Violated

It's been a rough week. As it happens, it is our birthday week. Josh's bday was on Sunday and mine was today. It was probably one of the strangest birthday's either one of us has ever had. On Tuesday, someone broke into our car (which was parked in our hotel parking lot in Austin, TX) and stole almost everything out of the car. All of our clothes, shoes, medical supplies, coats, luggage, camera stuff, undeveloped film....i mean, you name it, it's gone.  Being a roadtrip like this, it feels more like getting your home broken into than a car because we kept so much of our stuff in the car. Everything we use on a daily basis. It was such an awful day. I had made an appointment that morning to go to an eye doctor because somehow I got a piece of plastic embedded in my cornea. We checked out of the hotel and made our way to the car; i opened the door and everything was gone. Just....gone. It didn't really click at first. And then it did. And I started to panic. My first reaction was terrible. I just started sobbing. Thank God for Josh. He kept a cool head and went back into the hotel. I took a minute to call my mom and pulled myself together and we went from there. The police came and went. No fingerprints because it's humid in Texas. And despite the fact that Texas has been in a drought, it's rained every day we've been here. So any prints that might've been there are totally gone. We called the insurance companies, got the glass replaced in the window and went to the doctor to get the plastic out of my eye. It was the longest day that either of us can remember in a long time. It's the worst day we can remember since Josh broke his neck.

Fingerprinting. The dust is still on the car. And the glass is still in the seat.

They busted in the window behind the driver's side and somehow managed to reach in and open it up. 

We are lucky that our computers, wallets and a few clothes each were in our bags in the hotel. So not everything is gone.We weren't sure if we would keep going. Honestly, we're feeling awfully violated, defeated and homesick at this moment. I know it's just stuff but that stuff mattered to us. There were reasons why that stuff was important to us and it's hard to let that go. Even two days later, I find myself in moments of really deep sadness and anger that I just can't seem to shake. And every time we leave the car in a parking lot now, it's impossible to really feel safe.  

We went shopping today to replace some of the clothes we lost. So that's good. And we have decided to keep going. And we think that's good too. It's been a long week and we are ready from some metaphorical sunshine to come our way. We did get some happiness out of Texas, thankfully. We spent the day after the robbery with the president of the DreamMaker Corporation, Doug Dwyer. He spent the day showing us around DreamMaker headquarters and around the city of Waco. He took us out to lunch at one of his favorite BBQ places, Uncle Dan's. Doug is a pretty incredible man. He was so encouraging and wonderful. We are absolutely grateful that he was so close by when this happened. He got us hooked up with a place to stay that night and got us in touch with some good people to help us fix the car. Doug was a Godsend. 

This is Doug's truck. Which is extremely lifted. Notice that Josh is in the truck. All on his own. Crazy, right? 

And then yesterday, we had the opportunity to reconnect with and spend the evening with a friend from Josh's past that he hasn't seen or spoken to since high school. It was another wonderful and uplifting night with good food and encouraging words. And they showed us around the part of Austin we should have been in the first place. We ate at an awesome BBQ place and this funny little doughnut place for dessert. It was a great night and good to see Austin in a better light.

If you think about it, pray for us. For peace of mind and heart and safety.  Reality hit hard. Again. Why is it we always think we're invincible? Inevitably, we get clued in.

And because I want to end on a good note, check this out! We found the Weiner-Mobile in a hotel parking lot somewhere in Texas! Even the Oscar Mayer Weiner Man needs to sleep, I guess.