In the Shadow of His Wings by Pamela Wells

too, all he could hear was his echoing laughter.
    Jim awoke and sat straight up in bed, he was completely covered in sweat and there were tears on his face. He hadn’t thought there were any more tears left in him. Oh God, where is she?! I know he has her, please don’t let him hurt her! Protect her Lord, protect my Laura!

Chapter 9
    The next morning Jim arose early, not feeling rested, but determined to accomplish a great deal that day to bring his wife back home. He was surprised to recognize the smell of coffee and bacon, Lacey and Josh were both the type to sleep late, but then, these were not normal circumstances. As Jim walked into the kitchen, he was struck by how much Lacey looked like Laura. She had the same trim figure and the same dark hair. This particular morning Lacey had pulled her hair back in a pony tail, with no make-up on, wearing a t-shirt and jeans she bore a striking resemblance to her mother the day Jim first met Laura.
    “You didn’t have to make breakfast sweetie.” Jim kissed Lacey on the cheek.
    “I needed something to do. I thought it would help give us some energy for all the work we have to do today.” Lacey buttered toast, set it on the table and went back to the stove to tend to the eggs. Her eyes lacked their usual twinkle; her face looked drawn and tired. She was able to get some sleep but like her father, her sleep wasn’t restful, she was plagued with bad dreams as well.
    “Smells good, can I help?” Josh asked as he walked into the kitchen. Josh had his mother’s eyes but in every other way he resembled his father. He had the same tall build and like his father’s hair, his was so dark it was almost black. Back in high school his gym teacher encouraged him to play basketball, but he never had much of an interest in sports. He tried golfing with his dad a few times, the game held little interest for him either. He was more into computers and spent most of his time learning new programs and how many of his own he could create. His parents often thought that one day he would make a fortune in the computer business. It was certainly an area he was gifted in.
    “You can set the table if you like.” said Lacey, “We need to eat and then get started. What’s firs, dad?”
    “I’ll go down to the police station and get the sketch of that guy from church.
    Then we need to get posters printed up as soon as possible. I thought that we could cover more ground if we split up. We can keep in touch with our cell phones. Let’s sit down and figure out exactly what information we want to say on the poster while we eat.” He grabbed a pad of paper, pencil and sat at his usual spot.
    Jim prayed a blessing on the food. Asked for wisdom and guidance from the Lord as he knew they would need the Father’s help with their day. The three then went to work planning the poster.
    “Let’s offer a reward for information!” Lacey offered quickly.
    “Ok, but we have to word it right. It has to say, reward offered for information that leads to the safe recovery of Laura Reid. Or something like that.” Josh responded.
    “No, that’s not right. What if someone has a tip for us, but it’s not enough to lead directly to her recovery. So if there’s no reward, they don’t bother to come forward. If we give them something for it, at least they will give us the information, we need all the help we can get!” Lacey argued.
    “Honey I think Josh is right. If we offer a reward just for any information then we could have every wino, drug addict, and liar in Niagara Falls AND the surrounding area showing up with made up information just to get some money. We would end up giving away our entire life savings and have nothing to show for it. Plus we would end up on a lot of wild goose chases, going all over the place on false tips. Then perhaps missing the one real tip that might come in. We need to use wisdom in how we handle this.”
    “I didn’t think of that, you’re right.” Lacey wasn’t hurt