Saved by Good Neighbors

A few days ago I took the kids outside to play in the back of our house and we were out there having a great time for at least an hour. I finally said we needed to go in because it was getting late and I needed to start dinner. Nathan had a late meeting that night so at least I knew that I could cook a quickie meal and it would be acceptable. However, we went through the garage to get to our back door only to find that it was locked. I tried the front door and to my dismay realized that we had no way of getting into our house. We were completely locked out without any keys, money or food and it was starting to get dark.

Luckily, we have really good neighbors and I didn't flinch to bring myself and the kids to their home to seek help. They willingly let us in and let the kids play. They ended up saving us in several ways that night. Dallas Cecil has an unusual obsession with random things and is the kind of guy that loves to be prepared for anything that can happen. He was rather excited to hear that we were locked out because it gave him the opportunity to use his lock pick kit that he got for Christmas last year. He said he'd practiced on some padlock locks before, but never got to do a house lock. I went with him to try to break into our back door, while Christine watched the kids. After about half an hour he said I could go back to his house because he needed to do this "blind" (I had been holding the flashlight for him). He came back to his home a little later and said that he got it to turn but not to open. He thought that the lock must be broken and said that he'd like to try the front door, but would feel more comfortable doing so with me there.

We ate some pizza and grapes for dinner (so kind of them to order!) and then headed back home. It only took Dallas another 20 minutes to get into the front door (he is a complete novice and was able to open both locks, one being a dead-bolt that doesn't even work with a key). Dallas was overjoyed and his ego was definitely fed. I however, have lost a lot of my feelings of security in my own home. If it was that easy for a novice that bought some kit off of the internet, just about anyone could break into any house they wanted! Scary.

I am grateful that we have such kind Christian neighbors as the Cecils! The kids were super happy that night too and it seemed they couldn't have been happier with being locked out.