Our most EPIC first day ever

In 1998 (or so), we got a call about placing a set of twins in our house.  It was a boy and a girl who were 10 years old.  They were currently living with their Mom, and the worker that had been involved in their family was picking the kids up at school, and placing them in foster care.  We said we'd take them.  

Our kids were 8, 6 and 3, and we had 2 brothers already living with us.  The brothers were 9 and 11.   

The worker brought them to the house around 3, gave us the information they had, and left by 330.  I had to head out to a horse auction that night, so I left Steve at the helm of our new crazy household.  

It was pre-cell phone days, so at 8 or so I called Steve from a cell phone to ask how things were going.  One of the best all time answers, "Well, I called the police".

After I left Steve started making dinner.  The twins were in one of downstairs bedrooms.  After about 15 minutes Steve went down to check on them.  They weren't in the bedroom, or the basement...or anywhere.  He went back to double check the bedroom and noticed the window was open.  It quickly became obvious they had climbed out of the window.

So Steve ran outside to see if the twins were in the yard.  They weren't.  He can't remember the details of how he went to look for the kids, whether he called a neighbor to watch the houseful of kids, or whether he packed all the kids in the van, but somehow he got out and looked up and down our driveway (our 1 km long driveway). The twins were no where to be found.  

So he called the after hours worker, who told him to call the police.  He did.  He gave a description of the kids.  This was the description...two kids, a boy and girl, twins, ten years old.  They had identical hairdos, sort of curly, but mostly just sticking straight off their head.  (Think of a cross between Mowgli from the Jungle Book and Buckwheat from the Little Rascals).  The boy was wearing a coat that was about 4 sizes too big.  They both had a lisp.  Thank the Lord the worker left some paperwork or Steve wouldn't have known their last name.    

At about 730 the police called back to say they's found the twins, they'd gone back to their moms.  They brought the twins back to house.  When they got here they filled in the details about how they got home.  

They crawled out of the window, and to avoid being seen they went through the swamp between the house and the highway.  They went through belly deep freezing cold water in October.  Then they walked up the highway towards Brantford.  A four lane busy highway.  About 500 meters up the highway they knocked on someone's door and asked for a ride home.  Two little kids who were soaking wet and didn't have a good reason for why they were so far from home.  Someone drove them 15 kms into Brantford.    

Thankfully their Mom called the CAS to let the after hours worker know that the kids had shown up at the house.  And they were safely returned to our house.  

And so ends the tale of the most EPIC first night of a placement in our house.