Under His Wing...
You never expect it to happen...neither do you necessarily plan for it.
It all started around 4 in the morning this past Sunday (of which happened to be Easter).
For some reason, I woke up. I never usually wake up in the middle of the night. I heard this, what sounded like rubbing on the side of our house right outside our window. It was so faint that I wasn't sure what I was hearing. "Was it a mouse in the wall? Maybe an animal outside?". Shortly after, I heard a click. I noticed our alarm clock wasn't projected on the ceiling anymore and realized the power had gone out. My initial thoughts, "It's not stormy outside?" "Maybe there was a car accident and the power lines went down?" Weird thing was, I didn't hear a thing outside. I felt unsettled about the whole thing but just kept justifying things in my head. "Just go back to sleep Melissa," I kept telling myself, "I'm sure it's nothing."
It wasn't but a minute later that I heard a thump from the boys room. I knew exactly what it was. Calvin had fallen out of his bed and I could hear his little footsteps crossing the living room coming towards our bedroom. I got out of bed, shimmied past our window and met Calvin outside our door. I scooped him up, consoled him and then took him back to his bed. I had thought about laying with him for a little bit but he was falling back into sleep quickly and so I tucked him in and headed back to bed myself.
Curtis had woken up at this point and rolled over to ask what was going on. I told him briefly about the noise I heard, the power going out and Calvin falling out of bed. We both agreed that it was likely nothing and that we should try and get more sleep. Curtis looked at his phone to check the time, 4:15a...
As soon as we both had nestled back into our pillows, we were startled awake by the sound of five very loud bangs on our front door (or somewhere on our front porch...we can't say for sure). Curtis and I both abruptly turned to each other. "What in the heck was that?!?" My response, "I don't know but you get your gun. I'm going to the boys room." (hindsight taught me, grab a gun myself, then run to the boys room).
The question that was also running through my head at this point, "Why didn't either of the dogs, bark?!"...They were both in the house and they didn't do a thing!
Curtis opens our bedroom door and yells, "Hello?!" At this point, the boys were awake and calling for us. He later tells me that he was seeing if anyone would respond to him to see if it might be someone at the door in need of help. No response. At this point, I had already made it to the boys room, grabbed William off the top bunk and cornered both him and Calvin in the bottom bunk. Honestly, I felt like a Mama bird smothering her two baby birds. I just wanted them to feel safe. I knew at least William had picked up on the fact that things weren't "right" and I wanted to pass along a sense of security that he could rest in. As Curtis was still in our bedroom getting dressed and grabbing guns, I was praying out loud to God (so that the boys could hear) for protection and release of fear. I knew that if anything was going to stick in the boys minds (particularly William's) it was going to be an underlying fear. I prayed right then and there that He would take it away.
Curtis handed me the shotgun and we devised a plan. He was going outside with his gun and Rags (the only of the two dogs that would-Pepper cowered in a corner like she knew what was going on) to see what he could find. Honestly, I was scared. I felt at peace while I prayed, but if anything was to happen to Curtis...
A few minutes later he came back in. He had seen where someone had pulled our electric breaker from the wall of our house, just feet from our bedroom window (hence, the sounds that I heard while lying in bed prior to the power going out). He decided to call 9-1-1 since it was obvious that someone had broke into our property. Living out where we do, it felt like an eternity before the sheriff came (although it was probably about 20min). When he arrived, Curtis went out with him to survey the property. They both went in and through all of our outbuildings and ended up finding that whoever it was had opened our back gate and pryed open our shop door. They found our gas cans (which had just been filled up the day before) at the corner of our property empty. The breaker had definitely been pulled from the wall and the sherrif was surprised that whomever it was wasn't lying dead on the ground from electroucution. The sherrif filed a report to inform all other officers that patrol our area and then left, only after commenting that this was one of the most perplexing cases he'd seen...
A call in to PGE brought a service truck out at 5:30a on a Sunday morning to replace our breaker so that we had power again. Thank you PGE. After all was said and done, I can say that I had just lived out two of the longest hours of my life. So much fear, anticipation, stress, releif, anxiety, prayer and more prayer from 4a-6a.
Looking back, things could have been so much worse. We likely won't every have any clear answers, but I just think about how God truly did protect my little family. Curtis wasn't supposed to be home that night and fortunately he was...the whole scenario would have been so much different if it had been just the boys and I. They got away with our gas, but nothing else...There were so many things they could have taken (and I'm sure they would have if we wouldn't have been home). And as loud as that bang was on the front of our house (I can still hear it in my head when I close my eyes), they didn't come in. I have a hard enough time knowing that someone walked across our lawn, was right outside my bedroom window and then came right up onto the front porch. But I'm truly grateful they didn't cross the line and come inside.
I was catching up on my devotional a few days later and the first line on the morning of the incident read "Do not be afraid..." The next day (after the incident had run through my head likely 1,000 times) read "Let Me control your mind..." God IS in control. Not that I wanted an incident like this to remind me of that, but He uses ALL circumstances for His glory.
Thank you Lord for the fact that YOU hold time and space in your hands.
Thank you for protecting me and my family...
It all started around 4 in the morning this past Sunday (of which happened to be Easter).
For some reason, I woke up. I never usually wake up in the middle of the night. I heard this, what sounded like rubbing on the side of our house right outside our window. It was so faint that I wasn't sure what I was hearing. "Was it a mouse in the wall? Maybe an animal outside?". Shortly after, I heard a click. I noticed our alarm clock wasn't projected on the ceiling anymore and realized the power had gone out. My initial thoughts, "It's not stormy outside?" "Maybe there was a car accident and the power lines went down?" Weird thing was, I didn't hear a thing outside. I felt unsettled about the whole thing but just kept justifying things in my head. "Just go back to sleep Melissa," I kept telling myself, "I'm sure it's nothing."
It wasn't but a minute later that I heard a thump from the boys room. I knew exactly what it was. Calvin had fallen out of his bed and I could hear his little footsteps crossing the living room coming towards our bedroom. I got out of bed, shimmied past our window and met Calvin outside our door. I scooped him up, consoled him and then took him back to his bed. I had thought about laying with him for a little bit but he was falling back into sleep quickly and so I tucked him in and headed back to bed myself.
Curtis had woken up at this point and rolled over to ask what was going on. I told him briefly about the noise I heard, the power going out and Calvin falling out of bed. We both agreed that it was likely nothing and that we should try and get more sleep. Curtis looked at his phone to check the time, 4:15a...
As soon as we both had nestled back into our pillows, we were startled awake by the sound of five very loud bangs on our front door (or somewhere on our front porch...we can't say for sure). Curtis and I both abruptly turned to each other. "What in the heck was that?!?" My response, "I don't know but you get your gun. I'm going to the boys room." (hindsight taught me, grab a gun myself, then run to the boys room).
The question that was also running through my head at this point, "Why didn't either of the dogs, bark?!"...They were both in the house and they didn't do a thing!
Curtis opens our bedroom door and yells, "Hello?!" At this point, the boys were awake and calling for us. He later tells me that he was seeing if anyone would respond to him to see if it might be someone at the door in need of help. No response. At this point, I had already made it to the boys room, grabbed William off the top bunk and cornered both him and Calvin in the bottom bunk. Honestly, I felt like a Mama bird smothering her two baby birds. I just wanted them to feel safe. I knew at least William had picked up on the fact that things weren't "right" and I wanted to pass along a sense of security that he could rest in. As Curtis was still in our bedroom getting dressed and grabbing guns, I was praying out loud to God (so that the boys could hear) for protection and release of fear. I knew that if anything was going to stick in the boys minds (particularly William's) it was going to be an underlying fear. I prayed right then and there that He would take it away.
Curtis handed me the shotgun and we devised a plan. He was going outside with his gun and Rags (the only of the two dogs that would-Pepper cowered in a corner like she knew what was going on) to see what he could find. Honestly, I was scared. I felt at peace while I prayed, but if anything was to happen to Curtis...
A few minutes later he came back in. He had seen where someone had pulled our electric breaker from the wall of our house, just feet from our bedroom window (hence, the sounds that I heard while lying in bed prior to the power going out). He decided to call 9-1-1 since it was obvious that someone had broke into our property. Living out where we do, it felt like an eternity before the sheriff came (although it was probably about 20min). When he arrived, Curtis went out with him to survey the property. They both went in and through all of our outbuildings and ended up finding that whoever it was had opened our back gate and pryed open our shop door. They found our gas cans (which had just been filled up the day before) at the corner of our property empty. The breaker had definitely been pulled from the wall and the sherrif was surprised that whomever it was wasn't lying dead on the ground from electroucution. The sherrif filed a report to inform all other officers that patrol our area and then left, only after commenting that this was one of the most perplexing cases he'd seen...
A call in to PGE brought a service truck out at 5:30a on a Sunday morning to replace our breaker so that we had power again. Thank you PGE. After all was said and done, I can say that I had just lived out two of the longest hours of my life. So much fear, anticipation, stress, releif, anxiety, prayer and more prayer from 4a-6a.
Looking back, things could have been so much worse. We likely won't every have any clear answers, but I just think about how God truly did protect my little family. Curtis wasn't supposed to be home that night and fortunately he was...the whole scenario would have been so much different if it had been just the boys and I. They got away with our gas, but nothing else...There were so many things they could have taken (and I'm sure they would have if we wouldn't have been home). And as loud as that bang was on the front of our house (I can still hear it in my head when I close my eyes), they didn't come in. I have a hard enough time knowing that someone walked across our lawn, was right outside my bedroom window and then came right up onto the front porch. But I'm truly grateful they didn't cross the line and come inside.
I was catching up on my devotional a few days later and the first line on the morning of the incident read "Do not be afraid..." The next day (after the incident had run through my head likely 1,000 times) read "Let Me control your mind..." God IS in control. Not that I wanted an incident like this to remind me of that, but He uses ALL circumstances for His glory.
Thank you Lord for the fact that YOU hold time and space in your hands.
Thank you for protecting me and my family...
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| Our electric breaker...right outside our bedroom window |
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