mommy."