Transitions: Shattered Windows...

Shattered glass from

inside the Pilot.

© April 2017

 The year 2017 brought joy, accomplishments, then suddenly hit our lives with shattered windows and total losses. The year 2017 turned out to be the year of natural and personal storms.


Life Rewind

Back passenger window.
© April 2017

Shattered. It's how you feel when things or events are out of your control. Then the fear starts to set in, because you can't control the unknown. So this life rewind starts with a beautiful Sunday spring day. My family and I had taken advantage of the spring weather by taking a drive around the city. After our events around the city, it was time to head home to prepare dinner and get ready for the new week. In my last posting, I introduced an infamous stretch of road called the Suitland Parkway. This four lane roadway (two lanes in each direction) was the choice route to get home this particular day. 

Then the unexpected happened as soon as we went past the merge into 
traffic lane. Shattered. The right back passenger window where my teen 
was sitting had shattered. What the _____ just happened? You can fill in 
the blank. Any and every curse word came to mind, but I had to remain calm for the sake of the children. We were half a mile from our exit off 
the parkway, and thank goodness my husband was driving. You can 
imagine the look of fear on my girls faces, especially the youngest who 
was ten at the time.

Once we pulled into our back driveway, my teen carefully maneuvered
herself out of the car. She was okay, but had a couple of scratches on her

Living room window.
© October 2017

leg. After getting in the house, the next step was calling the police. I began taking photos for documentation, and called our insurance company. There was so much glass from this window. The police arrived, asked questions, took pictures, and handed us the card with the report number. Conclusion. The shattered glass was probably from some idiot shooting a b b gun. My daughter thought for a split second that she had seen someone atop the hillside, but the event happened so fast. Unfortunately, we will never know for sure. 

Shattered again. For a moment, I was beginning to feel like we should be 
paying attention to the signs. I just don't know what the signs were. It 
would be about five months later when the shattering of a window occurred again. Right below this window is the "couch of rest." There is something magical about this couch, for you are bound to fall asleep on it when sitting for a period of time. So when my youngest daughter wanted to sleep on the couch one night, my husband and I didn't have an issue with it. That night would be the last night she would sleep on this couch below the window. A call to the police, they arrive, ask questions, take pictures, and hand us the card with the report number. This would be a repeat of what happened a few months earlier. Again we will never know what happened for sure.


Now Press Forward

"May God and the Angels watch over you as you sleep through the night." -Kaisha

This is how we start off our prayers when I'm tucking in my youngest to bed at night. It would be these fourteen words and Faith that helped my daughter that particular night. The next morning my husband had come downstairs to wake up our daughter to start the school and work day. All I can say is that it was a miracle our daughter wasn't physically hurt by the shattered pieces of glass on the couch  where she had slept. It was only God and the Angels protecting her, for she literally slept through the night. Praise God!

Although she was not physically hurt, it was a difficult day at school for our daughter. Her teacher would tell me it was an emotional day, for our daughter had recalled and shared the event. Internally I cried while hugging my daughter after that school day. I would be paralyzed by fear. I kept questioning why these events happened. Was this a sign that we should be living elsewhere?This is one of the personal storms that was happening in 2017. There would be another storm event that happened in between those fives months, which lead to a total loss. I will be writing about that event in another transition post.

The fear for my family's safety has since kept me up at night from time to time throughout 2017 and this year. Any parent would have this feeling, especially when your children are involved. If we could only rewind back to that Sunday drive home, for maybe we could have taking the other route home. Maybe this is why my teenager occasionally asks us to take the other route home (we do when we don't want to sit in traffic), but I've never asked her. Even though the windows are fixed, it hasn't been easy transitioning from fear to faith. It took about a day for the car window to be fixed thanks to Safelite Repair. It would take a couple of months for the living room window replacement, because of the process of replacing home windows. You can replace windows, but you can't replace your loved ones. With that said, I am pressing forward by keeping my Faith in God, for he hasn't forsaken me. The power of prayer works. I have extended the prayer to include keeping the neighbors around us safe as well, and I have always included immediate, extended family, and friends near and far.

This personal storm doesn't compare to the natural storms of hurricanes that were happening during this time last year. I found myself praying even more for my family members and friends who were in the path of the storms. I thank God for enabling a family member to stay with us for an extended time beyond what was to be a two week visit. I thank God that there wasn't damage to the family home. It's the power of prayer and having faith that lets you know everything is going to be all right. 

Peace, Blessings, and Love

Kaisha

Blog post written by Kaisha S. Goring
Photos courtesy of Kaisha S. Goring
© August 8, 2018
All Rights Reserved.