In our everyday lives we live from day to day with little or no unplanned change. We have all become so good at planning that we can cram so much into one day that I am sure the outside world looks at us in amazement at the way it all comes together.
I am a mother of two boys, with one of them living at home with me and my oldest living in Idaho. This juggling act that we call life has become second nature to me and I have done it for so long that if things go smoothly I wonder what is going wrong.
I live in a great neighborhood with all of us watching out for the other and we all know each other. It is pretty quiet here with not much going on. There are problem areas like there is everywhere, but we all know where they are and we keep them distant from us. I have lived in my home for four years and I just love it.
I have 5 bedrooms with one and a half bathrooms and I am lucky to pay less than most two bedroom apartments in my area. I have a very large backyard with plenty of room for anything that we would like to do. I am sure that Brian would think of it as a pain when it needs mowed but it looks so nice when it is done that I think he is very proud of it. I take care of the front yard and it is beautiful. I take pride in my yard looking very nice and of course I love the comments that I receive from neighbors about the yard. For a rental I am very lucky. I have a landlord that is just one of those great people, he cares about us and you can tell that this is genuine. He is just a great person. If I find something that needs done he is there just as soon as possible to take care of it. I live like the rest of us. We do not have fancy things and we do not have a lot of money. We live almost paycheck to paycheck and after a time on unemployment we are getting more comfortable without out as many panic moments at bill paying time. We do not have extra but I was able to have a small savings account that on more than one occasion has bailed us out.
I work as a customer service agent and love my job. Being able to help people with there problems is so rewarding to me. The challenge of turning a negative into a positive is wonderful.
Some of us can go through life and never have anything happen to us but many times we encounter a life changing event that we have a struggle getting a grip on things through no fault of our own and I would like to share mine with you today. This is what happened to us during a home invasion robbery that took place March 3, 2008.
Home is a place where we live. It is a place of happiness, a place where memories are made. We laugh, we love, we cry, we live. We live safe and secure knowing that we are safely locked inside at night.
We had a normal Sunday. Church and then over to moms for dinner. It was a nice relaxing evening. Brian, Scott and Tyler were gaming downstairs on the computers. Josh was in his room watching a movie and talking on the phone I had spent the evening watching a movie and had finished the news. I went to bed about 11:00 I was sound asleep in my bed secure as we all are locked safely inside with the deadbolt set to keep us all safe, after all it is a deadbolt and we all know that they keep us safe. I was awakened by a loud noise; I had not even had time to sit up in my bed when suddenly I was being pulled out of bed by my hair and thrown to the floor. I glanced up in the darkness and could see just enough to the size of the person throwing me around. He was standing over me. He was not a large person and the thought popped into my head that I could take him. I then heard that unmistakable sound that a shotgun makes when chambering a round and knew at that moment that I would do nothing. I was drug by my hair to the head of my bed and forced in the corner between the bed and the door frame. I felt trapped in the corner unable to move. A flashlight was shining in my face, which was all that I could see of my surroundings. I was sitting on the floor with my hands covering my face being yelled at not to look up and don’t move. There was a gun in my face about two inches from my nose. The mess that would make at that range, I thought, who would clean it up, would I have any chance of surviving a shot that close to my face, would it hurt. I am not ready to die, I am not done, and I have too much to do. My boys need me. I knew my life could be over in a split second. Where is Brian, is he ok. I could hear yelling from other rooms in the house, they are yelling at Josh. “Where are the drugs, where is the money”, Josh answered them that we do not have drugs and we do not have money. Where is Brian I thought? I closed my eyes and started to pray. What do you say, there are so much that I wanted to say. There is so much I want to do, so many people that I want to see and talk too. There are people that need me. I am just getting to know my mom again, she still needs me. I have so much I want to say and do. I could only say the things that would be heard in my prayer. My dear Heavenly Father, please be with us as we are not ready to go. Be with these men that they may remain calm and that they will not harm us. Please keep us safe from harm. Amen.As soon as I completed my prayer I knew that I was not going to die. I did not know what was going to happen nor did I know if I would be injured but I knew that I was not going to die. Just as I finished my prayer I heard a voice just as clear as an everyday conversation, “You are going to be ok” again “You are going to be ok” I did not recognize the voice. I go over it in my mind and I still do not know the voice. There was no accent like that of the men in the house had. It was a calming voice. I was scared but at the same time I was at peace knowing that I would not die. The man that had been in my room again picked me up by my hair dragging me down that hall until I could get my footing. To my right stood another man next to the refrigerator shinning a flashlight into my face this flashlight was much brighter than the other one was. He yelled at me to look down and not look at him. He then asked me where the drugs and money were. I was taken to the living room and told to get to the floor and was pushed down. My heart was pounding and my mind was racing. I could only wonder how long they would be there, what are they going to do. Are they going to beat us, shoot us, and will they hurt the boys. When I pushed to the floor I was laying down with Josh to my left, relieved, Josh was alright. He was shaking what looked to be uncontrollable; it could have been fear, shock or just cold this was March in Utah and it was cold out. Right above me was Brian, he was ok, I started to cry because I knew he was alright. I reached up and held his hand. I was happy to know that he was with me and I could hold him and know that for the moment he was safe with me.Tyler was to my right, they were yelling at him and I could hear him being hit with something each time they thought he was not doing what they had asked. Scott was on the other side of Brian closer to the door. They were yelling at us to keep our heads down and to put our hands behind our backs. As we did this I could feel my wrists being tied up with a cord. Something was hot, not so hot that it burned but it was hot. I did not know what it was. As he was wrapping my wrists I grabbed the cord tightly with my hand. He grabbed the cord and pulled on it to make sure it was tight, when it did not move he went onto someone else. I was terrified and freezing cold. While laying there I could hear them running thru the house. There was always one of them in the room with us, sometimes two. They were running up and down the stairs and through the rooms upstairs. I could hear four or five voices. It was so very loud. Things were being dropped and thrown around. I was crying and asked Brian what they are doing, when they are going to leave. Then I heard one of their phones ring, some Spanish ringtone I think. He answered the phone and yelled something in Spanish to the others and they all ran into the room. They picked up what they could and told us if we called the police they knew where we lived and they would come back and kill us. They ran out the back door. We all laid there for a moment and I quietly asked the boys if they thought they were gone. One of the boys said wait a minute and then we started untying ourselves. Brian was tied up real tight and was unable to get his loose. I reached over to help him and I had a hard time getting it loose. It was then that I could see that I had been tied up with the candle warmer that had been in Josh’s room and that is what was hot. Two of the boys ran downstairs; I was cold so I went to close the back door. In the kitchen I looked and the refrigerator was hanging open and all of the food was out of the freezer all over the floor. I started to cry asking why would they have taken all of the food out and just thrown it onto the floor. I was afraid they would come back. When I went to close the door it would not push shut. The dead bolt was turned toward engage so the door would not close. I reached up and turned it so I could close the door. I suddenly saw flashlights out the back window and shouted to Scott they are coming back, help me hold the door. We both went to the floor and held our bodies against the door thinking we could stop them from coming back in. Both Josh and Scott were on the phone to the 911 operator. Scott asked if the police were in the back yard. The operator had to check and it took a moment. The boys in the living room could see the lights from the police cars out front. We heard very loud banging on the front door that frightened all of us. The operator on the phone told us that it was the police and told us to open the door. The boys opened the door only to be faced with men all dressed in black with automatic weapons yelling at us to come out of the house with our hands in the air. Josh had been drug from his bed with his boxers on and asked if he could get his pants on. They only repeated the command for us to come out with our hands up. Again Josh asked if he could get his pants on and was again told to come out with our hands up.Everyone started going out the front door. When I was walking out of the kitchen I saw the men with their guns and just froze in my steps in the middle of the living room. They were yelling at me to come out of the house. There was a uniformed officer standing behind them and he stepped out and motioned for me to come out and told me it was ok. I guess it was the uniform that made it ok for me to move again and I went out to the front porch, as I stepped out the swat officers ran into the door and down the stairs, they ran from room to room making sure that all of the bad guys were out of the house. I was standing on the porch with the boys, all of us shivering and I was crying. I could see at least four police cars in front of the house and neighbors were beginning to come out to see what was happening.
This has been part of my recovery to write everything out so I will finish this later, are you on the edge of your seat, hahahaha
If you would like to visit my old site please go here http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/2110/
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