Every parent's worst fear

One of our 3 yr olds went missing tonight. Talk about a gut wrenching experience. She was found & is OK.

I had to take our oldest back to school for a work make-up class. The little ones wanted to tag along, but I didn't want to mess with strapping them in so I said no. One twin (Punky) stayed in the house, the other (Spunky) followed us outside. I closed the gate to the driveway and locked it. As I pulled out of the driveway I rolled down my window, watched her in the side view mirror, and waved until she was out of sight. I was gone less than 5 minutes when my cell phone rang, it was my husband asking if I had taken Spunky with me. When I said no he said he couldn't find her. I wasn't concerned just yet, earlier today she hid from me in her bed and it took me a minute to find her. (She's a petite little thing, the blanket didn't look like there was naything under it, just rumpled.) I gave him a couple of suggestions of where to look, dropped of The Girl and headed back to the house. I was actually surprised when I pulled in and he said he still couldn't find her. He headed out to walk around the neighborhood, I went to re-check the house and backyard. He came back and said he was calling 911. (Our neighborhood is small, it's a loop about 1/4 mile around with a couple of little off shoot streets.) We're bordered by a tidal creek on one side and woods/fields on the others. By this time we had neighbor kids on bikes looking for her and had alerted the adults as well. I was getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. I jumped in my truck and started driving around looking. I went down to the community lot that is right on the creek bank hoping I wouldn't find her in the water. I stopped and talked to anyone outside. No one hand seen her & don't seem concerned but when they found out she's only 3 they say they'll keep an eye out. Then my phone rang but I couldn't answer it. Sometimes living in the boonies sucks! That end of the neighborhood put my phone in a roaming area. I ended up hanging up on my husband while trying to accept the roaming charges. shit! shit! shit! So I tried to call him back g*d damn it now I need to dial 1 - area code - number. shit! shit! shit! Finally he calls back and I was able to answer it. He found her! Oh thank goodness! Well actually it was our next door neighbor that spotted her. She had gotten under a plastic wading pool that had been flipped upside down and then stomped nearly flat. Neither of us thought there was enough room for her to be under there so we hadn't looked there. The neighbor was looking over the fence and saw the pool move. When he lifted it up she was grinning and giggling like it was a game. He was still on the phone with 911 dispatch at the time so he told them not to come but a Deputy was already en route. She refuses to tell us why she didn't answer or come out when we called. I know she's only 3 (turning 4 in July) and she doesn't really understand why we're so upset but damn that's aggravating! I took her out to see that the police had come when Daddy called to come look for her to try to emphasize the seriousness of what she did. I don't think it worked. i have never been so scared in my whole life and I made sure to hug her a little extra tight at bed time.