Lost and Found

I have been wanting to write this entry for a long while now but I think this is the right time as support to Flowerin who recently nearly lost her youngest daughter, Jazz. Rin, I guess it could happen to the best of us. I suppose it's also a lesson to all moms to never ASSUME. It's really embarrassing how I lost Mika. I feel so responsible about it. We had actually all left the building already. Only Mika was still in the building. I assumed that Mika was with my husband. And he assumed that Mika was with me. Mika was 2 or nearly 2 at that time. I don't really remember. All I know was that he wasn't 3 yet. The thought is horrifying, isn't it?

I took my Mom, Ina the maid, my kids: Inez and Mika, as well as Mimi and Naqib who were still staying with us in Kuantan at that time, to Berjaya Megamall. Then my husband joined us, so each of us took a child. Ina had Naqib, Mom had Mimi, I was holding Mika and my hubby was holding Inez. Just imagine ya, 4 adults and 4 kids, yet we can still manage to lose one. We were on the way out but biasalaa sebelum keluar tu, singgah here and there. When the shop didn't have what I wanted, I told the rest to proceed to the car while I checked out one last shop. Somehow, when I left that last shop we were ALL together at, I took Inez with me, not Mika. I figured that my hubby would take Mika seeing that Mika did not accompany me. Then I caught up with them outside Megamall some minutes later. My hubby had come in his own car, so when Ina, I think, or was it my mom, asked about Mika's whereabouts, I confidently answered that Mika was with my hubby. I didn't expect Mika and his daddy to not be with each other.

"Are you sure?" my mom asked.

"I was quite sure but I called my hubby up anyway only to be told that Mika wasn't with him. I really thought he was trying to pull one over me. Tipu! I couldn't believe he didn't have Mika! Then where was Mika?

I tell you, it was horrible. There I was, assuming that Mika was with my hubby and there was my hubby, assuming that Mika was with me and the reason why we didn't realise it earlier was because we came in different cars. (Luckily he was parked just outside the back entrance). So then, all of us sprung into action - we ran back into Berjaya Megamall. While my mom ran to announce a missing child, I went to the last shop we were ALL at. My husband had the same idea. Since he ran in first, he got to Mika first. Luckily Mika was there and surprisingly he wasn't crying. I arrived just seconds after him. The girls at the shop were doing their best not to alarm him into crying. I think he must have been lost for about 5 to 10 minutes by the time we got to him. Luckily he didn't wander off from that shop. My mom was in tears by the time we got through her handphone to tell her we've found Mika.

I guess my hubby thought I had both of them coz Mika had gone to the back of the shop and somehow didn't realise when everyone left without him. According to the shopgirls, he looked as if he wanted to cry a few times but he didn't. I think he knew he was left behind because he hugged us so tightly after that.

Do you know what scares me? We could have left him there and would not have known that we'd left him until we arrived home. That's 30 minutes! Luckily, luckily, God willing, someone asked about Mika. I cannot imagine what would have happened to him if we hadn't realised it sooner? But I am not going to drive myself crazy doing that. I thank God that we realised it and got him back, and pray that it would never ever happen again. I don't think it's a mistake that could happen to anyone, just me. I hope no one else would go through the same hell we did thinking we'd lost Mika! I tell you, the thought of having lost Mika lingered for some time....It was real nightmare!