Good neighbors

This morning I took the kids to a splash park for the first time. Whenever we do something new, I have concerns about whether I can keep everyone safe and in line, but today I wasn't too worried. After all, a friend had invited us to meet her there (so I knew I would have a pair of back-up eyes and hands), and she had assured me that it was entirely fenced-in, with only one opening (so I knew I wouldn't have to monitor multiple points of exit).

And everything did go fine ...

Fun at the splash park!

 ... until we decided to have lunch. At that point, the girls followed me to a nearby picnic table to get dried off while my friend made sandwiches. Isaac was not far behind. I saw that Jude was still playing in the water, so I decided to let him have fun while I got the other kids settled. The next thing I knew, a lady was tapping me on the shoulder, saying, "The kid who is wearing exactly what he [points to Isaac] is wearing is outside the fence!"

Sure enough, I looked up to see that, during the short amount of time that I was drying off the other kids, Jude had exited the park, walked along the fence (next to the parking lot!), and ended up in the grass near the playground, on the opposite side of the splash park from the picnic tables. He was standing there all alone, looking very small and helpless. Supremely embarrassed and more than a little bit horrified, I thanked the woman, left the other kids with my friend, and ran to retrieve my boy.

Safe and sound!

Turns out Jude realized that none of us were in the sprinklers anymore, and—even though we were just a few steps away at the picnic table—he thought we'd gone back to the car and went looking for us. The woman who alerted me to his escape was at the park with seven kids of her own to keep track of, just happened to notice during a head count that one of mine was outside the perimeter of the park, and cared enough to let me know right away. Now that's what I'd call a good neighbor!

Incidentally, our literal neighbors have been pretty good to us this summer, too. Already we've enjoyed one's playroom and bouncy house, another's hand-me-down clothes, another's sprinkler and water table, and yet another's amazing trampoline:



Thank you, God, for good neighbors!