My children loved the Where's Waldo books when they were younger. Each page was filled with incredibly detailed images amongst which was hidden, Waldo. It was quite difficult to spot Waldo in all the chaos of those images. This past evening, July 4th, while at Bridge Street, a couple of hours prior to the fireworks display, my husband and I felt like we were in a Where's Waldo book when Olivia suddenly disappeared. Earlier we had taken Olivia to see the movie, Cars and afterwards we went to a little pizzeria to get a pizza. Of course, with it being Independence Day, Bridge Street was packed with people, many of which were children all enjoying the festivities while waiting to watch the fireworks display, once it was dark. Jeff waited at the counter for our pizza, while I went with Olivia to get her something to drink. We met at an empty table and Olivia was standing behind Jeff as he was trying to get this rather large box with our pizza in it on the table. I glanced around Jeff to make sure Olivia was still there and then preceded to move things around to make room for Jeff to place the pizza. I then looked back to where Olivia was standing so I could help her around the table and make room for her to sit down. Olivia was no longer there! It was a very small restaurant, but it was filled with people waiting in a long line to order. We both, very quickly, glanced all around and not seeing Olivia anywhere, Jeff headed out the door towards the carousel that we had promised her she could ride after we had eaten. I waited at our table while continuing to look around the restaurant. It seemed she had simply vanished in thin air! Jeff came back to the door, without Olivia, to see if I had found her. Seeing that I was standing alone, he once again went looking even further. This was definitely a time when every moment counted; I had to keep it together and think logically as to what to do!! I then decided to abandon our food, and quickly explained to the people next to us the situation, asking them if they would mind watching our food. They were very kind and I rushed towards the back door, which I noticed at that point was open with people going in and out and the restroom was by the back door, too. After checking the restroom and not finding Olivia, I went out the rear door. Right outside the door was a couple with small children, so I asked them if they had seen a little girl with Down Syndrome, dark hair and demonstrated how tall she was. They had not, but asked her age with the intention of keeping an eye out for her. I then began to look toward the crowd gathered near the water and noticed three large, blown-up bouncy units; a moon walk, giant slide and a maze. Olivia loves playing on these, so I ran over and carefully searched around and inside each unit. What chaos... people, so many people and so, so many kids!!! Still, no Olivia!! At this point, panic began to set in. My heart was racing, tears were beginning to form in my eyes, I was praying out loud, and looking for security!! I ran back towards the pizzeria to have someone call security for me, but as I came through the back door my husband was back at our table standing and watching for me. As soon as he spotted me coming through the door, he pointed down. He had found Olivia and brought her safely back, but not without a pretty harsh reprimand. She had actually strayed quite far and was about to enter the center walkway that goes up and down the middle of all of the stores when he found her. At which point, she could have gone left or right, entered any number of stores, and even turned down another alley and who knows if anyone would have realized that she was alone with the number of people around. Olivia probably would not have cried after getting lost, so no one would even be able to notice that she was lost and be made aware that she needed help. She has no fear or concept of how difficult it would have been to find her, especially with her not knowing how to tell anyone how to find us by calling us, describing us, or where to look for us. And I don't even want to think about what "sicko" "psycho" might have picked her up. Of course, I'm having flashes of Amber alerts going out and my daughters picture on the side of a milk cartoon as I was frantically searching for her among the chaos of people. Truly, It was like searching for Waldo!!! Once back inside the restaurant, the husband, of the couple, to whom I had described Olivia, came inside and saw that we had found her. I had no idea that they had actually made the decision to look for her when they saw the look of fear on my face as I described her to them. I was extremely grateful!! Afterwards, I sat shaking with very little appetite and ate a slice of pizza. I tried to explain to Olivia how dangerous it was that she had done this and that she must never do this again. We went on to have a nice evening, but I thank God, who sends His angels guard over her as a hedge of protection, that she was safe. This is a prayer that I have consistently prayed over my children, Olivia in particular with the understanding that for her, getting lost, among other dilemmas, is much more serious and dangerous than it ever was for any of my other children. Here's to finding Waldo and especially, finding Olivia!!!
