Just a River KId
Topic: KIDS
Just as we were getting ready to leave yesterday afternoon K called really upset. Liza had called her earlier and apparently she missed the call but heard enough to know Liza was in serious trouble. she is staying somewhere on the river. She was hot, sick, desperate and from what K says she was also suffering from subatance. K called Liza's mom and was informed by another relative that Liza was not worth bothering about. "She'd just a river kid. What can you expect?" What indeed from a 13 yr old whose mom dropped her off up there and was too busy to come back and won't return K's phone calls. Aparently she has been there all summer, living somewhere near the headwaters, walking or hitching a ride into town from time to time, sleeping in the ground - and it has rained hard almost every day and night - bathing in the river. Eating - who knows what she's eating- doing who knows what (or sadly we probably do know) to get food and whatever substance was making her so sick when she called K. I've looked for her several other times but this time she is really wanting to be found K says or at least she was. K's husband went to walk the upper part of the river while we drove along the lower part since she had been near a phone which might mean she was near town.

He found her! I learned that 4 hrs after we stared looking and about 2 1/2 hrs after she had been found. For now she's off the rive, has food and a real bath and is in a cool safe place. Who knows how many more semiinvisable kids are living somewhere along the river. Someone told me about an 11 yr old throwaway up there. True? I don't know but very probably. Liza was a semi throwaway when we first met her more than 3 years ago. Staying sometimes with an elderly alcoholic lady who did at least know kids had to eat, sometimes with a neighbor, sometimes sneaking home while mom was out partying hoping she either didn't come home or would just not notice she was there, sometimes living home with mother knowing it and then there'd be another fight, another bf who didn't want no kid around, or one who wanted a kid too much in the wrong ways and she'd be gone again. I know of 5 different times protective services has been called within the past 2 years.

This would be a tragedy enough if Liza (whose real name isn't Liza) were the only kid like that but she isn't. River kids have been happening here for more than 20 years. K used to be a river kid which is one reason her heart goes out to Liza. Some of them are runaways, some throwaways, some are just short term adventure seekers, Jessie lived that way for months and so did her father on the mountain side above the river. Some of the kids work. Jessie did and helped support her Dad. 3 river kids worked for us at the resort one winter.

I don't know the answers. The answers I used to think I knew often just don't work. But we have to try again another way. So pray please pray for the kids whether they are living on the river, hiding out in town or living at home and hating it, for their broken families, for the smaller kids they leave behind, sor wisdom and that our hearts will never harden towards this need and our minds will not forget.