And then, when they found them just after 10 p.m. on Easter morning and dried the grown-up tears, the children did what children in the Hmong community at the end of McCoy Farm Road in eastern Rowan County do every Easter morning.

They hunted for Easter eggs.

And an adventure neither he nor his parents will ever forget did nothing to dampen 4-year-old Billy Lor’s enthusiasm. He found 17.

But he won’t forget a long night calling his mother.

He wasn’t scared while he was lost, his mother, Angie Lor of Salisbury, said this morning.

“Now that he realizes, he’s really scared, but before that, he wasn’t scared.”

The boys were playing and realized they couldn’t find their way back home when it got dark, she said.

“And my son was calling for me. He asked me why I didn’t come, and I told him I couldn’t hear him.”

The oldest of the three boys, Alee Yang, 7, knew they were lost, she said. “So he was crying, but my son wasn’t crying until later on when he realized he was gone for the whole night.”

Probably as many as 40 children were among the relatives and friends who had gathered in the small community on Easter weekend as they gather most weekends, and they were playing until light began to leave the sky.

Lor says she checked on them about 8:30 and they were playing in the front yard, but 30 minutes later, when she went to call them in, she got no answer.

“I was frightened,” she said. “I didn’t know what happened to them — if they were lost or kidnapped, what happened.”

They had arrived about 6:30 Saturday evening, and Billy was outside playing with Chee Meng Yang, who’ll be 6 in June, and Alee.

When Billy’s mother realized he was gone, she and her husband started looking for him.

“But we couldn’t find him.” More than 20 people looked “everywhere in the woods,” with no success, she said. “So that’s when I called 911.”

The Rescue Squad, Miller Ferry Volunteer Fire Department and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department arrived after 11 p.m. and continued the search through the night.

But they weren’t found until about 10 a.m. Sunday morning, when a specialty rescue squad from Randolph County arrived just after daylight and found clues they could follow.

The Rowan Rescue Squad, which coordinates land searches in the county, had called for assistance, and a Highway Patrol helicopter with FLIR — Forward looking infrared equipment — also flew over the search area several times during the night.

Officials found the boys near Kern Carlton Road, walking in a field at 8:52 a.m.

“They were able to determine where they crossed the creek,” said Rescue Squad Chief Coyt Karriker, “followed them through about 200 yards more, and as they came out of the woods, the kids were going in on the other side, and they called to them.”

A paramedic checked out the children, and they needed no medical attention.

The fear came later, when they realized what had happened.

“When they found them, I was so happy I cried,” Lor said.

“My son said when they got tired, they slept under some leaves under a tree. He said when they woke up it was morning, and they started to walk a little bit. Then he saw the helicopter, and in a little while the Rescue Squad came and picked them up and took them in the truck. He didn’t know what was going on. Now that he realizes, he’s really scared.

“It still frightens me when I think about it. ... The older one — he knows, so he was crying.”

As many as five four-man teams searched through the night, involving about 50 people, while firetrucks and personal vehicles and an eight-wheel, all-terrain vehicle searched the roads, according to Mike Holshouser, assistant chief of the Rescue Squad.

“They were very happy to see the searchers,” he said, “and other than being a little bit thirsty and a little bit hungry, they were in good shape.

“It’s always good to find them and find them in good condition. It could not have ended any better.”

“When the rescue people find them, all my family, everybody cried,” said Yia Yang, father of the 5-year-old. “Everybody here cried.”

But they were happy tears.