...Continued from yesterday.


I was stunned. Obviously, she thought of me as her surrogate dad. I couldn’t just tell her “no”, but telling her “yes” was breaking all the rules.

My executive director at Youth For Christ, where I worked suggested several precautions we could use to maintain safety. Darla & I prayed and felt the Lord’s approval. The girl would never be out of my wife’s supervision and she would be the guest of my daughter.

When we picked her up, she was so quiet. Every second, every action was like a medicine to her demolished soul. She marveled at my daughter’s idyllic bedroom, all her toys and the “Little Mermaid” decorations on the walls.

Everything was so loving, so gentle and so perfect. She soaked up every minute. She was no longer a hardened street-smart teenager. She became a wide-eyed little girl of five or six. Oh, she didn’t like the set-in-stone rules of our home, but she soaked up the feeling of safety that came with the boundaries.

I hoped that the experience would help fill the dad-shaped abyss in her heart, and it did..., for a while. But it was like throwing a teaspoon of water on a fire. She longed for her father.

“If only I could find him and he could see how great I turned out. He’d be proud of me. He would love me,” she said.

“I’m proud of you. You are perfect in every way, and you have a Heavenly Father that loves you very much.” I told her.

She wept as my words swept over her. I only wish it were enough. She couldn’t accept that her Heavenly Father loved her. How could He love her if her earthly father did not?

“God will help me find my dad.” she said.

“Let God be your father. He loves you so much!” I said, but my words fell like stones.

I wasn’t surprised when I got the phone call.

“David, she ran away to find her father!” her momma cried.



I’ll wrap this up tomorrow...