Last summer, the summer of 2015, before my little Orange had even turned a year old, the unthinkable happened. I was sitting down in the living room reading something, while my boys played around different areas of the house. I could hear them, and they all seemed to be fine. I didn’t want to move much, because I was pregnant with our baby Grape, and didn’t have much energy. Then I heard it: my baby Orange had started to cry.
I went upstairs to see what the matter was when I realized he was behind the bathroom door. I tried to open the door and thought, “Oh, he locked it.” Only after trying to unlock it did I realize that the handle turned just fine; he hadn’t locked it, he had blocked it! He had opened a small drawer that was right in front of the door. So I tried to see if there was anything I could use to close the drawer from the outside, but I was having no luck. I called Joe at work, but he said there wasn’t much he could do at the time. I thought, “Ok, maybe I can get to him through the window!”
I went to our back yard, where I knew our neighbor above the garage had a long ladder out by the tree line. The window was on the second story, so I couldn’t get to it without a ladder. I tried to move this one, but it was way too heavy for me to move on my own. I searched his garage for a smaller one, but that one was too short. By this time, I’m panicking because my baby was screaming in the bathroom, and I couldn’t get to him! I frantically called Joe again, and told him he needed to come home right now, so that we could get Orange out of the bathroom. Joe said he’d leave right away, but it was about a half hour drive back to our house, and the sorrowful screams coming from the bathroom were overwhelming me.
I prayed that God would help me figure out what to do, when I saw my neighbor outside her home across the street. I went out there and asked as calmly as I could (which probably wasn’t very calm) if she’d come help me get him out. She agreed right away, and came over with tools to try to close the door. With her help, we quickly realized that the bathroom window was the only way to get to him, because the drawer was so close to the door, that as we tried shutting it it would close the door further and then we couldn’t do anything. So out to the ladder we went, and moved it together to the window. She climbed up, cut the screen and climbed through it as I ran inside so when she opened the door I could scoop my baby Orange up and comfort him.
I thanked her profusely for helping me get to my baby, and she left for her house. Just after that Joe came home. He stayed for a little bit until I was more settled down, and then headed back to work. I still remember that day so clearly, and how much panic I felt because I had no family nearby who could come help me.
But now, looking back on that experience I am thankful for our neighbors and realize that the proverb is true:
Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. Proverbs 27:10 ESV