A Missing Child and The Terror We All Feel

NOTE: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN YESTERDAY BEFORE THE JOYOUS NEWS THAT CHARLOTTE SENA HAD BEEN FOUND ALIVE. SEE TODAY’S BLOG POST FOR OUR REACTION TO THE BEST NEWS OF ALL.

As of this moment, a 9-year-old girl, Charlotte Sena, is missing in upstate New York. She was camping with her family on Saturday. Last seen, she was on a bike ride. Her bike was found about half an hour after she went missing.

That in itself is a heart-chilling fact.

Along with everyone in America, we are desperately hoping Charlotte is found alive and well. We are desperately hoping that somehow this was not an abduction. We are desperately hoping she gets to live a long and healthy life.

And while we talk here, a lot, about how extremely rare stranger abductions are, we know that they are not nonexistent. How we wish that they were. Right now there are two active Amber Alerts. The other child is Keshawn Williams (photo below), a 15-year-old boy from Cleveland, who went missing in June.

In a country of over 70,000,000 children, two Amber Alerts is a small number. But would that it were zero.

Now is not the time to talk about crime stats, parenting, or trying to keep things in perspective. Now is simply the time to hope that prayers get answered.

Keshawn Williams