The Man in the Hollow

We have a wooded area behind our home that we lovingly refer to as "the hollow". My children often explore there with friends and the dogs and yesterday was no different in that regard. What was different was the report they brought home; "mom, there was a guy asleep in the hollow." they told me. Immediately my mom ears perked up and I pelted them with questions. What was he doing? Was he alone? Did he have a tent? After a brief discussion, I was informed that he was alone, he did have a tent and he was sleeping.
Now, for every mom reading this, you know exactly what my reaction was- "crap, my children were in the hollow with a homeless man, alone". My second reaction was, "I need to call the police." I told my hubby that this wasn't gonna fly and that I knew something like this would happen eventually and what if he was dangerous. I resolved to speak with the police on Monday.

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I was thinking about the man in the hollow. I felt a little shame from my first reaction to him. (Especially since I just finished reading "Same Kind of Different as Me") Of course, my greatest desire is to keep my family safe and in this day and age, you just never know. However, after talking with my husband, we decided that we would take him some supplies tonight.
We raided the food storage and found some canned goods (I also provided a can opener) and some toiletries and my husband took them to this man's tent.
I'll be honest, I was hoping when he returned that he would have some great story about how this man broke into tears at our generosity and turned out to be a great, humble man who had stumbled on hard times. I was a little disappointed and scared when my husband returned home urging me to call the police tomorrow and to keep the kids home until he was removed.
Either way, it's been an interesting topic of discussion for our family.