Saturday, December 22, 2007

Alex's Adventure!



So yesterday afternoon, I had gone up to Ben's parent's to get their house ready for their homecoming. They have been in Switzerland picking up Ben's brother Paul from his mission. I used the spare key to get in and set it on the table, put Alex in the high chair with something to eat and ran outside to get Jeremy, who was asleep in the van. As I went to go back in the house, lo and behold the door was locked! With Alex inside! I go over to the neighbor's to see if they had a spare. They don't. They call the other neighbor to see if they have one. They don't. In the meanwhile, I discovered that I had left the van keys in the house and I can't start it to keep Jeremy warm. He doesn't want to go to the neighbors to keep warm. I check all the other doors and they are locked tight since Ben's parents haven't been home. They also have brand new windows so there is not way to push a window out. So then I call Ben, who was at his brother's house. He had his mom's car and I hoped their was a spare key to the house. He rushed up to his parents and we tried the door. The key didn't work. We are supposed to be getting to the airport soon. Ben starts calling his family to see if anyone has a key. No one does. Ben calls 911. They won't come because they have had too many people get mad when they break a window to get in. Ben tells them that there is a child inside the house. They say they will call an officer. He comes by but can't help. We can see Alex from the window and he cries when he sees us but for the most part sits contently. Ben's sister-in-law starts to call locksmiths, as do I over at the neighbors. Jeremy finally agrees to go and stay at their house. I have no luck getting a locksmith. I even called Triple A, who my inlaws have, but they only unlock cars. My sister-in-law is able to get a hold of some locksmiths but they are too far away. She tries A-1 Key service. They are able to come out. Mike Budge is his name and he just happens to know the Gerritsen's. He proceeds to help us and is nice enough to not charge us because there is a baby inside! We are so grateful and Alex was so happy to see us! Funny thing to all this is that when Ben was a baby, Ben's parents had just moved into the same house and Ben's dad Bryan was working at the deaf and blind school. Becky, Ben's mom, had gone outside for something with Travis and Steve, Ben's older brothers, leaving Ben inside asleep. As she attempts to go back into the house, the door is locked. She had to go to a neighbors, who she had never met, to see if they could drive her to Bryan to get a key. So it feels like Deja Vu. We are so grateful for the kindness of others though!

1 comment:

SkyTang said...

what a crazy story, glad it worked out so well. Good thing for the key service... funny enough, they pulled through for us once when we were coming back from Yellowstone a couple of years ago on a holiday: we had lost the only set of keys for the trailer we borrowed. They were super fast and hardly charged us anything. Great blog Jen and Ben., Tyler