Protecting our home.

Our house is a mess again.  This is a good thing because it means our kitchen is being finished.  We are finally finishing our countertops and backsplash thanks to a dear friend of ours.  Owning a house has been such a new experience for both Justin and I.  We have a sudden need to be more responsible and PROTECTIVE.  Well there's a little baggage with the protective part.  I'll explain a little.

One, we don't live on the best side of town.  It's not a bad side of town, but just not where everyone wants to move too.  With that being said the safety is at a higher level than other parts of town.  When we first bought the house, the guy living here before (his parents owned the house and sold it to us)  broke in the house and stole some things he left on the property.  SCARY.  If he had just called us and asked us to give it to him we would have, but why, oh, why would you do that.  Then when we were moving in this guy, (supposedly he was living with a friend a few houses down), came up to Justin and asked to get his grill back.  Justin had a few nice/firm words with him and noticed the ladders were at that house he was staying at.  We didn't make a big deal about it, but did tell him that we knew it was him that broke into our house and we have a police report on it, so stay OFF our property or we WILL call the police.  We haven't had any of the problems since.  We put new locks on everything and locked things up that were not locked up (our garage, fences, etc)

Two, a family that lives a few houses down that has many children always has different people coming in and out of their house.  They like to hang out on the front porch a lot and their kids like to play in the front yard. I met the mom and she was very nice.  Well, a few weeks ago, we were grilling out on our back porch with some friends and this mom walked around to us and asked us for money.  She gave us a story that her son was out of medicine and she didn't have any money to purchase it.  I'm not saying she was lying because I do not know.  We had to believe that this was a moment of ministry for us.  This was the first time.  However, we were still a little suspicious.

Three, last week Justin and I were at home just finishing up dinner when we noticed 5 cop cars pull up in front of our house.  Another cop car was at the end of our street with his lights on.  The cops hopped out with a drug dog and huddled around.  Oh no!  What was going on?!?!  Here we were, being nosey, peeking out the windows.  The cops entered into the house of the mom who asked us for money.  Nothing really happened.  Hours later we hear knocking at our door.  It was our back door, which was even scarier, because NO one knocks there.  It was two cops and the drug dog.  The cops had jumped our fence and was looking in our shed for this missing person there. They wanted us to unlock our gate so they didn't have to jump it.  Yeah, we were just a little FREAKED out.

Well, we still have no clue whats happening.  The cops still drive down our street monitoring.  No one has been around that house since that night.  The children's toys are still in the same place. The grass hasn't been mowed, and it looks vacant.  All I can think about is those poor children.

So, yes, we have been very PROTECTIVE of our house, or belongings, our safety.  Owning a house comes with new challenges, but it is rather exciting at the same time. :)