last night, our family experienced something i never thought we would. praying we never will again. The Lord, in His good grace protected us.
let me start from the beginning. i will make this short since all the little details probably won't matter anyways but since i write this blog for my children and a journal for me, i must try to articulate my feelings right now, for fear that i may forget the significance of this experience. (dang, big ol run-on sentence there).
any who, those who know me, know that i tend to be a
well this year, since we had passes to the motocross, Saturday would be my ONE day to go. i went with a good attitude. (yes i did Kathy!). we met up with the cousins and spent a few hours rambling about the fairgrounds. since it was stinkin' hot (84 degrees but i'm NOT complaining), we made our way to the grandstands to sit in the shade and watch the guys excavate the 'field', getting ready for the evening show. meanwhile, the adults (rye, myself, Tim and Lisa) decided we would save the 75 bucks and skip buying dinner there. sounds reasonable since Little Ceasers was right around the corner, right? so back to t&l's for dinner, then back to the fairgrounds for the motocross at 7ish. useless details to the story but again, i say, this is a journal for our family so i'm writing....
any who....
the show was awesome. since the WRS had done some work for the fair, as a company, we had 40 seats up on the stage, opposite of the grandstands.
so dang cool. very loud. very impressive.
after the show, since we were on the carnival side of the fairgrounds, we decided to take the shortcut (via the carnival) to the poffertjes booth. (owned by our very own sweet nephew, Brandon and his dear wifey, Greta) around 10:00 pm.
unfortunately, the way the evening ended we barley had time to really talk with the kids about the great fun that they had. feeling like we got a little jipped out by having the evening end the way it did.
we stopped. we chatted. we chatted. and chatted some more. children (my 3 + bo) were getting restless so they asked if they could head over to the little magic booth, right up the 'street'. "sure, just STAY together."
off they went.
we chatted some more.
then the unthinkable.
a gunshot.
than total and complete mayhem. really, felt like i was in a movie. people were screaming. folks dropped to the ground, grabbing their children, running into buildings. unfortunately, i had no children to grab.
rye yelled (in a kind, sorta panicked way) to keep the boys in the barn. (they had just been in the building that holds the Lego's, directly behind where we were standing.)
um, the kids aren't here.
(insert heart sinking feeling here)
without thinking, like any mother would do, i set out to find them. only in hindsight did i realize that i should have been a little more careful in WHERE i was walking (soon found out it was a crime scene!)
thankfully, i knew right where they were.
grabbed them and quickly whisked them away to safety. (which at that point, i had no idea what safety meant.)
out of the corner of my eye (and unfortunately for my children) i see a man laying on the ground, obviously he had just been shot. in hindsight, i should have walked around the back of the magic booth...my boys will forever have THAT memory engraved in their little heads. :(
was the gunman randomly shooting?
did they know who he was??
where should i be hiding with my kids?
where was my husband?
it's amazing how many thoughts can run thru your head in such a short amount of time.
meanwhile, cops and security officers had come from every direction so we decided that staying put for the time being. hiding behind a big, metal booth seemed the safest place to be.
close to an hour later we felt safe enough to venture out to our car, which was parked 3 blocks away at my brothers place. 3 long, dark, very scary city blocks. we later found out that it was ....
1- 15year old boy was apprehended.
3- people shot.
1 -person stabbed.
all within a few feet of where we were.
it was a terrifying night. a night i pray we never experience again and yet, it spurred conversations that may have never taken place between us and our children.
the topic of race.
what being racist means.
what bad choices can do to your life.
how choosing 'good' friends vs. 'bad' friends can make all the difference.
and regardless of the fact that we have been blessed to live in this sheltered little town, and it IS a safe little town for the most part, there is still much evil out there. we need to be aware.
even our safe little town has gangs. yup, gangs.
and yet, God is still good.
He is still in control. even in the events of the evening, He still has a purpose. word is it that some local youth pastors were some of the first ones on the scene. we're going to continue to pray that SOMETHING good is going to come out of that.
it was NOT an accident that they were there.
it wasn't a fluke.
it was not a coincidence.
i believe it was PROVIDENCE.
God knew.
please be in prayer with us that He will do good things out of this tragedy. pray that what the boys saw last night will be used for good. somehow, somewhere they will make sense of this.
pray that although this town will be forever changed, we can still be a town that is known for being a peaceful, Godly place to raise kids.
thank you for hearing me out. this was very therapeutic for me. really, it was. :)
