MISSING TODDLER FROM PAWHUSKA Oklahoma FOUND ALIVE IN POND

Ali Tuller 23 months

Friday October 10, 2008 THE PAWHUSKA JOURNAL CAPITAL
Walking With Jesus: Missing toddler found alive in a pond early Saturday morning By MATT CONLEY J-C COMMUNITY EDITOR
Little Ali Tuller will soon be sporting a bracelet that contains the inscription “Walking With Jesus.”That couldn’t be more appropriate, after the night she had on October 3.Tracy Ali Jo Tuller, who goes by Ali, is the 23-month-old daughter of Shanna and Robert Tuller. She crawled out of her bed and slipped out the sliding glass door of the couple’s home located a few miles south of town. She started her walk sometime between midnight and 1:30 Saturday morning, which was when her mom discovered her missing.“That night was my birthday, and my husband and I put the children to bed and stayed up late in the living room. When I went to check on the kids at 1:30 that morning before we went to bed, Ali wasn’t in bed,” said Shanna. “We have five children, and three of them were at home that night. We woke up the two boys, and frantically searched the house. She just wasn’t anywhere.”
Shanna called 911, and within minutes rescue workers, firefighters, people from the police and sheriff’s office, family and friends were on the scene, combing the area. The search lasted until nearly 4 a.m., when Gibbie Gibson, a rescue worker from Wynona, found little Ali standing in the middle of a pond about a mile from her home.“He walked out to get her, and the water was well up past his waist,” said Shanna. “When he got to her, though, the water wasn’t even up to her waist, and she wasn’t standing on anything. It had to have been God holding her up. Gibbie was in shock when he saw it, and really had no explanation other than a miracle.”The search seemed much more of an ordeal for the family and rescue workers than it was for young Ali. After all, right around the pond where Ali was found, people came across two cougars, a pack of coyotes, and even killed a copper head snake. Everybody was muddy, scratched up, and wet from the big storm that rolled through the area.Not Ali, though, who was unfazed, and practically dry despite walking around in the rain and wading out into the pond. She didn’t have a scratch on her, and her hair wasn’t even messed up.“She went out without her shoes on, walked all that distance, and even had to cross two barbed wire fences to get to where they found her,” said Shanna. “There had to be at least 60 or 70 people out searching for her that night, and after it was all over, they were all in worse shape than Ali. My daughter wasn’t even scared, she was just out for a walk.”Ali wasn’t sure why she went for her late night walk, and really didn’t have much to say later. But Shanna certainly has thought a lot about the ordeal, and she is convinced Ali wasn’t alone during her trek through the woods.
“There is not a doubt in my mind that God was with her, watching over her that night,” said Shanna. “God must have a special purpose for Ali. Our only guess as to why Ali was in the pond is that God must have put her there to keep her away from the cougars. I hope this story touches people, because it has certainly touched our lives. There is a God out there, and he is watching over all of us. God was definitely with Ali that night.”http://pawhuskajournalcapital.com/articles/2008/10/08/news/news01.txt