The Chronicles Of Motherhood

In past years, I would tell you that I don’t like, agree for feel comfortable around guns. Growing up, we had a “no weapons policy”, meaning my five brothers were never allowed to have water guns, squirt guns or anything that resembled a weapon in our home. My mother was firm with this rule. If we got one for our birthday, it ended up in the garbage. (Yes, I know…totally not ecofriendly!)

I have never shot a gun. I admit, I rolled my eyes when my husband purchased us a six hour 40 caliber hand gun. “Whatever makes you feel like a big boy…”  I told him. Then he got a rifle and again…” whatever makes you feel tough, dude”, I told my husband. Because my husband travels so much for work, leaving me home alone with our two year old for days at a time, he did show me how to load, cock and shoot our 40 cal. “Yeah whatever, I’ll be fine” I told him. I never put much thought into it. We have always lived in nice, family friendly neighborhoods. Thinking that ‘needing a gun’ will never happen to us.

I WAS WRONG

About two months ago, I got an email from our HOA, telling of a few home burglaries in the next neighborhood. Again, we live in a very safe, typical suburbia neighborhood. Its like “Leave it to Beaver”, upper middle class around here with white picked fences, people bring you cookies when you move in, neighborhood ice cream socials, a community pool where all the town gossip happens and our house track has the best trick-or-treating, ever.
I woke up in the early morning of Thursday March 29th at 12:55am, turned off the tv in our room, checked on my two and a half year old daughter, covered her up and went to the bathroom. While I’m sitting there, half alseep, my doorbell rings, frantically. About 8 times in a row. “Who the F rings a doorbell like that, especially at this hour?” I thought to myself. My husband slept through the door bell ringing so I woke him up and told him. Like a ninja, my husband springs out of bed, instantly grabs our gun, goes to our front door (didn’t open it) and no one is there. Hmm that is odd. I looked out the upstairs window and our court looks quiet. The kids were on spring break here- so maybe they are just door bell ditching? I only see a Prius circling the court. I thought it was our teenage neighbors getting picked up or dropped off. It is spring break, after all.

So we both go back to bed.

As we both lie in bed- we then hear our door to the basement open! (the door knob squeaks and the door is loud) we both jump out of bed. Dan springs into action again and stays posted at the top of the stairs, in front of our room and our daughters room. I run into my walk0in closet, hide behind two racks of clothes, call 911 with my rifle in my right hand…. My husband has the .40 cal, cocks it (that is loud!) and hides at the top of the stairs.  “I have a gun. A big gun. Get the F#$& out of my house!”
We hear the basement door close and shut.
Whispering on the phone to 911.. I was so scared that I could barely hold the phone up to my ear. I look at my phone, I have been on the phone for six minutes. So far, it feels like 60 hours.
The dispatcher tells me the police are surrounding my house, and say they saw some movement in the back of our house. We are upstairs, I am in my closet so the movement is not us.
The police checked inside/outside our home and could not find anything. Everything was locked up tight. Nothing out of the ordinary. We both heard the door open and close, so where did they go? How did they get out?
It’s 2am and the police leave. We set up a boobie trap in front of the basement door. (Thank you Kevin McCalister and Home Alone for the inspiration!!) I didn’t go back to sleep. My husband did. Of course.

I get up in the morning and re-read the email from our HOA. I cringe as the details of the other home invasions in the area. All at 1-2am, everyone noted a silver hatchback vehicle and all were broken into through the front door. It was an exact detail of what happened at our house.

I called ADT security and thankfully they were at our house, setting everything up by 4pm the next day.

My husband bought me this for my birthday. Now, normally I get pretty pink things from Nordtsroms or a new Coach bag. But this year was different. And I am ok with that. At least it’s still pink 😉

Come back motherf*cker, I dare you. I was fully prepared to kill that night. A feeling that scares me to this very day. I have never felt that feeling before. A feeling of protection that was so strong, it did not involve a second thought. Honestly, its because I am a mother now and I will stop at nothing to protect my family, especially my precious baby girl. You picked the wrong house.

I want to stress the importance of gun safety. Our firearms are in a locked gun safe. The guns are never loaded and have trigger locks on them that will only unlock if I or my husband unlock them. They are 100% child proof. Please, if you have guns in the home always keep them out of reach and sight of children. And please, take a gun safety course to learn the ins and outs of your firearm. Always assume a gun is loaded and always check it first. Look down the barrel. Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot. Be safe, please.