Lord I need Jasmine back, I feel so bad.  How could they have taken her under my nose?  I don’t know how this could have happened.  My baby is gone and I feel like I let this happen.

 “Marishka it’s going to be okay, we are going to find her.”  Anna tried to assure me.  I felt like I was living a nightmare, accept for the one good thing, my sister was alive, and my beautiful niece was sitting in her little chair next to Jelena.  Still Jasmine was gone and I did not know what I would do without her.

 “How could have this happened?”  I asked for about the hundreth time.  Hours were ticking away and I knew Jasmine was getting farther and farther away from us.

 What if we don’t find her in time?  What if she is already gone? What if they killed her? 

 I hated the thoughts playing through my head, but I could not help but let this thought play through my head.  I did not want to be feeling the way I was feeling,but at the moment I was feeling like a horrible Mother. 

 “Honey we are going to find her.” Jacob tried to assure me.

 “What if it’s to late?”  I asked.

 “It’s not going to be, we are going to find her.”

 “She must be so scared.”

 “Jasmine is strong, look at what she has already overcome.”

 “She shouldn’t have to go through any more.”

 “I know honey, but we both know we can’t shield our children from all evil.”

 “But she disappeared right from under my nose, someone took her, and they might want to hurt her.”

 I was not the only one blaming myself, Vania blamed herself as well.  We had both been in the RV talking and suddenly Jasmine vanished it just didn’t make any sense.  Ahab was right, someone had probably been in here all along hiding somewhere.  My stomach sank because there was a good chance, they would either come back or that someone else was hiding in our RV.

 “I should have stayed out of your lives.”  Anna said.  “ I probably brought all this on.”

 “Anna our Father has hated us for years, we just were to blind to see it.  If we had been smart we would have made ourselves dissapear as well.”

 “Isha you couldn’t do that, you had a family, a career.  You had fought so hard to prove yourself as a cop, with two strikes in many peoples books against you, you’re female and you’re in a wheelchair.”

 “None of that matters if they take our children away from us.  If Jasmine is hurt none of this matters.”

 “Now’s not the time to loose faith, you need to hold on to your faith now more than ever.  You always told me that when God seems far away, we are the one that pushed him away.”  Anna reminded me.

 I was trying to feel comforted by their support, but I would not feel better until Jasmine was with us again.  I would hold my little girl, and cry.  I may not have given birth to Jasmine but she was mine, and nothing was going to change that, no matter who was trying to take that away from us.

 Sophia grabbed my Bible and opened to Psalm 99 and began reading it to us.  I was trying to pay attention, but the fact was I was feeling angry and upset.  I knew I should not be blaming the Lord, but in a sense that is exactly what I was doing.

Psalm 99
1 The LORD reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the LORD in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the LORD our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the LORD
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
8 O LORD our God,
you answered them;
you were to Israel [a] a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds. [b]
9 Exalt the LORD our God
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the LORD our God is holy.

 “We’re going to get through this.” Jacob said once again, as the Police officers showed up once again, and I worried what they were going to do or say.  It sounded suspicious I knew, and if I had heard the story as an officer I probably would not have believe it, but this was my daughter and it was the truth.  Someone had taken Jasmine from right under our nose.

 “I hope so.” I said, before the officer took our statement.  A statement I am sure he thought we were making up.  Even as we showed them our badges, I got the impression he thought we were cops gone bad.  Cops that would do something with our own kids.

 “Jasmine is adopted right?” The officer, whose last name I learned was Reeves asked.

 “Yes, she’s adopted.  What difference does that make?”

 “Did she cause a lot of trouble for your family?”

 “She’s a little girl and we loved her, I wish you would stop talking as if she were a burden.”

 “I think we need to go down to the station.”  The officer said.

 “We didn’t do this, I don’t see how you could think we could.”  I said, wanting to get it through officer Reeves head that Jasmine was our little girl and we would never hurt her.  We loved Jasmine as much as we loved any of our children.

 “How could they think you would do that?” Vania asked.  “I’m adopted and you never hurt me, you only loved me.  Did you tell them about Grandpa?”

 “Yeah, but they don’t really believe us.”

 “What if they put you in jail?”

 “Vania it’s not going to come to that.”  I said, hoping my words didn’t turn out to be lies.