Picture Time

Today I took the kids to JCPenney to have their pictures taken, for Ryan's 9-month pictures, and since I hadn't taken any of Rachael since right before she turned two. (She just turned 2 1/2 this past Sunday.) It was quite an ordeal... Rachael almost got carsick on the way there, then I pulled into my parking space at JCPenney and realized I had left my purse at home... had to go all the way home to get it, and Rachael almost got carsick on the way home. She's wearing her picture dress, mind you. Then we made it back to JCPenney and managed to get some great shots of the kids.

Everything would've turned out all right had the day just ended there, but then the unthinkable happened. I was helping the photographer with Ryan, and Rachael was playing quietly behind me. In just a split second, without me seeing it happen, she had run out of the room and somewhere out in the store. One minute she's behind me, the next minute she is nowhere (and I mean nowhere) to be found. I was the frantic lady, running throughout JCPenney, calling out Rachael's name at the top of my lungs... they had called the Adam Code (missing child), so they had store employees covering all exits, and several employees and JCPenney customers were helping to look for her. After about 5 minutes of this frantic-ness, someone finds her and brings her to me... when she sees me, she says, "MOMMY!!!" I grabbed her up, was carrying her back to the portraits place, all the while crying, and she says, "What's wrong, Mommy? You sad?" Probably the most horrifying thing in my life... for those 5 minutes to not know where my child was... I can go a hundred years and not want to experience that ever again. I have said several prayers of thanks that Rachael was found safe.

Well, here are the photos we ordered. I'm hoping I can one day look at them and not be reminded of what all I went through to get them.