The Escape Artist

In my last post, I shared the most terrifying of Matty's escapes...but there have been other incidents. Plenty of them. Enough to have shaved years off of my life, I am sure. Here are a couple that come to mind...

Before the Great Escape of 2010 (previous post) she ran away several times. One day she came up missing and I ran up and down the street calling for her, panicking, the whole routine....couldn't find her anywhere! I was yelling and running and panting and running and yelling. I knocked on doors. I knocked on the door of a particular next-door-neighbor who didn't answer. A little while later I tried her door one more time. She answered this time and informed me that Matty was in her house. Holy Crap!!!! I guess she had gone in their back yard and let herself into their house through the back door. What a little stinker.

While we were living out here on Sand Cliffs Road in Meeteetse we woke up early one morning to find that Matty was not anywhere in the house. We looked everywhere and yelled and yelled for her. So, naturally we figured she had gone out. It was quite chilly outside. We went out and finally did find her in the back of the house. She was in her pajamas and a jacket and shoes. I grabbed her and carried her inside and gave her the whole 'you can't go outside without telling Mommy' lecture. Later, she brought up the subject on her own and I just listened to what she had to say. It was a pretty amazing story. She talked about walking around and doing this and that...and then in her own very simple language, she said the Holy Ghost told her to 'go home'.

I'll tell you what, I believe in the whisperings of the Spirit. And I have no doubt in my mind that that little girl heard a voice telling her she needed to go home. I am so grateful to know that our Father in Heaven is mindful of each one of us and will warn us when we need help. I am so glad that Matty was listening.

More recently, she had another sneaky break-out. At least it wasn't so scary this time...but made me nervous about the things this little girl will do! I couldn't find her one afternoon and automatically opened the front door to look for her (even though I had just been in the kitchen and never saw or heard the front door open or shut). Sure enough, there she was playing outside. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she had gotten past me without seeing or hearing her. Later, I went downstairs to do something and saw how she had accomplished her escape. She had somehow gotten the window in the family room open (it is way out of her reach, but she must have pushed something over there to climb up on) and crawled out into the dog kennel with the dog and somehow got herself out of the kennel too!!! She never ceases to amaze me!

I hope she is finally outgrowing this escape artist routine. I am so tired of it. :)