Years ago, long before we had children, my husband and I bought a puppy. It was a pick-of-the-litter, adorable, little Keeshond. I just loved her furry little face the moment I saw her and once in my arms I simply refused to put her back in the cage.

We took her home and loved on her like crazy.

I think it was about four week later when on a day off of work, I convinced my husband not to leave little Keshia home alone but to take her with him when he went to his friends house about an hour’s drive away.

I came home from work that night to an empty house and began to make dinner. I could see the front door from where I stood at the stove and it was evident immediately when hubby walked in that something was very, very wrong. The look on his face and his empty hands were enough to make me start crying. “Where’s Keshia?!” I screamed.

He then had the impossible task of explaining how she had disappeared after being left in the friend’s fenced backyard. It was horrible for both me and him. In the days that followed we returned to that neighborhood over and over again with flyers offering a ridiculously large amount of reward money. We recruited friends to help in the search. We didn’t want to give up but eventually we had to go back to our lives and except that we would never see our little puppy again.

My heart still aches a little now, some 20 years later, when I think about it.

And maybe that is why when I hear of a child that’s gone missing my heart breaks for the family. I am NOT saying I know the pain, please don’t misunderstand. What I’m saying is… if I can hurt like I did for a lost puppy, I can not even begin to imagine the pain caused by a missing child. How can these families go on living? I have no clue.

Years ago I began to work with an organization involved in missing children’s cases. I started my own counseling and fund raising organization to help in any way possible. It was difficult and rewarding at the same time. I remember standing in my office next to a father as he was reunited with his three children, all taken by their mother four years earlier. I remember that that was a good day.

The only way for me to help today, right now, is to help keep the spotlight on these missing children. Starting next week, every Thursday I will post the picture and information of a child currently missing. Let’s all keep our eyes open and be looking for these lost ones. We never know when, by God’s providence, we might be used to put a family back together again. May it be so, Lord Jesus, may it be so.