the one where we were robbed.

Not. Even. Kidding.

Claire and I were out with Josh and his parents on Saturday night at the Franklin Street Fair - it was awesome to spend time with them, and we had so much fun! However, when I got in my car to drive home, I noticed that I missed 10 calls from Lissa. When I called her, she told me to come home immediately because someone broke into our house and we were robbed. The police were on their way. I hung up and sped home (sorry, Mom, I know you hate my driving already - but speeding was a necessity this time) and I honestly don't even remember the drive. I got home and Lissa was waiting with our neighbor, David. When she saw me and Claire, she was so happy because she had no idea that Claire was with me; she thought that Claire was hurt or ran away or was taken by the people who broke in.

Between 6:30pm-8:30pm, a couple kids took a rock from the garden and smashed the double-paned glass door. They shattered the first pane, but then thought it was too much work to try again, so they smashed my bedroom window to climb in the house. They went through our stuff and took two laptops, an iPod, and some jewelry before taking off.

When the police arrived, the officer advised us to stay elsewhere for a couple days. Claire and I stayed with Amy and Kingsley, and Lissa went to stay with her brother's girlfriend. I got back to the house yesterday and spent the day cleaning the house from top to bottom to get rid of the fingerprinting dust (which has embedded itself in the window sill) and shards of glass (which we're still finding, despite multiple attempts at vacuuming and sweeping). We stayed decided to stay at the house last night, and are slowly getting readjusted. It's a terrifying feeling to know that unwelcomed people have been in your space without your permission. Absolutely terrifying.

People keep commenting that, perhaps if Claire had been home, she could have scared them off by barking. I, on the other hand, am increasingly glad that she was with me. I was not going to take her with us because she had such a busy day, but at the last minute, I decided that it would be fun if she came along. It was a God thing. Definitely. Claire could have been seriously hurt during the break-in - after all, these kids haven't been caught yet, and who knows what they were capable of doing. I can deal with things being stolen; materials can always be replaced. If anything happened to Claire, I would be devastated. Thank God that none of us were home when it happened, and thank God that we are all safe. I hope that we will feel secure in this house again soon, but this will take time. I do think that our new alarm system will help with that, though!

But I have to say, though this experience has been traumatic for both of us, we both feel incredibly blessed by all of the people who have helped us during this incredible stressful time. From Josh and David who were here with us on Saturday night, to Amy and Evan who let us crash with them, to our parents who have been helping us figure out all of this insurance stuff, to Jeremy who has been talking to all of the neighbors to find out who broke in, to our other friends who have called and talked to us and given advice, to the ADT sales rep who has set us up with a pretty sweet alarm system... We are very very very thankful.