Stinking Robbery

Wow. Things have been crazy busy since November. It started the day after we got home from Thanksgiving in Austin and we realized we had been robbed. The back door was smashed in and things were stolen. It's a very violating and vulnerable feeling. It's pretty awful. Thankfully the external hard drive wasn't stolen, where all your pictures are stored. Although the computer, keyboard, mouse and external CD drive were taken. I like to think that you were watching over our home and that's the reason the robber left the drive. I can't even think about the scenario where we lost all your pictures. We will be backing them up multiple ways now.

We had probably $7,000 worth of things stolen. It could have been much worse so for that we are grateful. The computer, iPad, camera and jewelry. All of Claire's jewelry was stolen and some of mine. Unfortunately 2 of my great grandmothers rings were stolen. Heirlooms that are irreplaceable. Trying to itemize over 80 things that were stolen is no small task. That along with getting ready for your birthday party and Christmas kept me very busy. Oh and during that time I decided to take a 2 week online course that took any time I would have had. The course ended on New Year's Eve which is when we took a trip to Utah. We are back now but had a great time. The girls and dad got snowgear and snowboards for Christmas and he took them snowboarding. They had a blast and after only 3 days boarding got to be quite the little snowboarders. I stayed with Lexie and ate at Cafe Rio with my sisters. Rough, I know.

Now the challenge we have is everything after the robbery. Dad put in a new back door. He installed cameras in and outside the house. Your dad is amazing. He seriously can do pretty much ANYTHING. We have a company monitoring the home with a 2 way voice control pad thats awesome. Overall we are all okay, except for Audrey. She is terrified. She doesn't feel safe and has started having panic attacks. It breaks my heart to see her so scared and unable to control her thoughts and emotions. We decided it would be helpful to take her to a therapist. Last week was her first session and it went well. I can tell it's going to take some time for her to work through things. Bless her heart.

The police are fairly certain they have the guy that robbed us. He was charged for breaking into a home in North Dallas and when they searched his motel room they found 2 of the things that were stolen from us. He claimed that he bought our camera and our iPad from 2 different people but that's pretty bogus. Maybe if he would have claimed he bought them from the same person but not 2 different people a day or 2 after we were robbed. So the police are trying to tie him to the robbery here. I wish that would mean that Audrey isn't scared anymore.

I have to run to practice a song I am signing in church next Sunday. I have lots of pictures and stories to post so I'll get on it. 
I sure love you, son.

xoxo
Mom