Jacob

The morning dawned. Two families getting ready for an activity filled day. One family was leaving for the beach in the morning, the other was going to head there in the afternoon. Neither family knew the other, but God knew both.

This was the first year in my recent memory we were not camping for the 4th of July. Even in the week approaching, my ever ready camper was mentioning places we might try to get into. Then I lovingly remind him that we had family coming into town for the holiday and we couldn't be gone.

Kevin left early that the morning to go help a friend, while I got our family ready to spend the afternoon/evening at the cottage. At the time we had no idea how the timing of the day had to be perfect.

I was anxious to leave because it was a hot sunny day, but we had to wait until Kev got home and that didn't happen until early afternoon. By the time we had lunch, packed up our stuff and headed off it was 2 pm which made our arrival time just before 3 pm.

We quickly changed into our suits, smeared on the sunscreen, and went down to the beach to enjoy the sun's afternoon warmth. The kids started playing while Ama, Poppop, Uncle Chris, Kevin and I sat watching them.

Not long after we arrived on the beach we noticed a little boy walking very confidently down the beach. He was at times almost running, but there were no parents following him. Kevin was the first to mention it odd. Something didn't seem right. Kevin question his age, I said he couldn't more than 5 yrs. Then it was suggested that one of us go after him and find out where his parents were. I was quick to say "Kevin, you go catch him", the thought of running down the beach in my bathing suit just didn't seem fun to me. Kevin said he would go, but then after further discussion it was decided that there needed to be a female that went along as well, for safety and appearance purposes (Ama and Poppop would watch our kids while we were gone).

These decisions were made very quickly, but the little guy was moving so quickly, we had to run the catch up with him. **I am very thankful there is no video footage of this run, because Pamela Anderson I wasn't!** Ok, on with the story..

While Kevin and I were running to catch up with him, we were asking the groups of people along the way, if they had recognized the little boy or knew where he came from. Always the answer was "No."

We finally caught up with the little boy, he didn't stop walking/running and I try to ask him where his parents are. He tells me he is on his way to Mommy. I get him to stop walking and I ask him what his name is, he tells me it's Jacob. I ask how old he is, he tells me 5. Then he starts back up his race down the beach.

Kevin and I were pretty sure he came from a little county park called North Shore Beach. It is located about a quarter mile north of the cottage but Jacob was determined to keep heading south towards the fisherman's pier.

We tried asking Jacob questions but he seemed confused. Finally I asked him if his car was parked next to lots of other cars and he said "Yes." Then I asked him if he had gone down a slide at the beach and he said "Yes." We were now confident that he did indeed come from the park, so I asked Jacob to stop walking. I got down on my knees and told him that I was sure I knew where his Mommy and Daddy were and that we needed to turn around.

It was in that moment he realized that he was lost and he got very scared. He started to cry, I picked him up and told him he was going to be OK. He clung to me as we started retracing our steps. I talked to him, told him my name was Miss Lyn and that I had a little girl that was 5 yrs old and she was playing in the water. I told him about Micah and Tyler, anything that would calm him down.

The cottage is about 2 miles north of Grand Haven's fisherman's pier. By the time we convinced Jacob that we had to go the other way we were about a quarter mile from the pier. We had a long walk ahead of us! Before we turned around there was one family who had taken note of Jacob and had gotten concerned. When we told them we were trying to figure out where he came from, they said they would keep there eyes out for anyone who might come looking for him. On our way back, we ran into the family again and we told them we were pretty sure he was from the Park. None of us had cells phones on us, so we couldn't call the police to inform them that we had a missing child, so the husband decided he would run ahead of us to the park and see if he could help locate the parents before we got there.

I was carrying Jacob, he didn't want me to put him down, but I was getting tired. We had run down the beach to catch him, then we continued walking with him and now, I was carrying him back. Finally he agreed to let Mr. Kevin carry him. We continued talking to him trying to figure out what his parents names were. We got to our cottage and updated Ama and Poppop with what was going on and then continued on our way.

All I could think about was how frantic the parents had to be. I tried putting myself in their place and felt the feelings of terror that had to be ripping their hearts apart. We had no idea how long he had been gone, we had no idea how long it was before he was discovered missing, we had no idea if the authorities had been alerted. All we knew was that we had a very scared little boy who wanted his Mommy and Daddy.

As we approached the park the father that had run ahead of us was walking a ranger to us. The ranger asked us what the little boys name was and then radioed "I have the child." The radio jumped to life as a female voice came through. The ranger said again "I have the child!"

Out of the crowd a man starts running towards us, his legs couldn't carry him fast enough. Kevin turns Jacob, he eyes light up. There was no time, no chance for Kevin to move away, Jacob's Daddy throws his arms around both his son and the man who found him. Jacob throws his arms around his Daddy and then the tears started up in earnest again. "Don't let me go Daddy... Don't let me go Daddy!" Jacob's Dad turns to us, tells us "thank you" and head's back to the park.

Kev and I look at each other, alligator tears in both of our eyes, we start our way back to the cottage.

That's where the story ended. We finished out our day at the cottage and then headed into town for the fireworks. I have thought of Jacob a few times since and what had happened in the park that day but figured I would never know.

Until yesterday...

(pictures of Art Prize, the Gardens and kids will be continued after this story is finished)