Thank God for adorable pajamas!

It's 4:31 a.m. I'm having trouble titling this posting...not because of the time of the morning, but because of the content.

At 3:20 a.m. I heard frantic pounding and crying at our front door. I woke Todd. Our little neighbor boy was crying at the door, demanding to be let in. (In our neighborhood you don't just open your door at all hours of the night...no matter what age the person on the other side of the door is.) Todd opened the door and the little boy ran through the door, tears streaming. I honestly thought he was being chased, he had such fear in his voice.

This 10 year old was home alone. He said someone broke into his house and hit him. There was no one there to help him. He does not have a phone. After calling 911, I called his mom. She could not be reached. She may have been at work.

Finally the police arrived. (Our police are wonderful...however "dispatch" is a bit slow on the uptake).

After telling his story, the police took him, in Todd's shirt and socks (poor kid came running in his boxers only) to a relative's house. I could go into great detail on past history here, the state of the family and parental responsibilities...I won't.

What I will say is that this is just one family situation. I know there are many out there. Some are in neighborhoods like ours, some are in neighborhoods like yours. I think we all need to pay a bit more attention to life outside of ourselves (I am talking to myself first!). There are people hurting everywhere. We may not know the story, but we can offer a simple smile, compassion, refuge.

In this case...it was a t-shirt, pair of socks, a bottle of water, hugs and prayers.

On a MUCH lighter note...

I am so glad I was wearing my cozy,adorable flannel pajamas from my friend Janelle, along with my "Sarah Palin" hair...this is what I call it when I throw my hair up in a clip! All three police units were glad I had the "where-with-all" to pop in a piece of gum. And all my friends will be so happy to know that I was very hospitable to my early morning guests...offering bottled water to each one. (I felt it was too serious a situation to offer fresh pressed coffee).

Also, praise God, my house was clean because we had guests over last night. This is my equivalent to the old adage, "Make sure you always wear clean underwear...in case you are ever in an accident!" Mine, "Make sure your house is clean...in case you have a portion of the police department at your home, in the middle of the night, along with a neighborhood boy in his boxers!"

Seriously, please pray for our little friend. We can call him "Fred." He is hurting and scared.As the police interviewed him in our living room, I was thinking, this is an impressionable moment. I prayed, "Lord, please let him know that someone cares for him, that YOU care for him." I know the next few days may bring lots of change to "Fred's" life...with DSS and everything. Please pray for God's grace and mercy to be on his life.

Through all of this, my kids slept peacefully. For that I am grateful.