Alone in the Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite things about fall is the fact that it’s harvest time. In Utah, autumn is the time to pray over your fields so they won’t be killed by an early frost. When the food is finally harvested it is truly a blessing to be thankful for. I miss Utah autumns. The leaves actually change colors and fall! The first time I jumped in a pile of leaves was as a college student at Utah State University.

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Meanwhile in California, it’s the time to start planting more veggies. No frost ruins the crops out here… honestly the only reprieve you have from your garden is running out of carrots and letting your green beans go to seed (at least as far as I can tell). The leaves don’t even really fall here! I mean… it’s not like the palm fronds suddenly realize it’s winter or anything. But regardless if it looks like fall or not… the pumpkins do ripen on time out here as well.

My aunt invited the girls and I to a pumpkin patch a few weeks ago to celebrate the season. I can’t tell you how excited I was to visit a farm. I mean… I know they exist out here, but I had yet to actually visit one.

And this place was not like any farm I’d ever seen. They had the whole tourist attraction thing down to a science. I never thought about strategically planting corn in buckets to use as decorations, but obviously they had. Then there was a petting zoo, a wagon ride, a corn maze, a whole lot of pumpkins… and hoards of people. Our group alone was a crowd by itself. My brother and his wife and kids were in town, as well as my sister, so we decided to all go together.

The petting zoo was fun… except that Winnie was too terrified of the animals to pet them. She instead became the trip photographer while I kept her far away from anything that could nuzzle or peck her. Meaning… she was in my arms. She would have climbed onto my head if that were even a remote possibility. Jess looked like she would have been herding goats right along with Heidi. She was enthralled. Liz was cautiously intrigued and was having fun telling her baby sister to touch the animals rather than attempting to touch them herself. Although… she did finally give it a try.

The wagon ride was an experience. I admit, it was my favorite part. We were able to see lots of the produce that was in the garden, many of which my children had never seen growing before (neither had I). They had papaya, avocado, and banana trees, and eggplant, giant sunflowers, and fields and fields of greens.

My girls, though, didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. In the middle of the ride, the wagon suddenly stopped, and the employees got everyone to join them in doing a countdown. Then suddenly, a cannon launched a pumpkin over the fence and onto the nearby mountains, where it splattered against the rocks.

It was supposed to be fun. Liz, however, turned to me with a very concerned face and said, “Mommy. Why are they wasting the pumpkins?”

Of course I’m the adult and felt like I needed to have an amazing answer, so I said, “Oh, honey. I’m sure there are many animals that will be very grateful to eat the pumpkins.”

To which she replies, “I don’t see any farm animals over there. And won’t the animals be hit on the head when they’re eating the pumpkins?”

Yes honey. I mean… “Maybe they gather them when they’re done and feed them to the pigs. Remember when we fed the pigs at the farm? They love pumpkins.”

Wait for it…

“But Mommy… we went to the petting zoo, and there were no pigs.”

Crash. Burn.

… “I don’t know hon.”

*sigh*

At this point my sister came to the rescue by telling Liz that pigs bite, so they are not allowed at the petting zoo. Heaven bless my genius sister for rescuing my reputation, haha. Even though the pumpkin cannon was a bit disappointing to the children, who all started being concerned for the pumpkins’ wellbeing, we still went on the wagon ride a second time.

Then we were on to the corn maze. It was… well… let’s just say if corn mazes were pools, this one would be a tiny inflatable kiddie pool compared to Olympic size Utah corn mazes. So that was a surprise. The kids liked it though. They went through it twice.

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Well, everyone was getting a bit tired, so we decided to head to the pumpkin patch to look at the pumpkins. The pumpkin patch was massive and honestly it made me so happy. I’ve missed huge fields of squash. I guess I got carried away with the nostalgia or I was too busy admiring my sweet littles sitting on the pumpkins that were half their size. I don’t know… all I know is that when I started counting children I realized that I was missing one.

I’ve learned not to freak out. This has happened before for seconds at a time. If I just look around for a few minutes I typically see the missing child wandering farther than they should be or lagging slowly behind the group. It seems like as they get older suddenly they think hand holding is unnecessary (or… like this time, my hands are filled with littler kiddos). After a few moments of the typical searching I realized that Liz was nowhere to be found. I quickly took action. I put my sisters in charge of the other three and I started back tracking.

As I walked I said a silent prayer. “Help me find Liz.”

Instantly I felt the words, “Stop.” *Stopping*

“Take a deep breath.” *Breathing*

“Good. Now, where is she?”

Well… this is Liz we’re talking about. She’s very analytical. As soon as she realizes that Mom is lost, she will find someone who works here. They will take her to the front entrance where there is a lost and found.

“Yes. And she knows your phone number.”

Right.

I started power walking to the front entrance with my cell phone in hand. When it started ringing from an unidentified number I knew exactly who it was. She was at the lost and found and I was nearly there.

Within seconds of hanging up I had Liz in my arms. I wasn’t angry at her or scared or anything. All I felt was pride.

Me: “Liz, I’m so proud of you! You knew just what to do so I could find you so fast!”

Liz: “I looked for you but couldn’t find you so I started crying. Then I thought, ‘Why am I crying? I need to find my mom!’ So I went to the worker lady and she said, ‘Why are you crying?’ And I said, ‘I need to find my mom.’ She said, ‘Follow me.’ So I did. When I got here they asked me what your phone number is and I told them.”

I’m grateful I forget my card at Smiths so often. These girls started quoting my phone number to the cashier because I always forget my savings card at home. And I’m grateful to my wonderful Liz, who after realizing her Mom lost her, didn’t once blame me or linger in sadness. I was so proud of her that when we got back to the group we told everyone how brave she’d been and how she knew just what to do. More than anything though, I am grateful that I have been given the gift of the Holy Ghost to comfort and guide me.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before, but I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That means that I have been baptised and given the gift of the Holy Ghost when I became a member of the church. I was baptised by immersion by someone who had been given the authority to perform that ordinance in God’s name. After my baptism I was given the gift of the Holy Ghost. This gift is better described as an invitation and privilege for the Holy Ghost to be a constant companion to me. The Holy Ghost is a messenger. We believe that God and Christ have physical bodies. So the Holy Ghost testifies to us of God and Christ, comforts us, warns, teaches, and helps us distinguish right from wrong. Everyone, including people who are not of our faith can feel the Holy Ghost.

I believe that without the gift of the Holy Ghost I would have found Liz. But I do think that I found her quicker and with an amazing amount of peace because I was aided. I’m so glad that neither of us were really alone in the pumpkin patch. 

Now… I’m sure there are a lot of people who are appalled that I lost my little girl in the first place. Okay… granted. But, I’d like to point out that Mary and Joseph also lost Jesus once. Children sometimes get lost in the crowds especially when there are many trusted adults around. I thought she was with my sister or my aunt. The point is… I found her. And she was smiling. Go team! What’s more… we really did have a blast!