Raylene Ochsenbine a proud new grandmother, made a pink "Welcome Home Abby It's A Girl" Yard Sign for her beautiful new granddaughter, Abigale Lynn Woods. She placed the sign with colorful balloons in the front yard of her daughter Stephenie Ochsenbine’s rural Lonedell Missouri home. Raylene never imagined her term of endearment could endanger her granddaughter or daughter, she now regrets making the sign. Colorful yard signs, balloons, and banners are a common way for a new parent to express their excitement in announcing the arrival of a new baby. However, hospitals, police departments, fire departments and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) discourage providing such private information for public view.

In my previous article I had written where police were speculating whether a metal Welcome Home Abby Sign had played a part in baby Abby’s kidnapping. Since then I received a press release from the International Lawn Greetings Association. Michelle Reed, President, wrote, “Our association has yet to find any factual statistics which proves that an infant abduction was the direct result of having a Lawn Sign, Stork Announcement, or other Birth Announcement in the yard.” Yesterday the FBI confirmed the homemade metal yard sign did play a role in Baby Abby’s abduction. Today, according to authorities and legal documentation filed with the court, "the suspect was drawn to the home of the newborn's mother, by a lawn sign that said it’s a girl!"

Statistically according to the FBI there have been 217 nonfamily abducted infants, since 1983 until 2002. About 2/3 of these abductions occurred in healthcare settings, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. This fact surprised me until I realized that during daylight hour’s people walking around looking like employees or visitors would not stand out. Thirty abductions occurred after the infants went home. The abductor easily gained access to the home by simply responding to an advertisement for a baby-sitter in most of the cases or as a healthcare worker following up from the hospital. Parents need to consider carefully who they let into there hom in the days and hours after a baby comes home.

Many hospitals no longer provide newspaper birth announcements for safety reasons, and if parents wish to place one then they must contact the newspaper directly. Hospitals providing online web nursery announcements do not provide the baby’s last name. Parents need to protect their child’s identity from the moment they arrive. This includes considering carefully the information given out about their child.

Identity theft is a huge issue in the news daily. A child’s Social Security Number [SSN] is like gold. Do not give this number out to anyone. Parents must play an active role in protecting a child’s identity. Not even an infant is safe from identity theft. Parent’s need to check the child’s credit history yearly, beginning on the child’s first birthday to be sure no one has taken advantage of the child’s identity.

At my children’s school I do not list my children’s name, address, or telephone number in the student phone book. The student phone book goes home to every child in the school. I do not know who lives with or enters the homes of each child and sees the book laying around. I do not want my child’s personal information falling into the hands of a pedophile. I listed my name and cell phone number when they were younger, that way they did not miss birthday parties or other events.

Our last name is not on the mailbox or the front door of our house, and the home phone number remains unlisted. This is mostly because of the fact I am a child, adolescent and adult Psychiatric Registered Nurse. I work daily with children and adults in the legal system. I do not wish to chance that one of my patients would look show up on my doorstep. I am admittedly overprotective of my two earth angels. After you bury two children, you can be overprotective of later children. As a parent it is my job to protect my children. I will never apologize for doing what I feel is the right in keeping my children safe.

According to Michelle Reed, President of the International Lawn Greetings Association's press release, "a birth announcement in their yard alerts the neighbors when the child arrives so those neighbors can keep an extra eye out for the family." Yet, I felt vulnerable and insecure with a 6-foot tall stork sitting in my yard as I arrived home with my daughter 12 years ago. Even today I find myself cringing whenever I pass a home displaying a colorful stork in the yard. I always say a silent prayer as I drive by the house. Just as I am driving by that house so are many others, not all of them neighbors, most of them strangers.

Thank you sweet angels for sending Baby Abby back home safe. We ask that you please guide her family as they heal from the time spent apart in the last week. Please give Abby’s mom Stephanie fast healing in her physical wounds, and give Raylene Abby’s grandmother healing in her peace of mind now that her grandbaby is safe at home once again. My wish is for angels to surround them and bring them warmth, love and peace. I wish for angels above them, angels below them, and angels all around them to keep all of baby Abby’s family safe.

I knew from the moment I heard about Abby’s birthmark that when someone saw Abby it would be because of that birthmark. Abby does not have a birthmark between her eyes that is an Angel’s Kiss!