Saturday, May 24, 2008, Nashville, TN, nearly 7:00 a.m., D.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

I don't know when I've cried, prayed so darn much as I have been doing these past few days.

No, nothing goin' on with us, but I am worried, really worried, for Wayne Wright, our neighbor and friend.  Seems that his sister Audrey Callaway and her family have suddenly turned up missing, vanished into thin air, and nobody knows much of anything.

When a crying Wayne called me the other day, I was floored.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  Now our world has been turned upside down, and there's nothing we can really do about it--except to pray, hope for a miracle, that the family is found, safe and sound.

Somehow I feel other families may be involved in this (the Cohens, among others), and it has me shaking-scared.  I don't know what I would do if say, suddenly my wife or kids turned up missing; I'd be beside myself!

We've been on our faces, fasting, praying hard, that this case is solved soon.  It's gotten all of us on edge.

I am trying to be brave in front of the kids (as has Louie), but I'm sure the kids sense that something is going on.  Kids are more perceptive than people may realize.  I don't know how to break the news to them; this is what's tearing me apart the most.

I've also been praying for Steven Curtis Chapman, the gospel singer.  His littlest daughter, five-year-old Maria, was accidentally killed when his teenaged son (and Maria's older brother) ran over her with the van.  He didn't even see her.  By the time he did, it was already too late.  There was nothing doctors could do to save the little girl.  As you can imagine, the Chapmans must be devastated by this horrible loss in their lives.

Unfortunately, we know all too well the pain of losing a child.  We've lost several:  our three birth children, as well as a foster child.  The pain is worse than you can ever imagine; it's worse than losing your parents or your grandparents or some other grown relatives. 

You expect adults to die (particularly if they're old); you don't think of kids or babies dying until it happens to you; when it does it's the worst feeling in the world.

I pray God gives the Chapmans a sense of peace and comfort that passes all understanding and that He ministers to their hurting, broken hearts during this awful time in their lives.

Anyway, back to my story:  the only clue we have about this case involving Audrey Callaway is that the Witness Protection Program (or whatever it's called) may be involved.  That means that the family's lives are in danger, that they have been relocated under assumed names, for their protection; we know nothing more than that.  So the next time we see them (if we ever do), we'll have to address them by their new names instead of the names we are already familiar with.  It's very confusing.

Seems that Audrey's ex is a danger to society and that he's behind all this mess.  So in order to protect Audrey and the kids from his ways, they have been relocated, and their names changed, so this creep doesn't try any funny business.

Louie and I have been talking a lot about what we would do if this ever happened to us.  It would be hard to change the name of over sixty children, and even harder to relocate all of us.  It's always a big production whenever we go anywhere or do anything; there's always much planning behind our activities.  I can't imagine what a government agency like the WPP would do with a family like us; they'd probably go nuts! LOL

I don't know why some people have to be so mean, so stupid, so cruel, to intentionally want to harm others.  I tell you, this is a mighty sick world we live in nowadays--and I'm afraid it's not going to get any better.  If anything, it's only going to get a lot worse.

Well, I am going to go:  phone ringing; maybe it's Wayne Wright or someone else with news concerning Audrey's whereabouts.  God, I hope we find out something soon; this waiting is about to drive me inSANE!!

Until later, take care, and God bless!  Hopefully next time I (or Louie) write, there'll be an answer to this deepening, not to mention, troubling, mystery!

So long for now!

~Bill. :( >tears!<