It has been 4 days. And, I still cannot forget her face, especially her eyes. Her eyes lacked hope, inspiration, and held terrifying fear of the unknown. In just a few moments of handing over some of our loot, her eyes pierced my heart, and still her devastated spirit is with me. I just can't shake it; when harsh reality steps in, sometimes it is hard to let go and move on. I can still see her tattered cardboard sign carrying the words; homeless with a 5 year old. Her sign spoke her world, told her story leaving out the details. How is it that our community children are forced into life on the streets, life on the run, and life without what we all deserve?

According to one source*, more than 1.3 million children (remember this is only in our corner of the world), are homeless. 40% of homeless children are less than five years of age, 85% of homeless families are headed by single mothers, 25% are homeless more than once, and on average most children are without a place to call home for 10 months at a time. These are unreal, brutal statistics. Yet, we continue to house inmates for free and provide them with shelter, food, health and dental care on our dime. The little ones cannot fend for themselves, the adults can. Imagine if we put our prison birds to work, day in and day out, and forced them to survive. Imagine if we started putting our hard earned tax dollars to good use, providing the basic essentials for those little people that deserve the right start to life. 1 in 50 children in America will experience life on the streets, eating in soup kitchens, struggling to survive, while lacking adequate health care. Right here in our own backyard, 1 in 27 children will go hungry today, and we have about 3,500 Idaho children without a place to call home.

As people are being forced out of jobs, businesses are folding, and while the cost of living is on the rise and pay is on the downhill toward less money more work (if a job IS available), it is easy to assume the statistics above will continue to climb and conclude we are moving deeper into desperate times.

I cannot save the world, but after sharing a moment of reality with the woman and her story, how I wish I could. After learning about the facts and numbers, my heart is heavy, my mind is swirling with the question of what to do, and I am left needing answers.

*www.thefreelibrary.com