A student of mine from my first year of teaching is missing. Her name is Olamide Adeyooye. Today as I ate my breakfast, I found this article on my parents' counter sitting on top of the rest of the paper.

My heart is heavy and all I can do is ask people to pray for her and her family. I think I would feel this way for any student of mine, but she was particularly sweet and hard-working in a year of kids that felt totally out of my control and/or influence and was, therefore, a balm to me. I pronounced her name Oh-lahm-i-day with the accent on the second syllable and it always made her smile and tell me that she liked the way I pronounced her name. When I protested that she should correct me, she would laugh, shake her head and tell me I was close enough. I include that because I always feel better when I know how to tell God someone's name with confidence.