Day 7... Quite a scary start to the day

I am going to share this because I want everyone to know what happened. I'm not looking to be judged as I have already beat myself up pretty bad. I woke up to the night manager banging on our hotel room door. I was so totally exhausted and didn't know what the heck was going on. At 4:17 am this morning I opened the door to find the night manager standing with my son... Nate.... the one that was supposed to be sleeping. I looked back at the bed he was supposed to be in and then looked back at Nate and my mouth dropped to the floor. I apologized to the Manager and he said that it was ok... We were so lucky. Nate unhooked the night latch and walked out of the hotel room. I forgot to brace the chair against the door as we had done the nights before. Nate always got up between 2 am and 3 am and woke me up, went to the bathroom and got into bed with me. Chevy was in his crate in my room so he didn't even know Nate had left. I was sick... I was horrified.... Never has he done this... I felt like the most negligent mother in the world. I would have never forgiven myself had something happened to him. Luckily... Nate picked room 315 as the door to knock on. A very nice man named Mark was on the other side of that door. Mark works for an agency Called The Getchell Agency. They manage group homes for people with cognitive disabilities. He immediately recognized that Nate had DS, called the front desk to inform them. The manager searched through the reservation notes and found our reservation that noted we had a child with DS and were in OH getting a service dog. He then brought Nate to our room. After a decent hour, Nate and I walked down to Mark's room, knocked on the door.. When he answered the door, Nate yelled, "Hi Mark". I introduced myself, hugged him and thanked him profusely. We exchanged contact information and he was happy to help. I think that Nate had Angels watching over him this morning. Mark was here visiting his son. His flight that was supposed to leave this morning had been cancelled due to "Sandy" so he would have been gone when Nate knocked on his door. I shared my story with all my classmates who nodded and stated they had been there too. I learned about door alarms today and while training Chevy at the mall bought two on clearance at Radio Shack. Chevy will now be trained to bark when he sees Nate walking out a door. Chevy and Nate have bonded, but he doesn't know our routine yet... I know he will pick it up. We got to training a little late with a migraine to boot. One of my classmates is a pharmacist and also had a migraine today. He gave me an Imitrex and it knocked it out in two hours. When I got to training I was emotionally drained, but the support that came from the other parents was awesome. They knew exactly what I was feeling and what I had gone through. Tonight, Chevy and his crate are in front of the front door. I now know that Nate, however predictable he is, can be totally unpredictable. Ken is now driving to meet us tomorrow. "Sandy" has caused some problems with the flights so he will be driving to meet us and participate in training and meet Chevy. I'm excited for him to meet everyone and share in this wonderful journey. I didn't take many pictures today... as a matter of fact, my head hurt so bad I didn't take any. We had another successful track outside today and then since Nate had been up since 3:45am he took a nap. We tracked at the mall with the trainer hiding and Chevy found her instantly. One of our classmates was so distraught today... The match that was meant for her son was not working out. She conveyed her concerns, met with Karen and Jeremy. The recognized the problem and now they are working with a different dog. I'm so relieved for them. I can't imagine coming all this way and spending all this time to not bond with the dog. I know it happens as nothing is perfect, but to see this rectified so quickly was awesome. I don't have one negative thing to say about 4 Paws for Ability. What a class act organization... even if the training center does smell like a dog... tee hee hee. What do you expect! There are many dogs there. Heading to bed now. Need to sleep and will sleep a little easier knowing the Chevy is on the job tonight... blocking the front door!