The world knows what happened in Paris yesterday. I’d like to tell you our story…

We woke up yesterday with a list of things to do. We were excited. As the day progressed and things weren’t moving along, we decided to stay in and catch up on our rest. I’ll admit that I was a little bummed.

For dinner, we walked to a Vietnamese restaurant closeby. Brandon and I have been craving pho for weeks. It was closed. I was bummed again and we decided to just head back home. We stopped and got McDonald’s for the kids on our way. (I know. McDonald’s in Paris. A shame.)

A couple hours later, we tucked the kids into bed and started watching our shows. We heard sirens outside, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. 

Then, I got a Facebook message from my sister asking if I was okay and that there have been shootings across Paris. Brandon and I checked the news and were stunned into silence as we read what was happening. We both got emergency notifications on our Facebook accounts that read “Are you okay? It appears you are in an area that has recently experienced a terror attack.” When you click on it, you can select that you are okay and it will post it for your friends. You can also see if you have any other friends in the area and whether or not they selected that they were okay. I think that’s when it became real. WE were involved in this. We spent the next 2-3 hours staring at our phones getting the newest updates. 

I was full of emotions. My heart was racing and my body was tense. It was like I was bracing myself just in case another attack was to happen just right outside our apartment.

I kept imagining an escape plan if something was to happen. The thought made me sick and always brought me into the bedroom where my kids were sleeping. I would kiss them and thank my Heavenly Father for keeping us safe and pleading to remain safe. 

My heart shattered thinking of all those hostages being held just a few miles down the road. I was sitting safely in my apartment while there were innocent people living their worst nightmare. A part of me felt guilty. 

As the death count went up, so did my sincere grief for Paris. After a couple hours of not hearing sirens, we assumed the worst was done. By this time, the streets were eerily quiet and empty. A mandatory curfew was put in place all across Paris. (The last time this had been done was in 1944, during WWII, when the Nazis were occupying Paris.)

As you can imagine, it was still hard to sleep all night. After reassuring my friends and family that we were safe, I finally got to sleep around 5am. 

The night will never be forgotten and Paris now holds a special place in my heart. For one night, we weren’t Americans and they weren’t Parisians. We were united as targets and we shared feelings of fear, grief, and anger. 

I was overwhelmed by all the caring messages from friends and family. I’m so thankful that our original plans fell through and we returned home when we did. I know we were being watched over and protected. Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. I hope we can continue to pray for the victim’s families as they are now forced to live without their loved ones. Tragic.