"With Your Permission, Madam..."

Inom wants to go on vacation. He said, "Madam, I have to ask you something." "What?" "With your permission, Madam, I would like to go on vacation for January and February. It is three years and three months since I have been to my family." Wow. Three years and three months! Can you even imagine? I cannot.

DH and I were separated for ten or eleven weeks at a time when he came over here to work as a contractor before he was hired as a full-time employee [contractor's do not get to bring their wives and families]. Those ten and eleven week periods were the longest we were ever separated during our whole twenty years together!

Three years and three months... I know Inom has three children. When we got school back-packs for his children last year, his youngest, a little boy, was six-years-old. So, figure he is seven, now. He has seen his Dad - perhaps twice - TWICE - at most three times - in his entire short life. Amazing. I give these guys [and the women, too - the ones who come here to work as slaves maids] a lot of credit. The usual and customary vacation for these imported workers is after two years. They work two years and then go home for two months. How many of us have to even fathom something like that? Military workers. They are the ones who do it [and they have my utmost respect for doing so - along with their other many admirable qualities!!!].

The biggest part of Inom's dilemma in his question to me was whether or not he would still have a job here if he went on vacation. I'm not thrilled with him. We - he and I - have our ups and downs. Sometimes he does a great job with the work I ask him to do - other times? Not so much. I think at this point we tolerate each other. He tries to get away with as much as possible and I try not to have to "correct" him as much as possible. [He is in for a real treat later this week. I can assure you that no one is going to want to be around me in about two days. More on that when it happens.] No matter.

As far as I am concerned he can go on vacation. I won't be paying him for his vacation - I pay him while I am gone - because I realize that he is keeping that time open for me - but I am not going to pay him while he is gone. I will have to hire and pay someone else in his absence. His bother will be here and I might ask him to come work. If not, I'll ask our house-sitter / baby-sitter. I only need the "big stuff" done. I can take care of everything else.

Locally... Another child, dead. Abuse at the hands of his mother and/or his father. It was reported yesterday in one paper, and today in the other. Yesterday's paper said, "The mother of a dead two-year-old boy and the 'son of her friend' are being investigated by police..." Turns out the "friend" is more than a friend. He is the woman's ex-husband according to today's report. The child was dead for FIVE HOURS before the woman took her son to the hospital. Not much they could do at that point, Lady. Duh! A police spokesman says, "The doctor said that it is a suspected felony and the case has been transferred to the Investigation and Prosecution Board and is not being handled by the police anymore." Good. Hope they are both executed - the mother and the father - for their crime. What kind of parents - a mother and/or a father - does this to a child? A little child!?!

Lest anyone think that I think child abuse happens only on this side of the world... I do not. Child abuse knows no boundaries. This case has probably been in the news in the States, but I only just heard about it this morning. A woman monster - Antoinette Nicole Davis - has been charged with "human trafficking, felony child abuse [and] prostitution, among other charges." This monster's daughter, five-year-old daughter, Shaniya, is missing. I do not know all of the details, but if she sold her daughter to a pedophile, I only wish for terrible things to happen to her - and to him - the pedophile.

What does "human trafficking" even mean? My goodness! I guess I was naive enough to think that this kind of thing only happens other places - like here, in the Sandbox - but not in the United States. So POS Antoinette Nicole Davis SOLD HER LITTLE GIRL and the last time that little girl was seen was entering a hotel room with a 29-year-old man - another POS - Mario Andrette McNeill?! He has been arrested and charged with kidnapping. What else did he do to this little girl, I wonder? And what kind of mother sells her 5-year-old child to someone?

As of right now, I have no idea whether this poor little girl - this innocent CHILD - is okay, or not. Her Daddy, Bradley Lockhart, has been raising Shaniya "for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He said Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently obtained a job and her own place, so [he] decided to give her a change to raise their daughter. I should've never let her go over there." Hindsight is always 20/20... No one is blaming you Mr. Lockhart. My thoughts are with you and I will keep you and your little girl in my prayers hoping that she will be safely returned to your arms.

As to that monster who gave birth to her and the man who kidnapped her? If anything happens to Shaniya, I hope they will get what they deserve. Here? They would be executed beheaded. And quickly, I might add.