(insert sad face here)

this, my friends, is a peek at our bedrooms after the thieves left yesterday. yes, our house gotten broken into.

but, yes, we were safe and the lord was gracious!

our neighbor was leaving his house from lunch when he saw our side door was opened. he walked over to shut it, thinking that we accidentally left it open, but he quickly realized that the door had been kicked in. so he called bill and then called the cops. bill calls me on his way to the house, and i run and pick up the big kids from preschool and head home, too. i remember my heart was racing the whole time i was driving, but at the same time, i was SO thankful that we weren't at home when it happened. and even more thankful that i wasn't the one to come home and find the house ransacked by myself with the kids! (there is silver lining on everything!! it could always be worse!) the kids could see me upset and heard me cry when bill told me what all had been stolen so far, so i decided that i should fill them in as best i could before we got home and they saw all of the cops and investigators.. so i told them that "a mean person came into our house uninvited and messed up some of our stuff and took a few of our things. but jesus kept us safe and the police men were there with daddy now and they were going to help us". of course they had a lot of questions. ella kate more than the others.. "momma, did they have a key? how did they get in?? did they take our dolls? am i gonna have to clean my room??" you know.. all of the important questions to a 5 year old:) miley cheered in the backseat when we pulled up the driveway, "yay!! our house isn't broken!! see, siah?? our house isn't broken!!" the kids played outside until aunt jenna came and took them to the park. we didn't want them to see everything and the investigator wanted to make sure he could fingerprint what he needed to, before they came in. i was saddened to see what they did and what all they took. so far, we have noticed that they took 3 of the kids' piggy banks, their nintendo ds and games, two mobigo's and games, dvds, wii, laptop (with all of my pics of all of my babies on the hard drive) camera bag and lenses, video camera (with adalyn's first 9 months of her life still on it with no extra copies!), some coins.... they broke some of our furniture (one being an armoire that was my nonny's that i can't replace!), our printer, our entertainment center, .... i can't even think. oh, and the most heart breaking thing to my girls was that they took their ariel pillow cases off of their beds to put some stuff in:( who does that?? it is one thing to violate me and bill, but they violated my babies' things! and this momma bear in me wants to hurt somebody!! i'm too hormonal for all of this:) i guess the part that hurts me the worst, is that i dont have any video footage of adalyn's life anymore!! nothing! not her first word, her first smile/laugh, her army crawl, her waving bye-bye.... and that makes me sick!! i also want to vomit at the thought of all of my pictures on the hard drive of my computer that i no longer have. it is a good thing that i have uploaded so many to facebook and to this blog... because that is all i have now:( but things could have been much worse, and i am trying my best to be thankful for god's provision and his timing in this! the kids have been keeping our focus where it needs to be, and they have kept us smiling! when ella kate saw her room for the first time, she gasped at the mess then looked at her dresser where 2 pennies and a quarter was laying and shouted, "YES!!! they didn't take all my monies!!!" :)

now if we could just get everything cleaned back up and put back in it's proper place, then i will feel much better! but if you think of it, please pray for us! pray for my anxious heart and fear, pray that i will be able to sleep soundly without freaking out about every noise i hear. pray that my kids will not be afraid and pray that we allow ourselves and this situation to be used for the glory of god! thank you jesus, for keeping us safe!