thanks. part 2

So, I had intended this to be a sweet post about how I am thankful, not only at Thanksgiving, but also at this time of year. For an amazing family, for my dad who sends Harper musical Peanuts cards in the mail just because she dances to them, to my mom who drives twelve hours to spend one day with Harper, to my father in law who tuned up my car before I went on a road trip giving me peace of mind, to my mother in law who teaches me important things like tying bows and how to be a great mom. And how this time of year I am thankful for the gift of babies...Harper and Jesus. Not in that order. Anyway. That was BEFORE I had one of my top 5 scariest moments of my life. I got home from work, unloaded my car (including Harper), let Toby out of his kennel, and as I was doing this got a call from Jason. He was on his way home from work (45 minutes a way). Then I turned on the Christmas tree lights. Toby and Harper were running around together. Then I opened our front door to turn on our Christmas lights outside. We have a regular door and a storm door. I left both open as I reached around the storm door to plug in the lights. Then I heard a click. I looked behind me. Harper and Toby had closed the door. Aggravated I try to open the door, "How did they get to the door so fast?" I think. The door does. not. open. I push. Horrified I slowly realize that the doorknob must have gotten locked (can Harper reach that?). 'Don't panic' I tell myself. I probably left the door into the laundry room through the garage door open. Now I hear Harper crying through the door. I run to the garage door. It was not unlocked. And no amount of shoving it with my shoulder opened it. 'Maybe I left the back door unlocked when I let Toby out to go to the bathroom earlier.' Now Harper was REALLY screaming. I ran to the back door. Also not unlocked. Of course. I am so cautious about anyone ever getting into the house I ALWAYS lock the doors. Now, you may be saying "why is she panicking? why doesn't she just get the key out of its hiding place?". Well, several weeks ago my hidden key fell in between the slats of our deck making it impossible to reach. So now my child, keys, cell phone, and dog are all in the house. And I am out. And it is raining. I stayed calm externally. Earlier, when I was still inside and I had let Toby out I had pulled up the blinds on the back door so Harper could see him outside. Now I was so thankful that I could sit by the backdoor and see her inside. We sang. We identified our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. We (well, I) screamed and banged on the door at Toby when he stole her brand new stuffed animal and tried to tear it to pieces knowing I couldn't do a thing about it (I mentally told him he was lucky I couldn't get in). All with a door between us. I could have gone to a neighbor's house or gotten them to call the police. But really they would have just done the same thing I could have done. I knew I could either a) retrieve the impossible to retrieve key (which I tried multiple times) or b) wait the (now 30) minutes until Jason got home. So we waited. Harper cried. I wanted to cry. I am not sure if she was crying because she knew something was wrong or because she wanted to be outside. Finally after exhausting all songs, memorized books, and non-curse bad words (to Toby) that I know I heard a truck go down our street. I ran around to the front and thought I saw a truck in the drive. I blinked. It was really there. Jason was home. I ran screaming and crying "unlock the door, they locked me out!". He thought someone in our family was dead or seriously injured by my reaction. It is hard to be a grown up and keep it together forever, though. Anyway. So after my afternoon (followed, sweetly, by a dinner at Panera and a Shake's frozen custard), my new thanks list is as follows:
1- I am thankful that I worship a God who is bigger than door locks and fear and terror and mistakes.
2- I am thankful that God gave me 40 minutes of (mostly) calm so I did not freak out my child.
3- I am thankful that on the same day a sweet friend at work gave Harper a new teddy bear for Christmas she had something new and cuddly to cling to while she watched her mommy sit outside the door.
4- I am thankful I have a husband who calls me to let me know when he is coming home and that I actually got that phone call prior to the locking out. Otherwise I would have broken the glass. Also I am thankful Jason remained calm and took me to eat, which he knows makes everything better (although I felt so sick to my stomach after this I didn't eat much. Harper did, though!)
5- I am thankful I have a dog that is sweet as sugar to my baby and so even though he stole her teddy bear (which she took back) I did not have to worry about him hurting her.
6- I am thankful for my sweet, spirited daughter who loves to investigate and explore. Even door locks.
PS- this is our 100th blog. When we started this thing I never thought I would be posting about my child locking me out of the house!