It's time

It's time for me to tell my tale about a little encounter that happened to me about 2 years ago exactly.

It started out as an ordinary day at our home in Sandy. We had been living there for about 6 months and I was still trying to get used to all the "new" around me. I remember that morning sitting down and having a bowl of Cherrios. For some reason the memory of me eating Cherrios at my Grandma Gardner's house came to mind. I was remembering a sugar dispenser that we would use to pour sugar on the cereal. (I know this doesn't seem important now, but it will when we get further into the story). I called my mom and told her what I had just remembered and I asked her if the sugar dispenser was still at grandma's house. She said it probably was and I asked her if I could have it. That was really the only thing I have asked to have of my grandma's. Mom told me that next time we were in Vernal we would definitely go get it because no one would miss it. (And I do happen to have it in my possession now).

I carried out the day as usual; cleaning, laundry, lunch, and then it came time for naps. I had gotten Parker down for his nap about 1 and I was trying to get Addi down for her nap. She was 5 and still would nap for me. It was so nice. We were in her room upstairs, when I heard a knock at the front door. I peeked outside the window and noticed a red car was parked on the road underneath one of our pine trees. I didn't recognize the car, and told Addi that we weren't going to answer it. The person knocked again, and I still said let's not answer it. Next thing I know there was a big WHAM WHAM WHAM sound coming from the front door. My heart sunk and I rushed down the stairs yelling HEY!!! As I come down the stairs I notice that there was glass shards laying on the floor. For some reason unknown to me I still had my tennis shoes on. I don't know why I did because normally I don't wear shoes in the house. I opened the door and there is even more glass all over my porch. I run outside and yell after the guy. "Why did you break my door?" I was more hurt that he broke my door, and now I have to flipping go clean it up when I have other things I need to be doing. I think he was taken back on what I said to him. (He was at his car by now when I said that, trying to get into it) I think he was expecting me to yell something mean and when I didn't he turned and looked at me. I got a straight on shot of him and was able to remember some of the things about him.  As he is getting into the car, I got the impression to get his license plate number.  He had parked his car so that it was facing east and I got his rearview plates. I knew that if I for sure remembered the first part of his numbers, the second wouldn't be as important.

As I'm digesting what just happened, I turn and realize Addi has followed me out. Momma bear kicked in and I looked at her and said, "I need to get you some where else." I run inside to grab my phone because after I said that statement to Addi, I knew I needed to call 911. Adrenaline really started to kick in now because I had never had to call 911 before. As I am calling 911 and telling them I had an attempted break in, in the back of my mind I know that I need to find some where for Addi to go. Parker was still fast asleep through all of this. As I'm talking to the 911 girl and telling her the details of what happened, I tell her that I have his license plate number. She halted the conversation and said, "You what? You have his license plate?" I told her I did and she immediately said I need to get you transferred over to Sandy police. She transfers me over and I relay the information to the new person. She told me that she sent out an alert and they would start looking for the car. I gave the make and model of the car, what the suspect looked like, and what had happened. There came a lull in the conversation and I asked her "Well what do I do now? Do I start cleaning up the mess?" She then went, "oh oh no! I am sending an officer up there right now. Don't touch anything." She asked if I need anything else and I told I would be ok till the police showed up.

Next I knew I needed to get Addi some where before the police came. I didn't want her around all of that. I walked across the street to my neighbors that we were semi close to. (remember we had only lived there 6 months) Wouldn't you know it, she wasn't home. I was trying to call Ty walking over and I hadn't cried yet, until he answered the phone and then I lost it. I told him what had happened and he told me that he was literally walking into a meeting and would get there as soon as the meeting was over. He asked if I was ok, and I said OF COURSE I'm NOT ok!! He then rephrased the question, I mean are you hurt? I told him I wasn't and that I'd be fine until he got home. I got to my next door neighbor next. They are a sweet older couple that are both about 75. She thankfully was at home and I told her a small tale of what had just happened and asked if Addi could stay over while we were doing our thing with the police. She was shocked when I had told her what happened and she snapped back into it and told me that of course Addi was welcome there.

I'm a bawling mess by now. I go to the front of my house and my neighbor's husband (where Addi was) came over to assess the damage. He is an interesting fellow, but nevertheless I wasn't alone. As we are standing there waiting for the police to arrive, guess who happens to walk by? The elder missionaries. They wave and ask if everything was ok. I say, No not really. My house just got broken into. They stood there kind of shocked and then went oh is there anything we can do to help you? I tell them I am ok and that the police are on their way. They nod their head and start to walk off. The one elder stops turns to me and asks, Would you like us to say a prayer with you. I start crying (I am crying right now just typing this) and tell them that would be absolutely perfect. They say a quick prayer that I will be comforted and that I can feel safe and loved. Right when they are closing the prayer, the police officer pulls up. I thank them and they head about their way.

The officer comes in and starts asking questions as to what had happened. I tell him, and then he starts taking pictures of the door. I had a door with an oval glass in it. The robber had broke the 2 panes in the glass and pock marks where the hammer was about ready to break through the 3rd and last pane. I was sitting at the table writing my statement down, when the officer's two way started to go off with someone on the other line saying that they were pretty sure they had the car pulled over and the suspect there. I was then asked if I could go down and identify the suspect where they had pulled him over. I did, and I had my neighbor's husband come back over to the house because Parker was still asleep. They had him pulled over about 5 miles west of my house. I did identify him. I just stayed in the car and the officer stayed with me. I go back home and finished the filing of the report, and the officer went on his merry way. From beginning to end the whole ordeal lasted 1 hour. It was the longest, quickest hour of my life. I was comforted to know that they caught the guy, but then that started a whole new set of panic in my mind too. Maybe he would come back for retribution because he got caught, maybe he would try to break in again, and so on. BAH!

As I am saying good bye to the officer one of my other neighbors happened to just get home from work and he saw the cop car at my house. He asked what had happened and I just start crying again. He asked if there was anything he could do, and I asked him if he happened to have a dust pan because I didn't. He kind of chuckled and said he definitely did and would run home to grab it. As he walked across the street, my other neighbor Kathy got home (She was the one I wanted to leave Addi with) she sees me and knew something was wrong. I tell her and am still just a crying mess. She was the first one to give me a hug and let me just cry. Then both Kathy and Paul helped me clean up the mess. I am so thankful that I didn't have to do things alone. We are very lucky that we had such caring neighbors around us.

Word got around quick about what had happened to us and the whole neighborhood was just shocked that something like that would happen in broad day light. We were shocked too. Ty got home and he was concerned for me and then he turned mad! He was so mad that someone would do this to our home and that he wasn't home to defend us. It took him a little bit to calm down too. I called my mom and she cried when I told her what had happened. She told me that she would leave work right away and come up. I have such a great support team around me. I am so grateful for their love and support.

We never did find out what the guy was after. He did finally confess to the investigator that he did do it. He was already a felon, and he wasn't from our area. He was from West Valley which is 40 minutes away. He told the investigator that he didn't pre target our house, and that he was just out for a spree of robberies and ours happened to be the first one. Lucky us! NOT!

So the aftermath went a little something like this....

That night our neighbor two houses west of us came over with his son. Kerry is a police officer with Saratoga Springs and had heard the  news. He was livid that something like this would happen to someone in his neighborhood. He told me he wanted to go find this guy and give him a good chat about to never show his face around the neighborhood again or there would be consequences. He was good to sit down and talk to me about some of my troubles. I felt comfortable talking to him because he was in the law enforcement and had seen something like this before. He told me that the guy would be too scared to come around again because he knew people would be on guard. I asked if he and his son would help Ty give me a blessing. They did and it gave me great comfort.

That night I had a hard time sleeping. I was still on this adrenaline high and didn't know how to calm down. Ty held me all night as I cried and told him how scared I was. I asked him if he would stay home from work the next day because I wasn't ready to be alone. He did and I was so glad.

On Friday I was able to go to the temple with a sister from my ward because we did a temple swap with our kids every other week. I was so grateful that it was my turn to go. I desperately needed the peace from the temple to calm my soul. I also earnestly prayed that the spirit would come back to my home and that I would feel comfortable there again. I definitely came out of the temple feeling peace, loved, and safe.

It took me a LONG time for my heart not to stop when someone knocked on the door. I still don't like answering the door, but I'm a little more comfortable about it.

My testimony actually grew a lot that day. I know that my Grandma Gardner was my guardian angel that day. It started out that morning with me remember her sugar dispenser. I also know she was watching over me because of that prompting I got to get his license plate. I remember my grandma telling me when we were little kids that if we ever saw anything bad happen around us and the person got in a car, to grab a stick and write what we could remember about the license plate in the dirt. I know it was her whispering in my ear to do the thing she had taught us about when we were little.

I also know Heavenly Father was watching over me as well. He sent the missionaries to comfort me. (They happened to walk back by after everything had calmed down and I ran out to thank them for being in the right place at the right time). He also made sure I was not alone the rest of the afternoon. I always had someone with me. I then realized too that we are never truly alone. I know I had my Grandma watching over me and I'm sure I also had other family members on the other side trying to comfort me as well. A tender mercy that happened also is that Parker stayed asleep through the entire thing. He didn't wake up until an hour after everything had happened. I am sure he had some guardian angels watching over him too. I am also so grateful that the most precious things in my life (my kids) were not hurt and that also includes myself.

I also know that the power of the priesthood is real. I know part of the reason our home was protected is because when we first moved in Ty blessed our home that no evil would come inside of it. I also felt the peace it brought with it when I received the blessing, and also when I went to the temple.

As the days went on I had a couple set backs. I had 2 panic/ anxiety attacks. They kind of come from no where and it is such a crazy feeling. My whole body just shut down one of the times, and the other time I went into another adrenaline rush. It is crazy how the body tries to cope with stress. When I found those fears creeping back into my thoughts I knew I had to immediately shut them out and think of something else. The scripture that goes Perfect love casteth out all fear, would continually come to mind. I knew fear was not from God. I knew he wanted me to be happy.

Another crazy/ scary thing happened to me night after the break in. I was asleep and I started having a dream... I was at a birthday party of a family friends little girl back in Vernal. After the party we went on a drive up and we ended up on a hill. The husband started to turn around and he pulled forward so that the front wheels started to hang off the hill. I was starting to get nervous and then all of a sudden everything went pitch black. This awful feeling crept into my dream, next thing I know this male voice was screaming/ yelling at me. It was still pitch black in my dream. I started to some what try to wake myself up to stop the yelling, but I couldn't. I then realized who it was in my dream yelling at me. It was Satan. I knew the only thing to get me out of this was to do something to bring the light of Christ into it. I started to sing in my mind I am a Child of God. I got through the first verse and then I was able to fully wake. I have never been in limbo quite like that in a dream. Where I was trying so hard to wake up, but couldn't. I woke up Ty, and I started to cry. I told him that Satan had just visited me and that it really shook me up because he has never attacked me like that. I asked Ty, why he would do something like that to me? We were able to have a good discussion about it. Satan knew that he was able to keep the fear in me that he would get the best of me. He knows what fear can do to people. It can stop people from being happy, and happiness is from God. Because of this experience I also knew how important it was for me to send those negative thoughts out of my head as soon as they entered.

I hope that something like this never happens again. But I know that trials come into our lives for a reasons. If we are rely on Heavenly Father, he will help us through them. He knows us, and knows our fears. He is waiting for us to turn to him for help. Now that it has been 2 years, I can look back and see how much I have grown from it. And that is how most trials are. We don't like it when we are going through them, but once they end (and they always do) we see what good came from it.

And so now my tale is told... THE END