:: Sunday, February 11, 2007 ::

"Baby, close your eyes to the lullabies on the news tonight..." (Jack Johnson)

Last Thursday, Natalie and I made our primetime television news debut... Natalie as an adorable microphone thief, and me as stunned neighbor shaking her head in disbelief.

Stories like this are the main reason I usually avoid the news as if it were a contagious disease. All along, though, the disease has been in people's hearts -- people like our neighbor who forced her son to stand in the frigid cold naked as punishment. What is most surreal and sad to me is that we've taken that little boy in before. We've found him alone in the cold more than once and mistaken the fear in his eyes for apprehension about going into a stranger's house. He acted so afraid of hot chocolate, kindness, and his mother's displeasure. I wish we would have known... but how could we?

Pray for him, if you get a chance, and for the countless other children whose pain makes the news every night.

:: Bethany Bassett - 3:10 PM :: + ::