No You Can't Take That Away From Me

For those that haven't heard about the recent craziness in our lives here's a short recap: This past Sunday morning around 10am my hubby, K, and son, G, decided to go out for a walk since it was a rare cooler day in Oklahoma. We were out on our walk for about 30 minutes and as we approached our house we saw an unknown blue truck in our driveway. As we continued to approach we saw a strange young man walk out of our front door. We yelled at him, "Hey what are you doing?" and "This is our house!" and at that point realized that had burglarized our home and that we had caught them in the act. When he realized they were caught he jumped over his buddy who was already in the driver seat and they started the car. We ran up the driveway and pushed G's stroller off the side and K and I stood behind the truck to prevent them from leaving. They hesitated a moment, I'm guessing not knowing what to do, and then slowly reversed at first and then gunned it back. At that point I stepped off the side, while K lifted his feet up and held on to the tailgate as they did a backwards U into our front yard. K then flung to the other side and then attempted to open the drivers side door ripping the handle off and they then sped forward into the street. As they drove off, a few houses down, the passenger fired 2-4 shots aimed at Kyle. WE'RE ALL FINE, but needless of saying this was a crazy and traumatic experience. I'm also happy to report the local police department responded quickly and were able to catch these two criminals after a high speed chase, them crashing and attempting to flee on foot.

Thankfully due to them catching them we were able to get back our things, granted some were ruined, but insurance can take care of those details. What still lingers with me is the violation that these two kids (one 18 and one 19 years old) did on my home and my personal feeling of security. It disgusts me to think of them walking through my home, rifiling through my drawers, seeing personal family photos all over showing the faces of the people that they were victimizing and not thinking twice. People are aware of certain damages that burglaries do to people - obviously taking their possessions, damaging their home, potentially putting peoples lives in danger, but what isn't focused on is the lingering damage that is done to the people they victimize. Yes, we have since gotten an alarm system with all the bells and whistles installed and got a new metal door/frame and additional bolt locks installed, yet I still jump if there's a knock on the door and I don't expect it or causes me to sit and watch out the front window to see who is driving up and down the street.

The decision I have made is I can't let these criminals take anything more away from me than they already have. I'm choosing to move forward. I'm choosing to stay in this home and to go on living our lives. I'm choosing not to let their poor choices negatively affect me. They truly aren't worth it. I'm thankful every day that these 2 kids are sitting in the county jail awaiting their turn to go through the judicial process, and hoping that it will lead to years spent in prison.

Here are the faces of the people that did this to us - they are merely kids, but already on such a terrible and destructive path in life:
















I'm sure they are aware of they harm they do breaking in to homes and taking peoples things, but I doubt they can comprehend the emotional damage that is done to the victims of their crimes. So, I hold out for that moment when I hopefully will get the chance to look these two individuals in the eye in a courtroom and express the damage that they have done to my family, but I also trust that I won't let their choices bring me down any longer....and in the words of the Gershwin's, "No, no, no they can't take that away from me."