Long Gone Are the days...

Hailey Owens. It's a name you may recognize.

Zane and I were sitting in the living room on February 18 when all 3 of our phones (Zane has one for work) set off that shrill warning alarm. There was an Amber Alert for a 10 year old from Springfield, Mo. That's way too close to home! Oh, poor girl and her poor family! Lord, help her to be ok.  My second thoughts were my own daughter: Is Lacey ok? Was this little girl close to MSU?

If you have followed the story, little Hailey was kidnapped and murdered! My head hurts, stomach sick, and heart broken for this little girl and her family.

This incident is hitting me harder than most. Let's face it, in this sick world, kidnappings, crimes against children are becoming more and more frequent! I'm not sure what this is hitting harder. Yes it is close to home, but the incident in Golden City was closer. Maybe because it wasn't a school incident or that she had a cell phone or that she had tried to do everything right and do the things she had been taught! Or maybe it was that fact that she was out playing with friends in her neighborhood on a pretty, early Spring day. She had no cares in the world and was living the life of a 10 year old,

Long gone are those days...

I remember when Lacey was 10. We lived a few blocks from her school and in a neighborhood full of kids. At first I was scared to death to let her out of my sight. I lectured her on "stranger danger". With Lacey that was hard because she never met a stranger and was eager to talk to everyone! How do you balance that? How do you not take that away from a child but keep them safe?  I quizzed her on what to do, she had "safe houses" she knew to get to in case there was someone after her and she had a cell phone. Eventually that lulled me into a false sense of security. I wanted desperately for Lacey to have a care free childhood, to play outside from dawn to dark, to enjoy neighborhood kids and games and riding bikes.

Long gone are those days...

That is really depressing... I pray for God to protect our children. I pray our world will turn away from evil.