BOOM

Oh MY!!!! What a week!  For those of you who don't know last week we noticed that over three thousand dollars was missing from our bank account.  I had just paid the bills- minus the mortgage and everything was waiting to come out and then BOOM our account drops to $200.  Two huge purchases were made online.  The next day we notice that all of our emails from one of our email accounts were being forwarded to someone else and in the trash their receipts for three purchases totally over five thousand dollars.

Things continued to get worse as all of our email accounts were somehow hacked into.  I am now getting fake emails from all of my good friends and they even set up a fake email address using Sam's dad's name.... They changed the address in our Amazon account, the fraud alert number in our PayPal account, got into our laptop and phone via our icloud account.... Between a wedding day, Sam's  schedule, and church we couldn't keep up. 

I do have to say that I am proud of ourselves.  Our twenty something butts would have been playing the "Why me?"  "This is so unfair." card 'till the cows went home.  At a much more weathered 30-something I viewed the situation differently- this is life- this is how it goes... if it's not a stolen identity it's a moldy broken freezer (next on my list to deal with), a van door that falls off on to you when you open it (still need to fix that too), or some other obnoxious or devastating trial.  Life is not fair, it's hard!  I was proud that we held it together but SUPER ticked off that our time was stolen from us.

Did I mention this all happened on the day our studio manager of three years had her last day of work with us?  Ok, maybe I want a little sympathy for that bad timing- she was like my second brain, arms, hands.....

I must admit that this type of thing can make a trusting open person turn super duper paranoid quickly.  I have been afraid to post anything on this blog or FB since.  I know this might seem too "spiritual" for some but I feel like this whole ordeal was a spiritual attack.  Just when we had almost raised all the money we needed for the adoption and received the last matching grant- BAM our money gets stolen and everything flips upside down- not to mention it has made me question being so vulnerable in such a exposed arena.

We are now on the mend- there is still a lot to do/un-do but we are trying not to obsess and freak out.  Above all I am SO thankful that my identity can never truly be stolen.  My identity is found only in Jesus Christ.  I am a follower of Christ and a child of God.  That can never be stolen from me.

****I want to assure those who have given or plan on giving that none of the money donated was touched and that all donations are now being sent through Lifesong for Orphans anyway. 
P.S.  Change your passwords!!!!  Lock your wifi!!!!!!  Never work at Starbucks on a laptop!!!!!