Prayers for James

For those who believe in it, would you please say a prayer or two for the safe return of my cousin’s son James and for strength and well being for her entire family during this crisis. As I was tired and on my way to bed this evening, I found out that my cousins son, who is 15, ran away tonight. They moved from MI to AZ in early August and he wrote a letter saying how unhappy he is and how angry that he was made to move without a choice. He took her car and is driving from AZ to MI. He is naïve enough that he has never put gas in the car and his note indicated that he had $150 cash, obviously thinking it would be plenty. He is really a good, innocent kid. My cousin is beside herself and alone with her younger daughter in a new place without a car while her husband is driving on the route James probably took checking out the rest areas and looking for him and I assume to be closer to him when he is found. The police have been called and are looking for him as well. I am hoping and praying that this has a happy ending and he has a chance to come away from it alive and uninjured, if a little wiser.

I am really, really close to my cousin. Probably closer to her than my 3 sisters. We are the same age and grew up spending summers together. After a brief break while we were in college and young adults, this is a tradition we have continued as adults. She and her family have spent every summer here for the last 9 years and were just here a few weeks ago to celebrate Max’s 1st Birthday. My cousin and her husband are Max’s god parents.

The whole situation is just tragic. Like I said, I hope he is found soon, alive, and healthy. He is so young with his whole life ahead of him. How alone and unheard he must have felt to have done this.

The only thing I can do from here is worry.