Last Wednesday CASA of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties hosted its annual Promise of Hope Lunch. CASA provides Court Appointed Special Advocates (abbreviated "CASA") for children in court. Most of the children are involved in either divorce / custody litigation or child in need of care cases for abuse and neglect. (Disclosure: I serve on the board of CASA, but I am writing this post on my own and not on behalf of CASA.)

CASA treated us to a moving program including musical performances, a video, and feature speakers. One of the speakers testified about her experience being abducted by her father at age four. She had no idea when he took her for a visit to the park that she wouldn't see her mother again for fourteen years.

Her father kept her in hiding from town to town under assumed names. They moved through 38 states, sometimes shifting every few weeks. She rarely attended school. He lied to her about her mother being evil or dead.

At age 14 she noticed the photos of missing children on some milk cartons. She said she was feeling sorry for those children. When she examined one of the cartons, she was horrified to find a picture of herself. She had never thought of herself as "missing."

From then she knew that her mother was alive and searching for her. Three years later, after escaping from her father, she finally found her mother's phone number and called. At the age of seventeen, she spoke to her mother for the first time since she was four years old.

Some people gloss over parental abduction because the child remains with a parent. However, her story reminded us that parental abduction is very real form of child abuse.