The Day I Forgot My Own Child

So it was bound to happen. My mind has just not been flying straight since the New Year. I can blame it on stress, on distraction, or the fact that I’ve been sick for a week and feeling scrape-me-off-the-floor yuck. But in reality, it was probably just about time.

I picked up the older girls from carline as usual. I had Hannah with me in the van, and we had left the dog at home today. There was chatter and questions and fussing as usual, but my mind was on the tedious Wal-Mart list in my purse and the fact that I had not gotten as much done today as I had hoped.

I was thirty minutes into my nerve-wracking, over-crowded, boot-some-people-out-of-the-middle-of-the-aisle shopping experience when I looked around, puzzled.

“Where’s Tyler??”

I tried to think and told myself to be calm even though something didn’t feel right. For although he is 12 and has a phone, I had visions of him wandering off, lost amid the aisles and susceptible to the strangers of the world. Emily looked at me blankly, shrugged, and said with a nervous giggle,

“We never got him”.

I uttered something, but I’m not sure what it was. I was thinking other things that I would be better off not putting in print. I grabbed for my phone and saw the following text:

U comin to get me

I quickly texted back an apology, told him where I was and that I would be there soon. I heaved a big sigh, knowing this was no catastrophe and that Tyler was probably grateful to sit in the hallway at school as opposed to having to go shopping at Wal-Mart, but still felt the familiar little chant in the back recesses of my head…bad mom, bad mom, who forgets their own child, bad mom…

Once the groceries were paid for and loaded, I headed back to school to pick up Tyler. He was in no hurry to get in, open Kindle in hand, diligently looking at something. Once he got settled in the van, he looked at me with a grin and explained his reason for taking so long.

“I got two days worth of reading done while I waited…I was just finishing!”

Two days of reading. I instinctively knew what he meant. Two days of his reading-through-the-Bible-in-a-year-reading-plan. That reading. The reading that he is further ahead than me in. I smiled and made conversation with him on the outside, but on the inside I was doing a little exultant jubilee.

I may not be the best mom ever and I certainly make my share of (daily) mistakes, but by God’s grace I’m doing something right. (I'm not the only one!) And while I may have forgotten my child today, the Father didn’t. Nor did Tyler forget Him. I think there was a reason I didn’t remember to get Tyler today.

And that makes me smile.