We are all here today.... thanks to the stars....

Do I believe there is a higher power out there? Yes.

Why do I believe there is a higher power out there? Let me tell you a story...

Last night, John and I left to play volleyball around 6. We left the boys with our regular babysitter, who is amazing. She's excellent with children, bright, responsible, over the age of 21, all things that I really like to have when it comes to sitters. Its was our last volleyball night until next season so there was a tournament and a pot luck. We didn't play until 7:30 and we planned on being there til at least 11:00.

But it rained. No, actually it was more like a monsoon. Either way, it did it about 10 minutes before we were supposed to play... and the game was called. We kinda figured that it was only called until the rain let up, but the ref actually called it for the entire night. What!?! Well all right then, guess we'll head home.

We pull in just a smidgen past 8:00, and as soon as we open the back door, we were immediately hit with the smell of gas. IMMEDIATELY. John looked over and the stove was on. He rushed over to turn it off and started opening all the windows. The smell was all through the whole house.... into the living room and upstairs in all the bedrooms...

The babysitter had no clue. How would she though? We get accustomed to an odor in minutes... unless she would have went outside for a bit and came back in, she NEVER would have smelled it! We don't know how it came on neither... last time they were in the kitchen was around 7:00. So the gas had been running for an hour. We weren't mad at her though... shit, it could happen to me or John just as easily.

It all happened so fast that I didn't even really think about it too much.... until today.

WHOA.

My children could have died. DIED. Go ahead, do some Internet searches... Yeah, they could have died last night.

But they didn't. And there is no way I can sit here and say, "Man, we were LUCKY."

I'm sorry, but there has to be a higher power controlling things out there because that was more then just luck.

If we would have stayed and played, even stayed and played in the rain, we wouldn't have been home until maybe it was too late. If the ref would have called it for only a half hour and then went back to playing like we NORMALLY do, it would have been too late.

But it rained. And for some reason, he called the games for the night. And instead of hanging out and having some beers with friends, we came home. And we got home before it was too late.

That's not just luck folks. I honestly believe in my heart of hearts that there was something or someone who aligned the stars just right and my children are all still with me when I woke up this morning. I don't care who or what anyone out there believes in for themselves.... God, The Universe, Yahweh, Allah, Mother Earth, Guardian Angels... I believe that there is something that helped us out last night.

This could have been us:

Survivors had no warning of natural gas leaks

But it's not. And I am immensely grateful to whomever or whatever helped guide us last night.