What a joy to be covering a story with an ending like this.

The Madison County Sheriff never gave a thought to calling off the search... Neither did more than 500 volunteers... but after more than 36 hours people were more than worried about the fate of three-year old Josh Childers.

Turns out three-year old boys are pretty dang resilient. One of the volunteers told me he saw some big bugs buzzing around an area and had to check it out. There, next to a bush was Josh laying down. The guy, Donnie told me he said, "Hey buddy. You want to go home?" Josh sat up and said, "Yes."

As word spread throughout the Blue Mountain United Methodist Camp it was almost surreal. Could a wonderful rumor be true?... People were trying to get cell signals to call the family or anyone who might be able to confirm it. Finally an authority figure appeared and told the crowd of several hundred people (who were waiting for their turn to join the search) "Josh is found, he's alive and he's okay."

How sweet it was. Strangers hugged. There were lots of tears.

This all happened about 15 minutes before the 5 o'clock news. It was just me and one of my colleagues with a camera trying to capture this incredible drama and get it on their air moments later.

We had already sent back a story via satellite truck (two of them actually... one for 5pm and one for 6pm) that you never got to see. You didn't need to because they quickly became irrelevant (thankfully).

We scrambled through the mud to get as many reaction shots and interviews as we could... then send it back to the station so I could talk about it on TV. Then I started grabbing some of the volunteers who agreed to do live interviews with me.

The whole thing was a blur. When we were all done doing several reports for the 5pm and 6pm news I looked at my watch figuring it was about 7:15... time to get to the hospital and talk to Josh's dad. It was only 6:15. Wow.

This was one of those experiences you remember as a journalist. In fact in my 16-year career I've covered one other story like this that had the same outcome. In that case a teenager with a learning disability got seperated from a group in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in East Tennessee. I think we covered that story for about three days when search crews brought him out, dehydrated but otherwise okay.

While missing kid stories are heartbreaking to cover, you never get tired of these types of endings.

By the way, Shawn Hornbeck's mother was out there today lending support. It was her first day out there. Perhaps the good luck she's experienced rubbed off on Josh and his family.

Celebrate!

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