Athena Meets the Police

Today was our 2nd day of foster parenting class. It is a 6 hour class and we cannot bring our children. So all three kids go to a family for the day. We rotate who takes them on each time so it doesn't fall on just one family.

Today our kids went to a family that is pretty big. They have 6 and one on the way (I believe). They have fostered and even adopted so they wanted to help us in our journey.

Well, during class after lunch I received a phone call. It was a police officer. They told me that my daughter was found wandering the neighborhood alone. She had escaped the babysitters and was 2 or 3 streets away from where she should have been. I told the officer that she is a daring independent girl and will go alone on a walk if she sees a chance.

The officer said "You still should give the babysitters a hard time to teach them to be more careful next time."
I then talked to the father who was babysitting. He had been trying to get ahold of me as well. I could only imagine how embarrassed the parents felt. And I knew Athena could have run away on my watch too. I had not warned the family that we typically keep our doors locked. It keeps unwanted people from being able to enter but also keeps a toddler from escaping.

Athena often attempts to leave us and go take a walk alone. We have to watch her so she doesn't run away.

Anyway, I did not yell at the family watching our kids. They told me what happened and then told us the whole story later when we picked up the kids.

Here is what happened...
Luke went downstairs to play in the playroom and Athena followed him. The father of the house saw them go downstairs and he went out to his car to put something in it. He came back in the house and took another load out to the car. He came back in the house and went down to check on Athena. She was not there. They all searched the house, the yard and the house again. Then they hit the street searching for her. By this time a neighbor had Athena a few streets away and had called the police.

The police officer came and that is when Athena met her first police officer. Hopefully she won't be this much trouble all of her life.

Thankfully nothing bad happened to her while she was out on her own. We love her so much!