Life is nuts, isn't it?

Somehow Chappy and I find ourselves in the nuttiest situations:

When we adopted Natalie from Russia, we became stuck in Russia due to the Anthrax scare in America. The American embassy was shut down while we were there and our three day stay turned into a month-long visit in a foreign country with only one change of clothing and a backpack.

When we lived in Gallatin, we were in the middle of the tornado disaster that took out an entire row of homes less than half a mile from our house. We had no power for days and roads all around us were covered in trees and debris making travel tricky.

On a ski trip to New Hampshire, a surprise blizzard brought 18 inches of snow (on an already 100+ inch base) in a 12 hour period leaving snow drifts covering entire sides of homes and down hill skiing a near impossibility. Record below zero temperatures followed and we found out what the word "cold" really means.

Four years ago, a friend we hired to help us with our home while we carted Hopey back and forth, to and from the hospital, stole from us and even had a party in our house while we were on an overnight stay away from home----we lived on the Old Hickory Lake at the time, and the party was so large, our boat and house were left full of plastic cups and half eaten food was strewn everywhere. (we came back a few hours early from our trip---oops!) One pleasant guest even spit tobacco on one of our walls. Nice.

In a period of two years, we had 9 flat tires (somehow picking up any and every nail on Nashville roads).

Then we were involved in the emergency evacuation from the Opryland Hotel on Sunday when the record breaking floods came through Nashville.

The list goes on, and I am sure many of you have the same such stories that make you think "how in the world did I get into this mess?".

I can now add something new:

We have been remodeling our Master Bathroom and adding a bathroom for our girls over the last couple of months. We just discovered the painter seems to have stolen the kids' Wii games. The kids played the Wii on Sunday, April 25th......the painter came in the following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. No one else has been in our home. Over the weekend, the kiddos went to play the Wii, but the game cases were found empty.

What makes a person steal from another? This man had to know those games belonged to our children. Did he think we wouldn't notice the games were missing? What else did he take that we haven't noticed missing yet? Is there a chance he might have found personal information in our home to use to steal our identity? How do we handle this situation?

Uncertain times keep us on our toes and remind us of our need of the Savior. The Hollis family has so much to be thankful for, but still, we feel vulnerable and kind of violated. Our kids REALLY do, and as I go through my things, I am sure to feel their pain if I begin to find my things missing.

Oh, by the way, ask me if the painter our contractor hired is an illegal alien.....oh, and while on the subject, are you aware over 111,000 Mexicans became LEGAL United States Citizens in 2009? I wonder how many of them have attempted a crime since gaining citizenship? I would guess "zero".