My dear fellow Cuties, I want to share something with you. First, how caring and loving my grandson Caleb is. Second, the story I am about to tell may upset you. It did us. Life can be cruel, but we can hide from it. Bad things happen. They draw us in, whether we want to participate or not. Such is what happened late yesterday evening.

Yesterday evening after Caleb got off work, he brought his tractor he just bought, over to his dads. Caleb lives in town and his dad has acreage at his place to keep it. So of course he called my dh over, because he wanted his grandpa to see his 'new' old tractor, bush hog and trailer. Caleb has land that he has purchased to build on but can't leave it there, because someone would steal it with no houses around.
About an hour or so, after my dh came home, we got a phone call. I could tell Caleb had been crying.
Caleb said when he turned down a long street he has to drive down on his way home, he could see something in the road. He thought it was a child playing in the road. As he got closer, he saw it was a baby. Actually it was a toddler, about his own child's age, of 18 months.
Caleb said he stopped his truck and looked around. There were houses, but not a soul in sight. He said the child reached up for him to hold him, but he wouldn't pick him up, for fear someone would see and have him arrested, accusing him of trying to kidnap the baby. (Isn't it terrible that we have to protect ourselves instead of giving the toddler the reassurance he needs?)
The baby's feet were covered in ant bites so bad. Caleb said his feet were swollen like they were going to burst. He was clothed in nothing but a diaper and his face was dirty. I'm not sure about his little body or just his face.
So Caleb called 911. He reported just what happened and the dispatcher said she would send an ambulance and an officer out. Caleb was told to stay at the scene.
It took 15 minutes for an ambulance to come. In the meantime, a couple ladies stopped. One was a lady Caleb recognized from First Response. She held the child. Then 2 women came up and started knocking on doors of houses around. They found the dad of the child.
The dad came to get the baby. Caleb said the dad came in pajama pants and no shirt. When Caleb looked at the mans eyes, Caleb said you could tell he was high on something and he had sores.The guy apologized for 'his little escape artist' getting away from home. (How does a toddler get away and you not know it, you know he can't open the door)
So when the ambulance came, they stayed, but their hands were tied so to speak. They said they could not enter the residence, until the officer came.
After Caleb waited an HOUR for an officer to show up, the officer told him and the women that were there, they could leave. Caleb asked the officer did he want a statement from him. The officer asked if he was the one called 911. Caleb said 'Yes sir'. The officer said, 'Well, you can leave, we have your report on tape."
Caleb was emotionally drained, I'm sure, because when he got home, he held his son and cried. Especially after telling his wife all about it and who the guy was.
Caleb said he recognized the 'dad' from when he was in high school. The 'dad' was a year younger than Caleb. Caleb said the 'dad' probably didn't even know him or he was too high to recognize him. Then Caleb's wife told him something she remembered.
She said about 2 years ago these same people had a little girl that drowned. She didn't remember how, if it was in a bathtub or swimming. Caleb said the guy did state they had lost a child two years ago, but to SIDS. Taylor said No, it was a drowning, because she remembered how that bothered her.
Like I said, it is a cruel world. What chance does that poor child have to grow up stable, or even to grow up at all? It seems to me, the death of the first child would be suspicious, by the 'dad' saying it died by anything different than the drowning that was determined.
I told you it would be upsetting. It has upset all my family. I do hope social services steps in, before we hear of something worse happening to this child.
Caleb said he wondered why he was the only one, at the time, that stopped to help. God places us there, I believe. Someone out to do no good could have very well kidnapped the child.
Well, got to go. My little ones just came in for some lovin'-Toogie