Last Monday, though David did not physically feel well, he went to work anyway.  Likewise for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wednesday night, he called and said he felt so sick, he didn't know if he could make it home OK.  I was really worried, and suggested that I phone someone and ask for a ride down to David's office so I could drive him and all of our family back home.  He declined, so I was very relieved when he finally did make it home.  Thursday, yesterday, he called in sick.  Michael and I were planning to take a piece of furniture to PA to put into the storage unit we use up there.  (Thursday's schoolwork would be made up this weekend.)

Since David was not going into work, we didn't have to leave so early for the day.  But then, we wouldn't have to worry about getting back to the area in time to pick him up from work when his work day was over.  We left home around 2 PM and had an uneventful drive up to PA.  After we did the storage unit run with my mother riding along (she has the key to the unit, and knows where the place is at... I can never quite remember), we stopped at Walmart for something I would be needing for today.  We had planned to make our own field trip to the zoo since no one in the homeschool co-op was agreeable to doing it as a group effort.  So, it would be our family; just the 3 of us.  I found what I needed in the Walmart up in PA (our local store here had run out of what I needed) so I bought it and went to the car.  Before I could start the engine, David phoned me.  He sounded so panicked that I feared he was having a heart attack.

Someone had smashed in Michael's bedroom window.

We live on the ground floor, and though David had at first thought it must have been a rock or brick thrown through, we later learned that someone kicked it in with their foot.  A nearby neighbor had been outside at the time, and was obviously not noticed by the guilty party.  They came to tell us that someone had just done something to our apartment, but David was already aware when he heard the loud crash.  The police were called, they came and took a statement.  They also talked to the neighbor witness.  Our complex's maintenance supervisor drove back to work, or more accurately was driven back to work, because she had taken some medicine that could cause drowsiness and she lives over an hour away.  When David was talking to more than one person at once, and I phoned to give him a neighbor's phone number that I had with me, and when he didn't pick up the phone, I freaked out.  I thought an assailant had decided to crawl through the broken glass and do something to David.  We don't keep guns around, so defenses would have to be thought up creatively, and quickly.  I phoned a member of our congregation and blurted out what had happened and what I feared.  "Please go check on him..."  I told my mother that I didn't want to go home alone, so I wanted her to return to our home with me and Michael.  She said she was willing but would need to leave out some food for her cats first.  As I was driving to her place, David phoned me.  I was greatly relieved.  He explained why he hadn't picked up my call, and I told my mother that I'd be OK to go home without her with me.  I still wished I could sprout wings and be home with David in a moment.  But it would take hours to get home.  I told him that someone from our congregation was coming over, and he said the police were on their way too, as was the maintenance supervisor.  I felt so bad that she had to come all the way out, but we had nothing to cover the gaping hole.  Later, David would tell me that some of the shards of glass were about 15 inches long.  We both did a lot of mental gymnastics about all the what if's...

What if David had gone into work for the day after all?  I would have been trying to get down to his office on time to pick him up (very hard to make it there on time, when starting my drive from over 2 hours away).  The window would have been broken before any humans were home for the day, and the cat, totally freaked out, would have probably attempted to get out through the broken window.  If he had made it out unscathed by the broken glass (it was all over Michael's bedroom), he would have probably been run over by a speeding car on the highway, yards away from our building.

What if the person I had offered the furniture to had decided to take it, and Michael and I had not needed to go to PA?  Michael would have most likely been sitting at his desk in his bedroom, even at the time of last night's incident.  He would have been definitely covered with long shards of glass, and might have been killed.  (The windows are double pane, and both were shattered.)

What if any of us had been in that room at the time?  Even the cat.  No one would have come out of it without injury at the least.  But no one was.  Last night, I was glad to have my mother with me in the car when I got the news.  While she definitely prayed, when we realized that David was safe, and the cat was too, and we would get something to cover that gaping hole for the overnight, we knew we were all OK.  Shaken, but OK.  God had orchestrated our protection, one by one.  He knew that this would happen, but He was going to keep us safe through it.  I'm not saying He caused it.  He gives mankind freedom of choosing right or wrong.  Someone chose to do the wrong thing.  But God protected us.

I stayed up till about 4 AM doing the quiet kind of cleaning... wetting and wringing out paper towels, wiping down everything.  There was a lot of glass.  BTW, David and the friend from our congregation, and his son, began picking up the broken glass, wearing heavy gloves.  They filled 2 trash cans.  The maintenance supervisor, replaced the window temporarily and did a lot of vacuuming before leaving for home again.  But even by the time I got there, I could easily seen splinters of glass everywhere.  When I couldn't see anymore, I gingerly went to bed.  (I was still shaken, and worried.)  Five hours later, I was awake and started vacuuming.  I cleaned for another 6 or 7 hours before I called it done.  (I still have 2 large bins of plastic toys that I need to rinse off under running water.  Michael has probably 200-300 Fisher-Price Little People and small accessories that were right below the window that was broken.  That will take a while.)

By mid-afternoon, it was good enough for me to walk barefoot over his carpet, and to lean my arms down onto his desktop, that is right beside another window.  I was OK sitting on a chair that had earlier been covered with glass splinters.  I let Michael and the cat go into the room again.  This was during daylight hours.  When the sun went down, I began to worry again.  I was edgy when Michael wanted to sit in there, at his desk and look out the window.  I wish the guy had been found already.  It is irksome to me that I feel this way.  I know we were all safe last night, so why am I so worried now?