Stevie analyzed what all this praying might have accomplished. One huge answer to prayer was obvious: the state had decided not to press charges against her for abusing Shawna's rights and destroying her property. The court system was so choked with serious child-abuse cases—abandonment, assault, rape, murder—that Stevie had been let off with a stern reprimand and an order to compensate Shawna for her losses.
Reflecting on the email fiasco, Stevie had to admit that her daughter's relationship with Rik might have been discovered as a result of prayer. The curious impulse to open Shawna's email, though it precipitated Shawna's departure, allowed Stevie to nip in the bud her daughter's relationship with a potential sex criminal. Yet Shawna was still gone, choosing to live with her father, something neither she nor Jon wanted. Stevie agonized daily that worldly influences and temptations might lead her daughter farther and farther away.
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