This Is Why I Keep Teaching Lamaze.....

I had a great class this weekend. I was teaching a "weekender" class, which means a class that starts on Friday night with 3 hours and then goes all day Saturday for 9 hours - you cram an entire Lamaze series in to one weekend. This kind of class is increasingly popular with expectant couples today....

I had a *fantastic* class. The people in a weekend class really make or break it - it can be a really intensive, fun day or it can be a total soul drain....like pulling teeth for 9 hours straight!

My class this weekend was awesome. I had 7 couples, all married - which, well, makes a HUGE difference. They were educated, interested, and just really nice people. They were all happy to be pregnant and eagerly expecting the birth of their babies. I enjoyed teaching them so much.

At the end of the class several of them came up to me to tell me how much they enjoyed the class [which is not unusual], but one in particular gave me perhaps the best compliment I've ever gotten. The dad was a military man of almost 20 years and he came up and said to me "Kelly, you've been in the military. You know how it can be. The thing I can't stand the most is to come to a meeting and have someone waste my time. You haven't wasted ONE SECOND of my time today, and I appreciate that. This was a great class. It was much better than we expected and we learned so much. Thank you." Cool. :) That's what makes it all worth it.

I'm worried about the future of childbirth in our country, and the future of childbirth education. This "up and coming" generation, the one they are calling "Generation Y" now, grew up with technology and they are very technologically oriented. Many of the younger people in my classes cannot envision giving birth *without* technology - they want the machines. Some of them want a Cesarean. The idea of working with their bodies and allowing birth to happen naturally is foreign to many of them. And thus the Cesarean rate in the US continues to spiral up and out of control. We are not far from the day when it will be a minority of mothers who deliver vaginally I fear.

In response, the hospital I work for has decided to change our childbirth classes dramatically. We will be doing "Powerpoint Presentations" instead of the traditional class. This is specifically designed to appeal to "Generation Y". I don't know if it will work. Sitting for 12 hours staring at a PowerPoint projection doesn't sound fun to me. And much [all?] will be lost as far as the human element of the class. One of the benefits of a childbirth class is that you can meet other people who are going through exactly the same thing you are going through and who totally understand. It also provides a chance for the mother and father to connect and take time to really anticipate the birth and reflect on the pregnancy and their desires for their birth and their newborn. It is a bonding rite of passage in many ways. I think this will be lost with a PowerPoint presentation.

In addition, my employer is moving to "web based learning" for childbirth education - they are bringing on line a web page where the expectant parent can just "do" the whole childbirth class on their computer from home.

In my opinion, you are better off just reading a book at that point - it will cost a lot less money.

So, it is a hard time for me right now trying to decide whether to continue with childbirth education [especially at the hospital where I work], or whether to move on to other opportunities.

But times like today, when I have really connected with a class and when I really KNOW I've made a difference for them and for their babies... those are the times that remind me WHY I got in to this business to start with.

Before I begin every single class I teach, I go to the Lord and I pray this prayer: "Dear God, please let me teach this class well. Please let me speak to these couples the words YOU want them to hear, let me teach them what you feel they need to know. Help me to help them to become the very best parents they can possibly be, and help me to help them to grow closer to you in any way that I can."

I am honored to say that I feel the Lord does use me in this way to reach new families. What I do is a ministry for me - it is something I do for love of the Lord and love of the new families I have the fortune of teaching. My husband and I were adding it up today, and in my 8 years of teaching Lamaze, I have taught somewhere between 700 and 1,000 couples. That is a lot of families that I have been privileged to touch - and I hope and pray that in some way their lives together as a family have been improved by meeting me, that their little babies have been blessed by what I shared with the parents.

As long as I feel that I am still touching people - still instilling in them awe for their newborns, helping them to understand the joy & privilege of parenthood, and helping them to grow into what God wants them to be - I will keep teaching Lamaze.

The day it becomes just a job is the day I quit and move on to something else.

And may I never waste a single second of their time. :)

MEME

OK, I got this one from my friend Megan.

WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? -Y es, my mother named me after "Gene Kelly" the famous dancer. My father always swore I was named after "Kelly Springfield Tire Company" which was a local business in the town where we lived. :) I don't know where they got the middle name, Christina. But I like it - it means "Of Christ".

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? - Today.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?- Yes.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? -Boar's Head Pesto Parmesan Ham, but I don't "do" lunch meat much.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS? - Yes - 5 of them. They rock!

IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? - Yes, I think so. Unless I got on my nerves. :)

DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? - Yes, unfortunately. And now my 8 year old is doing it.

DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?- Nope, haven't seen them since 1974. Boy was I mad at my mom when she let them take them out too. She still talks about it!

WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?- No. When I feel like living dangerously, I prefer to take my 5 young children out in public when they have skipped lunch and missed their naps.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?- oatmeal and/or grits if you count hot cereal.

DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? - No. But I prefer to be barefoot to start with.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? - Yes. God took the "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" thing really seriously when He created me.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? - I don't really like ice cream. I'm a total freak, I do know that.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? - Their eyes and whether they smile.

RED OR PINK?- Pretty much red, but after having 4 daughters pink is growing on me.

WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?- I am impatient and I have a very bad temper when I finally lose it. It takes a lot, but I go completely wacko when I do lose it. I also suffer from a lack of humility.... but I guess I wasn't supposed to make a list on this question was I? So many faults to choose from ... LOL!

WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? - My Grandma Maureen.

WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? - blue jean capris and no shoes. I really don't like shoes .

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?- chicken fingers and french fries from BBQ Street.

WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?- Blessed silence. My children are all sleeping.

IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?- Sunny yellow

FAVORITE SMELLS?- My children's hair when it is clean, my newborns, a newly baptized baby's head, lavender, pumpkin bread, bread baking, and garlic when it is being cooked up in something delicious.

WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?- my friend Cyndi.

FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?- I do not like to watch sports, but I am learning to love soccer when my own kids are playing.

HAIR COLOR?- Dark brown

EYE COLOR? - Greenish

DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? - Nope

FAVORITE FOOD? - Anything someone else makes for us to eat when things are bad and we need help - nothing tastes as good as something someone made out of love just for you. BBQ from BBQ Street or Mellow Mushroom pizza. Or chicken soup from a really good Mexican restaurant.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? - Happy Endings. I hate scary movies in the "horror genre" sense of the word.

LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?- I don't remember. Oh yeah - some movie about a guy who was living out a book as the author was writing it... I can't remember the name of it but it was surprisingly really good.

WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?- Khaki.

SUMMER OR WINTER? - I'm a Fall/Spring kind of girl personally. Fall is my favorite season of all.

HUGS OR KISSES?- Both. Life is too short to get picky! ;)

FAVORITE DESSERT?- home made chocolate chip cookies

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?- "Spiritual Progress" by Fr. Williams, "Preparing Sons to provide for a one income family" by Maxwell, and I just finished "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" today - doing my second reading of that one in preparation for book 7 coming out in a few weeks. I can't wait!

WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?- I don't have a mouse pad.

WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?- Survivor Thailand.

FAVORITE SOUND?- Baby belly laughs, my husband telling me he really loves me, my children singing hymns to Jesus.

ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?- Beatles I guess. I wouldn't listen to either. Can I pick Beethoven or Vivaldi? In that case, definitely Vivaldi. :)

WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? - Spain. I was an exchange student my senior year.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?- I am a woman of many talents. [I told you I lack humility!] . I am an especially good baker though, and that's a nice thing to be.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?- Carrollton, GA.

Do You Think This Baby Is Ready For Real Food?!

Here is Monkey5 [100% breastfed] stealing her daddy's pumpkin bread! She was quite aggressive about it too. LOL!

Mission Accomplished!

Jackson got adopted this weekend!

I cannot explain how gratifying this was for us. We got him to foster last Monday from Homeless Pets. We kept him for 5 days and took him back on Friday so he could go to the adoption sites on Saturday and Sunday. During those 5 days we crate trained him, potty trained him, taught him to "sit" and "leave it", and learned that he is great with kids and other dogs. I wrote up a little memo on Jackson - really honest, about his strengths and weaknesses and sent it with him to adoption day.

The Homeless Pets lady emailed me to tell me he'd been adopted by a family with children and other dogs and that it couldn't have happened with out us. He had been waiting for adoption for months with no interest, and after one week of us working with him and getting him trained up a bit and learning his personality [so he could be "marketed" correctly], he found a home.

How wonderful! The kids and I and my husband are all just thrilled! We learned so much, and what a great feeling to have made such a difference for that little guy! We definitely want to continue fostering!

Nancy Drew Lives At My House

Monkey1 just cracks me up. She reads obsessively. And right now her obsession is Nancy Drew books. She's averaging reading one per day and she's on book 9 now. I've got to get her to the library today - she's out of reading material [this qualifies as a true crisis at our house! LOL!]. You would be further amazed that she has "nothing to read" if you could see our home - there are books all over the place, at least a hundred that would be of interest to her in particular. She's read all those though. :)

The most curious thing about this is the way that Nancy Drew has become part of our family. As in, we will be sitting down at dinner and Monkey1 will mention how Nancy and Helen did such and such. You know, like we all know Nancy and Helen and sit down to dinner with them on a regular basis. It is just so funny.

Like any true book nut, the characters are alive to her. I have gotten used to hearing things like "Mom! Do you know what Nancy just did?" I don't even stop to ask who Nancy is any more. :) [I was a little slow to catch on at first and became bewildered by questions like this....racking my brain to think who in the world we knew that she would call Nancy....]

I am amazed and gratified by this child's insatiable desire to read. I love seeing her with her nose buried in some book or other. Of all the joys of my life, this is one of the ones I most wanted to pass on to my children - I'm so glad we've succeeded, at least with #1 so far.

Mamas Don't Get Sick Days.

What a wild and crazy week we've had!


I already posted about how we ended up with two foster dogs and then just one at the beginning of the week. Well, we enjoyed working with little Jackson and trying to teach him house manners. He's a sweet boy who went back to the vet Friday so he could go to the adoption sites this weekend. We are praying for him to get a really great, special family that will enjoy him and treat him well.

On Tuesday my Mother in Law came over to play with the kids and took us all to Mellow Mushroom for dinner - YUM! We are so happy - MIL's scans came back showing that she is *completely* cancer free after 10 months of chemotherapy! This time last year she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma and her prognosis was not hopeful. Now, one year later, she has been through a harrowing, very high dose of chemo for 10 months, but she is now cancer free! God is SO Good - Praise His Holy Name!!

Wednesday the kids had a chance to earn more money for Everything For A Family With Nothing. We had "Mother's Morning Out" and they had some kids over to entertain and babysit. It was really fun. Above, you can see Monkey1 doing what she does best - bury her nose in a book! :) She really enjoyed getting to sit and read with her friend.

Poor Monkey2 got kicked in the face on the trampoline by accident and got a black eye. It doesn't look as dramatic in the photo I have here, but it was actually quite scary looking for a while. It also burst vessels in his eye and he had a red eyeball for a couple of days too.

My 2yo caught a cold somewhere and was so cranky for the second half of the week. She was really pitiful, and really not sleeping. [And doesn't that just make the week soooo much longer when you get no sleep? Because when she's not sleeping, I'm not sleeping! LOL!].

I was coordinating meals for a mom in our homeschool group this week. It turned out to be a lot crazier than I expected getting people lined up [thank goodness for a couple of steadfast souls who volunteered and followed through!]. I also cooked for her myself.

I was also making calls to do reference checks for potential adopters for the GSDRGA. I enjoy making the calls and its neat to know I'm helping a dog find a great home.

We had our Girls and Boys Saints Club this week too - it is going so well. This was our third meeting and I had us learning about the virtue of Charity this week, and about St. Aloysius Gonzaga and St. Angela Merici - two really wonderful, charitable Saints. And did you know that the actual definition of Charity is love for God and love for our fellow human beings? I learned that Charity calls us to love others as ourselves all for the Glory of God. Cool. :)

Then, to top off my truly hectic week, I had to teach a weekend Lamaze class on Friday and Saturday. These classes are great because I make a lot of money to teach them [always really helpful LOL!] But they are SO exhausting to teach. I teach 3 hours Friday night and then 9 hours on Saturday ... yikes! It crams an entire 12 hour Lamaze series [usually done over 5 weeks] into a day and a half. The classes are very popular though - many couples just don't want to be bothered with having to come back for 5 weeks in a row any more.

The thing that was really bad is that I caught my daughter's cold. I woke up Friday sniffling with a sore throat, worked that night, and then woke up Saturday with a severely sore throat, running nose, and total body ache. Ugh - and then I had to teach for 9 hours straight. I was worried about making the couples in my class sick, so I tried to keep my distance, but I can't "call in sick" in my job - there isn't anyone who can just fill in for me. If I could have called in sick I would have because I felt truly miserable. But, my class turned out to be full of really REALLY nice couples and we had a great time - I love it when class turns out like that!

Today I woke up sicker than ever. The baby has caught the cold too, and isn't sleeping as well. Today I'm so sick and sore that I feel like I can barely move. For some reason, this was a cue to my husband to sleep in for several hours and make me get up with the kids ... how does that happen?!!! LOL!

It was a long, hectic week, but a fun one full of blessings, so no complaints here!

This is How People Become "The Crazy Dog Lady"

This is Jackson [from Homeless Pets] and Monkey2 and Monkey3. Isn't he cute?!


This is our dog, Sage [in front] and Sheldon, a foster Collie from St. Francis Rescue, where we got Sage.

Yesterday I ended up with TWO foster dogs, but today I only have one!

I signed up to foster with Homeless Pets and went in yesterday morning to pick up a dog to foster. We got a cute little black lab/spaniel/chow mix named "Jackson". He is 10 months old and a total spaz, but really playful and sweet.

But the funny thing was that I got a desperate email from the lady who runs the collie rescue where we got Sage asking if I could foster - I had just spoken to her last week about fostering and she had no dogs that needed fostering. Then she got FIVE collies over the weekend! Which is the nature of Rescue work.

So she wanted me to foster a collie that she's had for a week so she could take in two that are pretty sick and need intensive care to get them back to adoptable good health. So... I said yes and yesterday afternoon we went to pick Sheldon up.

We got him home and he seemed fine - seemed to like Sage and had OK house manners. He was sweet with the kids and with the adults. Then out of the blue he jumped all over the little lab mix we are fostering. I thought "Hmmmm.... must be male to male aggression" so I separated them. A few minutes later he *attacked* Sage - I mean like jumped her, threw her to the ground and was growling, snarling, and biting the heck out of her!

I put him in a crate. Later I was trying to let him out to go potty and the lab mix got away from me and ran up to him and he attacked the little lab mix - and those two were going at it because the lab mix was fighting back [unlike my meek little Sage] - it took me & Pete a full 2 minutes to get them to stop - I was afraid one of them was going to be dead before I could get them to stop! Everyone was OK - the lab mix was just really slobbery where he kept getting bit, but no skin was broken. [We've been calling him "scrappy" since then because he is completely fearless and has such spunk! He is 35 lbs -about half the size of the collie and he went toe to toe with him! LOL!]

So, I took the collie back this morning and now I just have the little lab. It was really weird, because collies are almost never aggressive. :(

Then, the German Shepherd Dog Rescue of GA lady emailed and wanted to do my home visit tonight. We plan to foster with them because we sincerely do want to foster a few shepherds before we adopt. So she came tonight and did the home check.

It turns out I really like her and we hit it off pretty well. She said she was "really impressed" - with the kids and how well behaved they were, with how great our house is, and with how well I was doing with Sage and the lab foster. So, I'm an "approved" foster for them. [WOOHOO!]

It may be a while before we get a foster dog with them though, because we are looking to foster only older, settled dogs who are of a known good temperament and good with kids and dogs. She said they get about 100 contacts every week about available shepherds though, so who knows how soon it may happen.

In the meantime, I really like fostering with "Homeless Pets". It is neat how they do it. You pick a dog up on Monday morning from the vet office and provide it with a safe place to stay for the week and some training if you can [we taught our little guy how to walk on a leash and sit today - he's very bright!].

Then on Friday you bring them back to the vet office. On Saturday and Sunday the dogs go to different PetSmart adoption sites and hopefully get adopted. If they don't, then you can call on Monday and if they still have that dog you can come get it and keep it for another week if you want - but there is no obligation. [so if you get the foster dog from hell, you don't have to keep it forever!].

I like that because it is a really easy, short term commitment and their dogs really do need the help. They usually come from shelters where they've been living for months and they aren't house trained, obedience trained, leash trained or anything. AND, if they don't have a foster volunteer, the dog lives in a cage at the vet's office and only gets out for 2 or 3 10 minute breaks a day! So it really is an opportunity to make a big difference in the dog's life - both in training it to help it be more adoptable and in just the day to day existence of not having to live in a cage.

So, that's our "Adventure in Fostering" for this week!

That's Why God Makes Them So Cute....

....So we don't kill them! LOL!


The other day I was in the bathroom getting a shower. The baby was in the bouncy seat and Monkey4, the 2yo, was playing in the bathroom while I did my hair, etc. Something happened to upset Monkey3, the 4yo, and I went across the hall to sit down and hold her for a minute to calm her down. Not even 3 minutes later, we hear Monkey4 laughing. Monkey3 says "Mama, what's making her laugh?" and I said "I don't know, but we better go see!".

We walk in to the bathroom just in time to see Monkey4 walking away from the toilet with her daddy's deodorant in one hand and a streaming wet washcloth in the other.


I, of course, freak out! "YOU DON'T PLAY IN THE TOILET WATER! YUCK! NO!!!". I scoop up Monkey4 and put her right in the tub, strip her, and run a bath and start washing her. [That's her in the picture being washed just after the toilet water incident].

Then I turn around... and notice that all the walls of the bathroom are sopping wet - she's obviously been washing the walls with toilet water. [Her new obsession is trying to clean up all the crayon & ink she's written with all over our walls in various places!]

Then I realize my feet are squishing....because the carpet is SOAKED.

Then I see the baby.

The baby is sitting in the bouncy seat literally soaked - I mean *dripping* from her head to her feet. Monkey4 has obviously very tenderly cleaned her entire baby sister with this toilet water and wash cloth. The baby is soaked, her clothes are soaked, and the bouncy seat is soaked.

I go to pick the baby up only to realize that her entire head has been lovely and completely coated with her father's deodorant.....

Which is how my baby came to smell like my husband's arm pit. LOL!

The ONLY saving grace in all of this is that I had JUST cleaned that toilet very thoroughly right before I jumped into the shower [which is a freak occurrence, let me tell you LOL!]. So, at least the toilet water was "clean" ... or as clean as toilet water can get I guess. ;)

The thing that was most amazing about all of this is the time constraint - how on EARTH did this 2yo manage ALL of that in under 3 minutes?!!!

Our Great Week!

We've had a great week! The monkeys have made great progress on their "Everything for a Family with Nothing" project. They've been working hard and also having fun!

On Saturday Monkey1 and Monkey2 went to the Eucharistic Congress with some dear friends of ours. They were gone all day and had SUCH a fun time! I was so happy they got to go. I wanted to go, but did not think I could manage an all day conference type thing with a 4 month old, 2 year old, and 4 year old. Maybe next year... I dearly hope!


Monkey3 was really sad that she did not get to go to the Eucharistic Congress. [She needed to be 5 to do the Kids Program]. But she had a GREAT day at home with mom and dad none-the-less! She got to be the "big sister" for a change and had so much fun!

Our day started with a trip to the vet to get Sage microchipped. Monkey3 and I took her and Sage was SO scared - she was trembling from head to foot. But when the vet came in and talked to her she calmed right down, she was so happy to have a new person talking to her she got excited about that and forgot to be scared! She didn't even mind the needle when they microchipped her because the vet was talking to her while she did it [and that needle was HUGE!].


After the vet we came home and got daddy and the little girls and went to Home Depot where I finally spent my gift certificate I got for Christmas. We bought a weedeater [just what I always wanted LOL!] and a whole bunch of flowers. I LOVE flowers and have always had gardens around our home.

Monkey3 and I came home and worked like crazy in the yard all afternoon [in the June heat - we must be crazy!] We cleaned up the old pansies that were long dead and planted tons of flowers/plants: marigolds, zinnias, vinca, sunflowers, tomatoes and jalepeno peppers! It was lots of fun.

Monkey3 is the hardest working child I have ever seen. She LOVES to help and works like you would not believe. In the picture above you can see her opening a bag of pine bark mulch. She drug those huge bags over to the flower beds for me [no kidding, I think they weigh more than she does!]. And then she got them open while I spread the mulch. She also did a significant portion of the planting AND the cleanup!

My husband was watching her and he said "You know, if I had 4 Monkey3s, 4 rifles, and 4 parachutes, I could take over any country in the world. " I agreed with him! LOL!


Here is Monkey3 beside the sunflowers she planted.


Here is Monkey3 beside all the flowers we planted in our Mary Garden.

Not only does she work hard, but she's strong as an ox. Later in the day we went to Publix to buy groceries, and one of her favorite things is to bring in groceries and she will carry the heaviest things!

My husband calls her "the ant" because she can lift more than her own body weight!


On Sunday we all went to my moms house to throw a surprise party for my brother's girlfriend. She is one of the sweetest people I know, and it was so fun to surprise her with a party! We all had so much fun!

This week has been Vacation Bible School at our Church and they are doing a really neat VBS on the Saints - my two older kids have been doing that all week and having a total blast! [Poor Monkey3, again, she's just a little too young - she had to be 5 to do VBS! She was so disappointed!].

So, life has been so good lately! Praise the Lord!

I LOVE My Neighborhood!!!

Wow. We knew we loved our neighborhood, but last night really brought home to me just how great it is!

We live in a small city that is a suburb of Atlanta - we are 30 minutes from downtown yet our city has maintained that lovely "small town" feel. We bought a house in this subdivision almost 2 years ago, and it has been the epitome of a sweet, friendly Southern neighborhood.

Last night at 6:30pm, a couple of the teenage girls from our neighborhood knocked on our door. They were asking if we had seen the little 4 year old girl who lived across the street - she was missing! She lives with her Grandma and Great Grandma and her Great Grandma was watching her and she wandered off.

We came out to help look. EVERY neighbor on our whole street came out to look! We were all searching for this child and trying to console the Grandma and Great Grandma. It was very scary. Everyone was so upset and so worried. But everyone was pulling together - it was amazing. The teenagers were on their bikes searching our neighborhood and the next one over, the elderly folks were checking everyone's back yard, the children were searching and calling for her - it was really just so awesome.

The first thing I asked my neighbor [who is the Grandma] was whether she had called 911 [the child had been missing for almost an hour and a half at that point]. She had not, so she ran in to call.

Within 5 minutes FIVE police cars pulled up and the officers raced out to talk to the Grandma and start the search. Within 20 minutes there was a Fire Truck with the Fire Rescue workers and Paramedics to help search. Within half an hour they had the Sherriff and a K-9 unit on the scene - it was absolutely amazing.

We found the child an hour and a half later [3 hours missing], when she walked out of my next door neighbor's house. My neighbors weren't home and the child had let herself into their fenced back yard, discovered their back door wasn't locked, and had been playing inside for the last 3 hours! She came out wearing their daughter's clothing! [Nobody thought to look INSIDE the home of people who weren't home! LOL!]

So, it had a happy ending [Praise the Lord and St. Anthony!!!].

I learned that I am SO grateful to be part of this neighborhood, to have such caring, concerned, SWEET neighbors, and to have such excellent emergency response personnel.

I pray to Jesus that no child of mine ever goes missing, but if they do, I'm glad I live where I live.