Paradise Lost

It's been raining here today... fitting I think as the last few hours have been pretty miserable. Last night while we were sleeping someone broke into our apartment. He cut the screen on the window in the kitchen (we've been leaving the windows open at night to allow the cool air inside, thinking that being on the second floor and surrounded by dogs made us pretty safe). He came in through the kitchen and left through our front door which Kris noticed was unlocked this morning. He stole both our laptops, Kris' big digital camera, my small digital camera, my kindle, Kris' ipod, our Belizean cell phone, our video camera, and Kris' crocs flip flops. He also took Kris' wallet which had about $50US in it but he removed all of the cards including Kris' driver's license and ATM cards and left them in a neat stack on the kitchen table.

We met with the police here at the apartment this morning along with our landlady Ruth. She said that their gate was left unlocked last night (which rarely happens) and that the person must have walked right past their windows and up the stairs because there's no other way to gain access to the upstairs. Also their dog who normally would have been sleeping near the windows had slept in their room last night. Kris said he heard a couple clicking noises during the night and even got up to use the restroom, but didn't see anything amiss in the dark. Thankfully none of us were harmed at all. But we figure that we lost about $3500 worth of electronics!!

We can still be thankful though because he left us the ATM cards, if he would have taken those we would have had to deal with our bank and freeze our accounts leaving us with no money at all until we could have arranged a wire transfer. Also he didn't take our dvd player or Kris' Android phone, Kris' kindle, two other camera lenses, our movies, or Kris keyboard, mouse, and 22' monitor- all of which were in the same area as the laptops. Kris installed a program on his laptop that when the laptop is turned on will use the webcam to take a pictures of the person and then will send us the picture and gps coordinates using a wireless connection. So far the computer hasn't been turned on.. but we're hoping that we might be able to relocate the computer that way... as long as the computer isn't just torn apart for its parts. My computer had all the pictures from this vacation on it, so with the exception of those on this blog, they are gone.

We'll certainly be locking all windows and doors tonight (and every night hereafter)... but we are so grateful for our lives... and to have our passports, atm cards and our car so that getting home should be easy. We're not sure what our plan will be. With Hurricane Rita off the coast, we'll be staying put for the next few days until she moves on. While we don't want to sacrifice our vacation, it's hard to justify spending money on touristy stuff considering the staggering financial loss we suffered today. Without a computer we can't work so it doesn't make sense to stay much longer. We could buy a computer here but it wouldn't be a very good one and it would cost much more (plus then we'd just have to buy a better one when we got home).
The reason I can even post about this and ask for your prayers is because our fantastic landlord lent us his laptop so we can monitor the laptop software and change all our passwords.

We do appreciate your prayers for peace and wisdom..and that you'll be praying for whoever did this... for repentance and that they might come to know the Lord... for the police as they try to find our stuff. We're praying against bitterness which is easy to succumb to after feeling so violated.  We know that "All things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28) and that He uses even these trials to refine us into the image of His Son, Jesus.  We are grateful beyond expression that our Lord hears us and knows our situation, and that He will supply our every need.