Special Thanks

First of all, thank YOU for all of your kind words and sympathies over our recent "violation." What a gift it is that even our trials bring blessings, such as the reminders of the love of friends and family around us!

And a special thanks must be given to:

• My mom, who reminded me to call 911 and who was the initial reassuring voice after I realized what had happened.
• My sister Caroline, who was the second reassuring voice and who came over to help with the kids for most of the afternoon.
• My friend Amber, who was the third reassuring voice and who came over (during her Mother's Day Out free time, no less) to help even when I told her she didn't have to.
• My husband, whose feats of love and selflessness are as numerous as the sands...
• The Fort Worth Police, who not only found the "bad guys"* and recovered some of our jewelry, but who also demonstrated great generosity and kindness when responding to my false alarm yesterday.**

*The day after the burglary, Luke wanted to watch Kipper, of course, and I had to explain that we couldn't watch TV because someone took our TV. He thought about that for a minute, and then he looked at me and said, with utter peace and acceptance, "Someone took our TV. Policeman took our TV." I quickly worked to correct that notion - but I realized I was having to convince him of something contrary to what he'd seen with his own eyes (i.e. TV in house, Policeman in house, no TV in house). Thus, after two years of my overprotective-mother efforts to avoid all cartoons and books with evil characters, we had to introduce the concept of the Bad Guy into our household. Guess it had to happen some time.

**I don't know if I should even explain the false alarm episode. But what can I say? I arrived home after Ladies' Class yesterday to a strange, white, unmarked van parked in my driveway and the back gate open! So then there were 2 calls to 911, 30 minutes of waiting (impatiently) in the car (with two kids) for police to arrive (after the van had left), and an official declaration from the officers that our pool guy had cleaned the pool... It wasn't until 10 o'clock that night that I realized how embarrassing it would've been for the police to try to arrest the pool guy! Thank you Lord for small mercies! And Blue Ribbon Pool Service, please put a sign on your new van!