Missing Children

Monday was a busy day for me. I hopped on my bike and rode the four miles to my Drs office where the mobile lab came--it was mammogram time. Yuk. As long as I was out, I had prepared to run several errands. So next I went to the drugstore mostly to pick up a needed refill, but Walgreen's carries lots of stuff, so I was able to execute most of my other errands there as well.

As I went to check out, I noticed something different. There was a "booth" set up to do kids fingerprints, etc. Now I was one of those Moms who did all that--I have my kids packets--just in case they were snatched. My kids can remember playing, "You're not my mother, You're not my father." They would scream and yell that at the tops of their lungs kicking their legs and flailing their arms as I would come along and "snatch" them off our front porch and stuff them into the window of our car. It seems almost crazy to me now, but it was happening often enough around the country that it had become a very real fear. So we prepared as best we could.

One day, I left work to pick up my son from school. He was not there. No one knew where he was. Fortunately, we were in a relatively small town, and he was located. With his Dad. We were divorced, and his Dad had come into town early, so he picked our son up from school. Nothing malicious was meant...the boy usually walked. I was collecting him that day to get him home quickly in time for his Dad's arrival. His Dad was early, so surprised him at school and took him for ice cream before going home.

After that episode, however, my kids had a "code word" . No one (not even Daddy) could pick them up without the code word being given. This gave us all a great peace of mind.

At this booth, they were "selling T-shirts" with the info for CPEA (Child Protection Education of Ameria) on them. They were encouraging people to wear the shirts to help get the word out. I don't wear t-shirts very often, so I am getting the word out this way. They have a web site: www.find-missing-children.org I have no idea if this will automatically link or what, but I encourage all who see children to go to the website. The missing children pictures do so much good: that is the main source for locating missing children. If you would like more info, or you suspect a child in your sphere is not with the adult he belongs to, their phone is: 866-USA-CHILD.

My scare with V was a silly mistake, and I think most of us experience a child wandering off at some point and while your child may only be missing a few minutes...it is terrifying. V gave us a much bigger scare when he was older. (end of third grade) He and his friend, C, saw a stick floating in the water along the curb. (We lived in a semi-desert area, but it had rained in the mountains.) The boys found this stick floating by so intriguing that they followed it. For miles. It got dark out. Then came the phone calls when C's Mom discovered the boys were not at my house and I discovered they weren't at C's house. Up 'til then they had not been missed as we Moms obviously thought the boys were safe at each others homes.

The police were called. Our major concern came from the fact that there was a "group" camping out at the upper end of our valley who practiced blood sacrifice. The police strongly suspected, no, believed, human sacrificce was done, but had not yet been able to prove it. We were terrified.

The boys (we learned later) saw police cars cruising, and knowing that they were already in huge trouble for being so far from home, and out so late, worked their way closer to home behind bushes, through yards, evading the police whom they figured were looking for them. They finally came strolling into the yard feeling quite pleased with themselves. It was a real case of hugging him, then wanting to kill him because he wasn't dead! It was the worst three hours of my life! If I felt like that for such a short time, how must it be for families whose child is taken? I encourage everyone to look at the kids at the park, look at the kids in the stores. And look at the kids whose pictures are on the mailings we get, the milk bottles and on this website.