The last couple of weeks have been .... scarey, sad, lonely, discouraging, fun, exciting, faith- building, frustrating, stressful..... yea, I think that about covers it!


Two weeks ago my house was robbed. Maria, who comes twice a week to clean and do laundry, walked in on the thieves. It is such a blessing that she scared them as much as they scared her and they ran out of the house. They took with them the things that they had arleady packed up in bags, but I am thankful for the things they didnt' get...like my computer!


They took my new camera I had bought while in the states with the kids at convention, my hair dryer, my jewelry (all but a small wooden jewelry box one of my students had given me last year, and in it I had some pairs of earrings and a bracelet I was given by my 6th grade class last year!)....1,000 lemperas (about $50), computer charger, cell phone chargers, ....and then some of the weird things.....my shampoo and conditioner, nearly all of my makeup, all my sweat shirts and jackets (all but my favorite jean jacket that I was wearing at the time), some shirts, a few pair of pants and capris, some flip flops....(although they left me their sandals outside on top of my pila! ha ha! not a good trade!).....some of my plastic cups, plastic bowls, some of my spoons, my Lite Creamer!.....a few purses, (if you are wondering, yes one of the thieves was a lady!)....


It had been cool in the evenings and nights, so I had been wearing my comfy Old Navy long PJ pants....until about 4 days after the robbery, and it was a hot evening and I went to look for my cooler PJ pants and discovered that they had gotten them all! Oh my gosh!

There were many things they had packed up that thankfully they did not get to take with them!

It wasn't just the valuables that they took...but there were so many things that were sentimental. I spent the first couple of days thinking of all the special things that were gone! A pair of earrings that had belonged to Amy....that can never be replaced! A necklace and earrings that I wore in Stacy's wedding. A necklace that Josh had given me when he was just a kid...he bought the pendant at a garage sale and then bought the chain with me at Kohl's.....it was the first time he really went and did his own shopping....now it's a memory. There were rings that Jim had brought to me from mission trips, and pearls he gave to each of us last year for Christmas. All gone!

Last week Gabriel was here and he saw this pink rubber bracelet laying in the bowl in my kitchen and he said miss this is mine....I told him I thought he had left it here one day...and we talked about how that was the only thing they had not taken from my bowl in the kitchen.....they took other non-valuable bracelets - made of cloth or beads made locally....he said that's because it says FAITH...that's why they didn't steal it. Yep that's right! I had thought the same thing when I first found it still laying in the bowl by my sink.

They got in by pulling the bars off one of my windows and pushing out the screen. Before getting in that way, they tried two other places to come in....trying to open the door from my patio to the kitchen, and also removing a panel outside and trying to come in through the ceiling.

I am not afraid of being in my house....but more afraid of being gone. So I have my old camera, my US cell phone, an ipod shuffle, a watch and the couple pair of earrings they did not get in my backpack in the trunk of my car. I carry my laptop with me every time I leave the house.

So the past two weeks have been stressful...and every day I have been out driving around the town looking for places to rent.....

And now I have found one.....