On Chicago’s south side, this is a situation far too common. A good family, minding their own business when a man looking for drugs gets angry and opens fire on a young mother and her two small children, ages 1 and 4. The 4 year old may be paralysed. The mother, riddled in grief, speaks of her 4 year olds love of sports and birthday parties:

The family was at Rucker’s mother’s home in the 6400 block of South Bishop on Friday, the day before a planned “Dora the Explorer”-themed birthday party was to be held there for Martrell’s sister Kamisha, who is turning 1. Rucker was cleaning and getting ready for the party. She said Martrell couldn’t stop talking about it at his preschool class at Dumas Elementary.

At about 11:30 p.m., as Rucker was leaving with the children, she said she overheard the gunman badgering her brother-in-law, Marcus Easton, about whether Easton could sell him marijuana. Easton, who was outside, told him no.

The gunman then got angry and said, ” ‘All I asked you was where some weed was,’” Rucker recalled. He charged across Bishop, firing the gun. Easton, 23, was shot before the gunmen started firing at Rucker’s car, family members said.

What a brave young man! At only 9 years old, Gabriel Brady saved his little brother and sister after his mother’s ex-boyfriend shot and killed their parents. What a tragedy. The parents obviously raised this kid very well and now they are left without their parents. Gabriel will be added to our list of heros.

On the morning of Jan. 23, amid a barrage of gunfire, Gabriel Brady guided his 6-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother into a bathroom and locked the door. Realizing that his sister, Autumn Rodgers, had been shot in the foot, Gabriel wrapped it up to stop the bleeding.

The children’s mother, 29-year-old Katie Cabana, and 41-year-old Aaron Settipani of Eastport were killed.

Hailey Cronk, a Florida middle schooler is our hero today. She acted swiftly and decisively when she heard her neighbors toddler struggling, jumping into their pool to pull her to safety. The 12 year old gives this advice to parents — teach children how to swim at a very young age.

Smart young lady, a true inspiration MT thinks.

“I didn’t think it was a big deal, but everyone’s going ‘Oh my gosh you’re a hero!’,” says Hailey.

She was recently at a get-together with her parents at a home on Burnaby Lane. While the adults were inside, Hailey was asked to watch children at play. Hailey was sitting by the pool, working on her laptop, when all of a sudden she heard 3-year-old Jaden Ruddy struggling.

“I barely heard anything, but then I saw her little arms going up in the water and I was like, ‘oh my gosh,’ so I jumped in and got her.”

She says the toddler somehow unhooked the pool screen latch and was trying to walk on a blanket which was covering the water.

An investigation revealed that babies bought from poor mothers and then sold on the black market in Malaysia were adopted out illegally. Prospective adoptive parents paid about $6,000 for the children, while the mothers received little more than $225.

Who knows what kind of families adopted these babies. Some with the purest intentions we’re sure, but some may have just wound up in the homes of pedophiles. Scary.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — Malaysian police have broken a baby-selling racket in southern Johor state, seizing four infants and detaining 23 people including a doctor and a government registrar, reports said Sunday.

The New Straits Times said the syndicate bought babies from poor women who were talked out of having abortions, and then sold them to childless couples.

It said police were investigating how many children were sold, and whether any went to Singaporean couples.

Somehow a mom felt it was appropriate to leave her baby in her car while she got her hair colored, a process which takes about 90 minutes and now she’s shocked that the police are involved.

SONORA, Calif. - A 21-year-old Sonora woman admits she made a mistake when she left her infant son in her SUV while she had her hair colored, but she says sheriff’s deputies overreacted when they arrested her.