Happy Easter, Everyone!

Image by Stitch via Flickr

 I thought this a worthy post to celebrate the Easter Holiday and the Resurrection of Our Lord. It is also a reminder that April is child abuse prevention month.

This is a repost.............

Chocolate bunnies and brightly colored eggs are what children look forward to on Easter Sunday. Dressing in their finest pastel dresses and shirts to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the rebirth of Spring.

To some children.......this is only a dream......

Over 3 million children are abused every year in the United States. Physical, emotional or sexual child abuse is rampant and while many laws and programs have been put in place in the past decades, our children are still suffering the abuse.
April is the month designated to child abuse prevention, but we need to be diligent all year round to keep our kids safe and secure. Even when we think a child is safe, they can be hurt, inside their own homes, by their own parents or other family members. People, who the child should be able to trust and feel safe with, are many times the people who harm them. Physical scars will heal in time, but the emotional scars of this type of child abuse never heal. Their innocent lives are changed forever, by calling them names or making them feel inadequate in some way. Verbal abuse isn't talked about as much as the others (physical, emotional and sexual), but it can be just as devastating to a child.
Here are a few statistics that will shock you.

• A report of abuse is made every 10 seconds
• Five children die EVERY DAY as a result of child abuse. Three out of four are under the age of four
• 60-85% of child fatalities due to neglect are not recorded as such on their death certificate
• 90% of child sexual abuse victims know their perpetrators
• Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across every ethnic and cultural line, within all religions and at all levels of education

Child abuse is insidious, because of the effect it has on the child long after the crime and well into adulthood. To learn more click here.
Child Welfare Information Gateway - Definitions of child abuse and neglect - A summary of State laws

Related articles by Zemanta

• Deaf Boys Tried For Decades To Tell Of Priest's Sexual Abuse (huffingtonpost.com)
• Tennyson Center for Children Encourages People to Help Fight Child Abuse and Neglect During National Child Abuse Prevention Month (eon.businesswire.com)

Thicker Than Blood by C.J. Darlington

C. J. began writing the story that would become her first novel Thicker than Blood when she was a fifteen-year-old homeschool student. She has been in the antiquarian bookselling business for over a decade, scouting for stores similar to the one described in Thicker than Blood before cofounding her own online bookstore. Thicker than Blood was the winner of the 2008 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel. In 2006 C. J. started the Christian entertainment Web site TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. She makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats. When she's not writing, she's reading. Her hobbies include book and art collecting, fly fishing, painting and drawing.
 

Thicker Than Blood has two very distinct settings and C.J.'s  ability to go back and forth between the two, while keeping it relevant and believable, won me over as a fan. I am, anxiously awaiting her next project.  



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