On the Map

Yesterday was started out as a typical homeschooling day, you know - where all my children sit quietly at the kitchen table, heads bent studiously over their work, keeping their hands to themselves, quiet as a mouse. NOT!!! We had just finished our History read aloud and then chaos ensued....kids went off in different directions to set to work, while they tease and play with one another. I was sitting on the couch with Ben working with him on a Language assignment, while Jake was supposedly doing Math in the kitchen. All of a sudden, Isaiah said, "There's a state police car in our driveway." (I must say these are not words that make me comforted, instead fear sets in as I imagine being told I'm not teaching my kids enough, getting arrested and hauled off to jail, while they take my kids away.) We all stood up and peered out the window at the policeman sitting in his car, not moving. Then I thought, "Act natural - keep doing what you were doing." (as if he hadn't seen us all peering out the window) So we tried to act natural, until I saw him get out of his car. So I went on the porch to go meet my trouble, rather than wait for it to come to me....

As I stepped outside and approached him, the police officer asked, "Is there any trouble here m'am?"

"No," I replied. "Why?"

"We received a 911 hangup call from this residence," he said as his eyes scanned over the house to see any unusual activity. Immediately I explained that one of my children must've been playing with the phone. He followed me into the house as I questioned the kids and of course, no one did it! He said they had tried to do a call back but no one answered. We had gotten a couple of repeated calls from Lansing City.... and I had looked at the caller id and thought, "Someone trying to sell me a State Journal or Fireman's Union trying to get a donation' and hadn't picked up.

The officer was very nice and noted how many children I had there and I explained we homeschool. As soon as he walked out the door, I immediately went into the kitchen and narrowed in on Jake, who, as he sits at the computer doing his math, loves to play with the phone and the answering machine (that's why we always have such unique messages). He had been doing it that morning, but he emphatically denied that he had dialed 911. He said, "I was just dialing random numbers over and over and at one point heard a wierd voice and hung up." "But no one else was playing with the phone Jake. It must've been you!" "I didn't do it!" (Can't you just hear this 12 year old's denial???

Then we heard Isaiah's voice again, "There's another police car pulling in the driveway." So outside I went again and this police officer asked me who maintains our road. I explained that we do it ourselves and he said that would explain why it wasn't on any map or in any system they had. He said, "It's really a good thing that this happened and it wasn't a true emergency because we had to drive around Ingham Township to find Crocus Trail. Now we know where you are and can input information in our system."

Blessing in disguise - right? A day later, once all my fear has subsided, I can say without any hesitation, "Thank you Jake for goofing around, dialing 911, and getting us on the map."