Damsel in Distress

I have to apologize up front for the lack of pictures accompanying this post. I can, however, assure you that it is worth the read, even sans pictures {and maybe I'll throw 1 or 2 in at the end for good measure, anyway}. So, here's the story:

Nick left yesterday morning for a golf outing in Michigan with some friends, so I am here at the house alone with Carter until Sunday around lunchtime. Carter and I were super excited because we had plans to visit this zoo this morning with our friends Heather and Ben.

So, we got up early this morning very early...in fact, Carter woke up at 5:00 and never quite got solidly back to sleep...and even now is napping restlessly. Teeth, again, maybe? Hopefully? An ear infection or swimmer's ear? Who knows! , and after eating breakfast decided to start getting ready for our zoo adventure.

I typically get ready in our guest room when we don't have guests because the light is good and our bathroom is small. Unrelated to my getting ready is the fact that, unfortunately for our guests, the door knob on the inside of the door doesn't work particularly well so not particularly well that almost all of our guests have had to call us from their cell phones at some point to have us open the door from the outside. Unrelated to my getting ready, until today that is.

If you are like Nick who figures out every twist or mystery in a TV show and movie plot well in advance, then you can probably see where this is going...

While I am in the middle of drying my hair, Carter pulls the door to the guest room shut. Me on the inside, Carter on the outside. I won't even type the words I thought in that moment...to keep the blog family-friendly. He immediately began to say, "open, please" because he wanted me to open the door, and of course, I couldn't. I asked him to turn the doorknob, and, bless him, he tried, but he just didn't quite have the dexterity to do it.

So, I started to panic think. What is in this room that I can use to open the door? I tried a couple of options to sort of slide into the catch piece to release it from the wall, but to no avail. I looked for screwdrivers to try to take the door knob off the door. {Incidentally, we had phillips head ones in that room, but not the flat heads that I needed}.

No phone. No other adult in the house. Me inside the room. Carter outside the room. My husband in Michigan not to return until Sunday. I had visions of my child crying and starving. Oh, yeah, and I only had on underwear and a bra, which I remedied quickly because, thankfully, I keep my maternity clothes in that room!

I tried to keep talking to Carter, but he wouldn't talk back to me at this point. I am sure he was scared and wondering why I wouldn't open the door. I could look under the door, but couldn't see his feet, and when I called him, he didn't come right away, which, of course, made me nervous.

I felt like I was almost out of options. I started to look at climbing {or jumping, rather} out the {second story} window, when it occurred to me that my neighbors might be home and able to help. So, I opened the window and started SCREAMING their names. After about 4 times, I switched to HELP in case someone else heard me screaming. Within minutes, my neighbor Jenny and her girls were at the back gate.

I explained the situation and asked if she would check to see if the back door was unlocked. No luck. She asked if I wanted her to bring a ladder over so I could climb out and come back in the house. That wouldn't work because my key was downstairs in my purse, which I clearly couldn't get to. {Carter is still not talking to me at this point, but I can hear him talking.}

So, Ted also comes over and they bring a ladder with a variety of screwdrivers and other equipment perhaps likely to free me from my guest room lockdown. I took the door knob off, but it didn't make a difference...the mechanism that allows the door to close and catch was still engaged. Ted offered me some sort of tool to see if I could slide it in the door jam and pop the catch open. First try...a small pop, but it re-caught. Second try... IT WORKED!

And my precious child was sitting in the floor right outside the door with his ball popper and two books, just reading.

I am so thankful for God's providence and good neighbors...Jenny and Ted both work full time at the Indianapolis Star, but are on leave this week. And, within 30 minutes after they helped free me, they headed to Louisville to take their girls camping for the night. PTL that they were home. I would probably still be in that room if they had not been.

Oh, and this little turkey and I still managed to make it to the zoo with Heather and Ben...and were only 30 minutes late!

(If you are still reading this...you deserve a prize!)

So, now, the door knob is removed and the catch has a piece of tape firmly over it to prevent any similar future instances until we can fix it!