Holding Them a Little Tighter

I have been saddened by the news this week of a little 7 year old Salt Lake City girl who was abducted on Monday afternoon. I have been watching news breaks for the last couple of days trying to imagine how somebody could take a child away from home and possibly harm her. I have also been watching in sorrow trying to imagine what it would feel like as a parent to have no idea where your child was or if they were being harmed. I think my social work mind comes out and I become obsessed with stories such as this one. I can't think about anything else and I try to sort out all kinds of solutions to these problems.

I was devastated last night as I heard that they had found this little girls body. It had been just a little over 24 hours, and she was literally just next door. I was sick to my stomach and angry that this has happened again. I can't believe that we have no way of searching homes/apartments when a child goes missing. I know it's a big deal to people to have their privacy etc. etc., but when it's a child's life at stake I have no problem with immediate searches. If a child in my neighborhood was missing I would only feel it appropriate to have my home searched. If there is something you are trying to hide, you probably shouldn't be doing it anyway, right? I know that some of you political minds out there may think otherwise about our "rights", but my mind works a little bit differently.

I couldn't sleep last night. I kept thinking about my own girls and what I can do to better protect them. It is frustrating for me because I don't think there is much more we can do to protect them. We have to send them to school, we can't keep them inside all of the time, and let's face it, sometimes we don't watch them as well as we should. I have often been teased about being an over-protective parent, and at times like these I don't care. I want my children to be afraid of strangers, and I want them to know that it is dangerous for them to wander away from home. This little girl was literally in her front yard when she was taken.

I don't want to dwell on the negative, but I do hope that we all learn a little something from this. I have been talking to my girls about "stranger danger" and for the next couple of days I will be giving them extra tight hugs--just to remind me how lucky we are that we have today, and hopefully tomorrow.