The Girl Next Door

After losing Lilli (our family's pet cat), we hung up LOST CAT signs around the neighborhood. One day, while on a family walk we noticed that a few signs had been ripped off of the mailboxes. Heartbreaking to say the least. Who would do something so cruel? It was uncalled for. Mean. FRUSTRATING. Seriously, the kids around here know us, and seriously, almost all of them were helping us look for Lilli. I wouldn't allow myself to jump to any conclusions or lay blame. Someone, for some reason didn't like our signs. Someone didn't want them up.
And then the questions: Does someone around here not like us? Did we make someone upset? Does someone have her in their home and doesn't want us to find her? The kids were really upset about it too.

"Don't judge. Don't read into it.
Just shrug it off and re-hang some signs."

That was the plan: forget about it. Until I found this:


What would you do if you received a letter like this? I found this in my mailbox. It was followed by gentle tap at my front door from Alex (and her dad).

My heart sank. I wasn't upset at ALL about the signs anymore. This poor little girl. She is beautiful. She is kind to the kids in the neighborhood. I just want to wrap my arms around her and tell her it's ok, it will get easier, that one day it really won't matter what those kids think.
Except that might have been creepy and awkward from a stranger. So less the creepy hug, I tried to encourage her in what I saw, and that I remembered those years of my life being very difficult. I told her I forgave her and cared more about her than the signs.

Her father, God bless him, was going with her door to door in our neighborhood asking if anyone had seen our missing cat. She also re-hung our signs and faced grounding from movies and playing outside. Ouch.

Here she is going door-to-door:

So despite our missing our precious kitty still, I'm amazed at how it is connecting us with those around us. And I am grateful for the opportunity to know how to pray for and encourage a young girl that's hurting.

(I wrote this in June. Lilli is still missing)