Update---And the sad news of a little girl.
On, of all days, April 1st, instead of sending out fake wedding invites, I joined in a search for a missing 7 year old girl. After having not returned home the day prior, the authorities issued an amber alert after 24 hours had passed.
Because the little intricate details of the case have not yet been released, I can only tell you what I know. At 7:00 p.m, on Tuesday April 1st, the police found the young girls body in the bathroom of an apartment of the same apartment complex she lived. She frequented this apartment often, and knew the tenants.
You might ask why I would choose to tell anyone about this case, and I'll be honest--I learned a lot and was dumbfounded when the girl was found dead. She spoke to me in such clarity, that I thought she was still alive, and am still waiting to hear about the coroner's report that gives an approximate time of death, to put some closure to my misunderstanding.
I knew she was with someone she wasn't totally afraid of, because I felt halfway safe, but in the same message I also got that she was being held up in a basement. While searching for her-- I found myself constantly checking my pulse, and that is something I never do, but I believe this was her way of telling me she was still alive.
While on the search, another man, who runs his own foundation, chose to contact me in hopes of finding her alive as well. Not only did I give him some directions I was getting from the young girl, along with a description of a vehicel, I was unsure as to where the directions started. While he went off in one direction, I went off in the other, and each time, we came to dead ends. Over and over I tried to get answers as to where she was last seen by anyone- and no one knew anything. In hind sight, if one was to take those directions starting from her front door,(where she was last seen) they would see they would lead you exactly to the front door of where she was found.
In the two or three telephone conversations I had with this man, I kept bringing up a certain park, that was known for a tree that had been struck by lightening many years back, and after that event, someone noticed the image of Mary where the lightening struck. The local Catholics made this location a sacred place for anyone to go and see the image for themselves. (little did I or the man on the phone know, that the young girls family was sponsored into the United States, from Burma, by a Catholic Family) So instead of me thinking this could be a 'message' of confirmation from the other side, I kept thinking she might be near this park. I should have however have picked up that it wasn't about the park, after asking the man during our last conversation, if he was near a Catholic Church- and he answered, "Yes it's off to my left."
It's not that anything could have been done on either of our parts, to save the girl, being that the police were on the grounds where she went missing and her body was found, the entire time we were out searching. What gets to me, is that all the volunteer searchers were asked to check all abandoned buildings, and yet, the police waited to check an 'abandoned' apartment just a few doors away from the girls home. Apartment owners have the right to access an apartment in case of emergencies- and yet, the police just waited for the tenants to hopefully come home, and by the time they did, the girl was without a doubt deceased.
After she was found, I said a prayer, and grieved along with everyone else who had high hopes of saving that young girl. That night I had the most realistic dream that my head on the back right hand side had been crushed in, and I, in the dream was pushing my brain matter in and out freely. When I woke I immediately checked my own skull -- that is how realistic it was.
My condolences to the family, and my thanks and heartfelt prayers go out to all who helped in the search of a little girl who needlessly lost her life.