Violated

Well, Merry Christmas to us. This morning we found out from our beloved neighbor that our home had been broken into. We lamented as we were told that Dan's car was stolen and our computer, too. No one was certain about anything else but that the home had been completely ransacked - clothes, books, and papers thrown about everywhere. I was so sad because I had left my wedding ring in the medicine cabinet, not being able to wear it on account of my swollen, eczema-riddled fingers. My computer was also very dear to me, though by the Lord's own divine intervention (inspiration) I had thought to backup EVERYTHING on my computer to my external hard drive THE NIGHT BEFORE WE LEFT! We have that external hard drive here with us in Dan's backpack. I had told him that there didn't seem to be any point in having a backup if it went up in flames while we were gone.

This afternoon, a friend of ours went over to our home to investigate and see if, by some miracle, he could find my diamond ring. Well, the Lord loves us. He truly does. I will never cease to believe in miracles because today we had not one, but two. Todd (our beloved friend who will go down in our history books as our "deliverer of good tidings"), found my wedding ring right where I'd left it...tucked away behind a little, mostly empty tube of prescription hand cream. I remember trying it on before we left to see if I could wear it. It was tight and I knew my fingers would be further agitated by wearing it in the dry weather here. So I put it back on its shelf and, as an afterthought, wrapped my tube of hand cream around it as a pitiful barrier between it and predators. Only the Lord knew it would work. The burglars had opened the medicine cabinet, but hadn't taken anything out for some reason - maybe they just gave a disinterested glance at the deodorants and prescriptions and moved on. I don't know, but I'm deeply grateful to the Lord for His protection. The second miracle became known when Todd moved to the living room and there, amidst a mountain of papers and files and mess, was my beloved computer tower. Yes, that's right, the burglars had stolen the computer monitor, but not the tower. I started crying and whooping and hollering! I couldn't believe they had taken the monitor and not the tower!! It is unreal to me. I have been thanking the Lord all evening for stupid thieves.

So, what did we lose you ask? Well, they broke the glass on the back door and waltzed right in, took our ancient laptop that was good for nothing except Soren's Starfall quiet times (he's quite heartbroken about the loss of that piece of junk...I feel for the tender little guy), my new DVD burner, our computer monitor, our entire DVD collection (which could bring in thousands in resale), possibly my Photoshop and Lightroom CD's, and Dan's old '97 Honda Civic. Don't get me wrong, we will miss these things, but after hearing the worst then being lifted out of the pits of despair with the good news; we feel like we must be the happiest burglary victims in the world.

We are so blessed. So blessed. Already friends and family and neighbors have jumped right in with offers to help. Dan's parents have graciously offered the use of their car for a time. Our Relief Society is standing by ready to help us clean up the mess when we get home. Other friends are offering to watch the boys and help out with whatever we need. We're so grateful. If there's anything in this world that demonstrates the true spirit of Christmas, it's the selfless nature in which people have responded to our personal little drama. Thank you everyone. And Merry Christmas. Let this be a testament to you that Christ lives and that our Father cares for us and watches over us. He knows what is important to us and will help when we need Him.