I challenge readers to visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and look at the faces of the children you see. Read their stories and keep an eye out for them as you go about your day. You can click on individual states to see the children who have disappeared from that area. Remember each child has a family, a mother, a father and perhaps siblings missing their laughter and hoping they will one day come home safely.

There is no age, race, religion, or culture that is not affected by this tragedy. Each face represents a missing, abducted, endangered or unidentified murdered child. No individual state is immune or excluded. In reality the lists seem endless, ranging from decades old cold cases to children reported missing already this year.

Perhaps as you read their stories and look at their faces you will recognize a missing or abducted child that passes you in a local grocery store or at your own child’s school. Perhaps you know what happened to a child but are unsure of who to contact. If your child is missing I hope and pray that somehow BellaOnline's Missing and Exploited Children site can somehow make a difference.

There is a free forum that coordinates with this site. In the forum anyone can share their thoughts, fears, ideas, or suggestions on keeping children safe. I encourage you to post information about missing or abducted children that have touched your life or community. I only request that you verify the information you post as factual.

Please do not post information forwarded endlessly in emails or on Facebook without first verifying the truth behind the source. There are many hoaxes and resolved cases still making their way across the web.

If your child is missing and you would like to tell your story or share your child's story with me please contact me through the BellaOnline editor contact form. However, I can only respond to your email if you choose to include a return email address. I will not contact you by phone so please do not include your phone number.

I will respond to all emails requiring a response. If you have sent me an email and I have not responded after a week, please send a second email. Sometimes emails are lost or end up snagged by a spam filter.

Each week I hope to focus on individual states. I will include several cases from each state in an article. My hope is the more children spotlighted the more likely someone will see or know something. Please contact your local police department or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if recognize a child or can provide details about their case.

Remember a missing or abducted child can be anywhere, near or far, and if you believe a child matches one of the posters please err on the side of caution and contact authorities and let them investigate and determine whether or not that child is the missing child. It is better to say something than to learn later you could have helped a child get home.

Thank you for caring enough to stop here and help look for missing and abducted children. You may be the key to reuniting a family torn apart by this tragedy. Have a blessed new year!