Nov. 20th, 2004: Things we didn't notice; the trees don't have any leaves and the missing car

Today, was the first time that I ventured out of the house since Nov. 4th. Well, it's 14 days later and I am shocked to see that all the colorful Fall leaves were lying on the ground and the trees were skeletons of there former glory. I felt colder seeing the bare branches on the trees as Doug drove us to the pediatrician's office for our well-baby appointment. My mood was dampened by the fact that I felt so weak from being severely anemic and recovering from childbirth.

For his part, Doug has nursed me to health for two weeks taking care of all my needs and taking care of Finnegan too. Doug has prepared all of my meals, given me my vitamins, helping get to the bathroom and gave me my pain pills. Then he cared for the baby, did all the laundry, cleaned the house and did everything possible to ease my pain and to help me feed the baby without getting out of bed. My recovery has been compounded by the fact that I am severely anemic and very very week. Doug is so very tired, but he loves Finnegan so much that he would do more if he had to. I am so lucky that Doug is willing to do so much to take care of us, that sometimes I just cry because I am so grateful. Everytime I look at Finnegan's beautiful face, I think of all the prayers we said asking God to bless us with a child and now four years later, we have our little boy. It might be the hormones, but my tears are from being thankful for the love we have for one another and for Finnegan.

Yesterday, Doug discovered that his truck was missing from in front of our house. He was really upset because he thought that one of our neighbors had it towed away because he left it there for four days. He was too busy taking care of us to go and unpack the photography equipment and tools that he had picked up from the old house that we just sold. I suggested that we contact the neighbors, the police and the towing company. Doug put a note on the neighbor's door and I made some phone calls. The police and towing company didn't have any record of our car being towed and that's when I told Doug to file a stolen vehicle report. An hour later, the report was filed and Doug was talking to the insurance company. I felt really bad for Doug because he worked so hard taking care of us and his reward was having his truck stolen and all of the equipment in it. Doug felt bad because he kept thinking that he should have unpacked the truck and my equipment would still be here, but I'm just too tired to be upset about it. It will cost more than $4000 to replace everything, but it is replaceable and we weren't physically hurt by the theft.

When we were at the Pediatrician's office Doug received a call from the Auburn Police Department informing him that his truck had been abandoned in Auburn and that an officer would be there for the next hour if we could come and claim the truck. We finished our appointment and drove 35 miles south to get the truck. When we arrived Doug inspected the car and everything was missing, the stereo & speakers, spare tire, all of my equipment and it was filled with Taco Bell wrappers and a blanket from Stadium High School. The truck was not drivable and I could not drive my car because I'm not strong enough yet to do so. After an hour a tow truck arrived and loaded up Doug's truck and drove away. During our wait the police officer informed us that Jeep Cherokees are amongst the top ten vehicles stolen in the state of Washington and there isn't anything much that can be done to the kids who steal the cars. The kids are under the age of 18 and stealing cars is a misdemeanor with light punishment of juvenile detention and their records are sealed once they become adults. The people who lose are the owners because our insurance rates go up, we have to repair the vehicles or get another one and our sense of security is shattered. It's just not fair and there's not much hope of changing things anytime soon.

On the the drive home we talked about getting an alarm system for the house and the new car and fixing the front doorbell. The main thing we are concerned about is our personal safety in our own home to protect Finnegan, the dogs and ourselves. It's too bad that we have to be subjected to crime when we have a newborn, but at least our happiness and sleep deprivation has kept us from getting too worked up about the whole thing. Despite the loss we are just too happy being a family to let it get us down.