the day we lost our child at the mall

Last Saturday, we thought it would be fun to run the girls to the mall to walk around. We usually let them play in the play area for awhile and then walk down to the ride-on toys (spaceships, trains, cars that we just let them sit in...they don't seem to mind that we don't put quarters in). Anyway, we were at the point when we were ready to move on from the play area and told them we would head down to the spaceship. As Matt gathered up coats and bags, I grabbed Ella and started walking out of the play area. Miriam was back with Matt and Abbie was excited that we were going to the spaceship, so she ran up to me. Just as she did, I turned around to see where Matt was and he asked where Abbie was. In that split second, she had darted past me and was probably thinking she was heading toward the spaceship. We quickly looked around the whole play area and then around the outside of it. Deciding she was still probably close by, we weren't panicking. Yet. Matt told me to stay at the entrance of the play area and walked around to the stores closest. I kept looking for him to return and when I saw him, I saw he didn't have Abbie. At this point, I started to panic a bit. The mall was VERY busy that day and I couldn't even fathom where my three year old would think to go. She wasn't old enough to understand which way to go or even clearly communicate to someone where she was intending on going. Trying to stay calm, I held Miriam's hand, squeezed Ella tighter and prayed. The minutes going by seemed like hours. Finally, Matt decided he would head toward the spaceship area at the other end of the mall. Again, minutes turned into hours (it seemed). Then I saw him bolting it back toward me...but still with no Abbie. He told me he ran into a mall security guy and they had just got a call from Bath & Body Works with a child alone. We flew to the store...just on the OTHER side of the play area. We ran in and there she was, chatting with the store clerks, putting on fragrant hand sanitizer and probably not really even realizing the horror we were thinking. We thanked the clerks and walked out trying to explain how she can't run away from us again. I have never been more thankful in my life to see her face and hear her voice. It was a terrifying 10-15 minutes, but we are so glad it all turned out well. And, after all was said and done, we still went down to the spaceships: