Click for full photo and gallery at SFgate.com

Along with so many across the Internet, I’ve followed the heart-rending case of the Kim family–missing since the Thanksgiving holiday while on a road trip from Seattle back home to San Francisco. They were on their way to a southern Oregon resort when they disappeared. Earlier today, Kati Kim and her two young daughters, ages 4 and 7 months, were found near their vehicle after surviving more than a week stranded in the wilderness of southwest Oregon. I can’t look at the photo or read the stories without getting a lump in my throat. It’s the mom in me, I guess.

Kim’s husband and father of their two young girls, James Kim, is a senior editor for CNET. More from CNET here:

Kati Kim, 30, and daughters Penelope and Sabine–4 years and 7 months, respectively–are being treated at Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass and are listed in good condition. Hospital spokeswoman Laura Biggers said Sabine is being held overnight for observation.

The lost family had “minor provisions” and stayed warm using the car heater, then burning tires when they ran out of gas, authorities said. After searches in Oregon’s Curry and Douglas counties, cell phone signals narrowed the search back to the Bear Camp area in Josephine County, according to reports.

Authorities said search teams, including a helicopter equipped with night vision capabilities, will be working throughout the night Monday to locate James Kim, whose footprints are visible in some spots. The search could include dogs and horses on Tuesday, as well as rescuers from three counties.

“We have two Forest Service officers that are following the footprints the best they can. We will be out all night and we will be working 24/7 until we bring him home,” a sheriff’s representative said. “The weather has been cold at night, but the family that was found today is in good shape. They did well for nine days.”

At about 1:45 p.m. PST, rescuers were notified that a vehicle and a female waving an umbrella were spotted by a helicopter search crew near the Rogue River in the area of Bear Camp Viewpoint off Bear Camp Road, according to a statement from Oregon State Police.

The helicopter that spotted the trio was reportedly a private aircraft contracted by the family. Authorities have not yet released details of how the family got lost.

Rescue efforts Monday shifted back to the Bear Camp area in Josephine County after information surfaced that a cellular tower received a signal from one of the family’s phones. Authorities credit an employee of Oregon cell provider Edge Wireless with creating computer models to triangulate the phone’s location.

Keep the Kim family in your prayers and hope for another miracle.

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This isn’t directly related, but Patterico has a lovely post on putting life in perspective:

Driving home Friday night, I was remembering a time years ago, when my daughter Lauren (now six years old) was in her first year. An old friend of mine was coming to town, and we went with my wife to see a Glen Phillips solo acoustic concert down near San Diego.

We were very excited to see the show. But for some reason, we couldn’t get a babysitter. So we decided to take Lauren. Since it was just an acoustic show, we hoped that she’d sleep peacefully on my lap. If, during the show, she got upset, I would take her out to the car. Thereafter, my wife and I would take turns watching her in the car.

Lauren was asleep when the concert began — but she awoke, crying, five seconds into the first song. It was louder than we had thought it would be. I hurriedly took her to the car, which was parked on the street about half a block away.

Once I had her out there, I never brought her back inside the club. Although part of me wanted to be back inside watching the concert, I was also having fun being with my daughter — at times talking to her when she was awake, and at times watching her sleep. Plus, I wanted to let my wife see the whole concert. I figured there was no reason to interrupt her enjoyment if I was having a perfectly good time.

It wasn’t so much that I preferred to be with my daughter than to watch a concert. I just didn’t mind staying out with her in the car.

Thinking about this the other night, I asked myself: Patrick, if you could go back to that night, right now, and either stay out in the car with Lauren, or be inside and watch the concert — which would you do?

And of course the answer was obvious.

The night it happened, I didn’t mind being in the car with my daughter. But if I could go back now, there’s no question that I would want to be there.

Not only would I stay in the car with her — I would make the most of the experience, realizing that I had a precious chance to see her at that age again. I would try to commit every moment to memory.

And then I realized: some day, years in the future, I might be asking the same question about my life today — this very minute. If you could have this moment back to live over again, what would you do?

The rest of that evening, I pictured myself as having been sent into my body from the future, to relive the moments I was experiencing. And I saw everything differently. I sat on the couch and watched television with my arm around my wife — all the while imagining myself as an old man, transported back in time to relive that moment. And all of a sudden, what otherwise might have seemed like a mundane moment seemed like a privilege. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world, just sitting there with my wife.

I’ve tried the trick all weekend, and it really changes your outlook. Just sitting around with a sleepy child in your arms is great any way you look at it. But if you picture yourself as someone whose child has grown up — if you imagine yourself as an older man, who would give the world to be back in that chair with that child in his arms — it makes you realize how important the moment is. And you appreciate it more.

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