Well I finally did it. After 24 years of parenting, I finally left a child behind. It happened at church after Vacation Bible School. It wasn’t the baby or toddler as you may suspect, it was the Lyn, the 13 year old with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I’ve mentioned in some of my other blogs, on living with fetal alcohol syndrome, how she frequently requires a personal invitation to join us.

It was the last day of VBS so my family had to stay after and clean up since I am the program director. We couldn’t leave until the entire church was clean and all VBS supplies put away. I was trying to keep my children focused and reminding them to hurry because I also had to deliver mail all week, including today, right after VBS.

In order to make the mail truck for outgoing mail, I would need to be back to the post office by 4:30. If I were to miss the truck, I would have to chase it to the next town because the mail must go out.

The van was completely loaded with all the VBS supplies and I had three extra children to run home. From the driver’s seat, I couldn’t see the children in the back half of the van. However, I verified that the baby and the toddlers were in their car seats as well as the seven and nine year olds. Nobody mentioned that Lyn wasn’t in the van.

One of the toddlers started screaming “Lyn” because she wanted her help. After she had screamed her name for a couple of minutes, one of the other children asked, “Where is Lyn?” Not in the van, that is where she was.

Because I was already half-way to dropping off the three extra children, I decided to finish taking them home. I called the church and told my daughter to meet me at the corner gas station, she said, “OK.” On my way back, I didn’t see her at the gas station so I turned towards the church. No sign of her on the side of the road either, “Great, she’s probably waiting inside the gas station,” I said aloud.

As we approached the church entrance, a crowd of people was standing near the road. Yep, my daughter and two other families from our church, parents, and children were standing there waiting for me.

Then I did what any other temporarily insane mother would do. I yelled at her right in front of my friends who happen to be sisters in the Lord. Oh, they tried to stick up for her so I rebuked them in one breath, and apologized to them in the next breath, for my tone. Now, I’ll need to spend the evening writing apologies.

Why hadn’t she met me at the corner gas station? She didn’t know I had said that. She has a really bad habit of saying “ok” when she has no idea what she is agreeing to. Where was she when I was running around the church doing a last minute search, telling everyone to get in the van and loading it up for 30 minutes?

She was talking to one of her friends. I have no idea how she missed the repeated calls to get in the van. I also have no idea where she was hiding while everyone else was working. She had my friends completely convince that she didn’t know it was time to leave even though everyone else had left an hour ago.



My FAS Child Can’t Stop Stealing
What is FAS or FAE
Gullible’s Travel’s – Living with FAS
Here is Your Engraved Invitation – Living With FAS
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