Taken Hostage

Chloe and I in 1996 right around the time of the hostage incident!

Life with my husband has never been boring. From the day that I met him I can honestly say life has been one adventure after another. We have stories to tell. Hence comes the story of when my daughter and I were taken hostage and he came to our rescue.

I learned very quickly that Chris was voraciously protective of me to a fault. He took it very seriously that he was the man of the house and responsible for our happiness, well being and safety. This was a blessing for me as he made sure life was an absolute joy, but there have been some glitches along the way.

We were living in Waco Texas, had a beautiful brand new home, and a sweet little daughter who was the light of our lives. One evening Chris had to run to Kinkos. It was about 10:30pm and Chloe had been safely tucked into bed with stories, prayers and kisses several hours before. She was sound asleep and I was in bed reading. He had been gone only about 30 min when I heard something...............

I immediately ran to Chloe's room and was horrified to find her throwing up everywhere. It was the WORST...and I have seen many. It was projectile and the crib, the carpet, basically the whole room was covered. I grabbed her and took her to the bathroom, let her finish that round of vomiting and put her in the tub. I kept thinking "I wish Chris were here to help" I was flustered, as new Mom's sometimes are. Heck, now I am a pro at all things vomit, poo and stink but back then I was just starting to grasp how much of this stinky stuff I was going to have to deal with over the next many years and I wasn't liking it.

I bathed her and began to clean, praying the whole time that he would quickly return. Suddenly I heard the garage door open...."Thank heaven, he is here and can help" I kept cleaning but 5 min passed, then 10 and he never came in. This was bugging me as I wanted help, so I picked up Chloe and went to the back door to see what was going on. I opened the door and saw...............

Him sitting in his car going through papers. He was so engrossed I couldn't get his attention so I flicked the light switch on and off three or four times to get him to look at me. At that exact second Chloe started projectile vomiting again, I jerked back trying to avoid getting covered..........Chris looked up at that moment and our eyes met and I tried to give him the most urgent look I could....A look that said, "Get in here now and help me". I shut the door and ran for the bathroom as she barfed all the way down the hall and all over me. "He had better get in here NOW and help me!" I thought.

Anger does not begin to explain how mad I was when I heard the garage door open again and it sounded like he was leaving. He never came in. As soon as I could I went back to the door and looked out to see the garage empty....."HE LEFT ME". I went back to my work fuming that I was doing it all alone. The whole house smelled like puke and the amount of work it was going to take to get it all cleaned up was massive. She continued to throw up 2 or 3 more times. In think in total she thew up more than I could believe that little 1 year old body of hers could hold. When suddenly I heard a very loud noise.............................

At the door. It was a loud banging, so loud I was shocked, it scared me to death. I would call it more like someone was pounding with all their might at the door. It sounded desperate. I ran to the door, I was shaking, "who would be banging so loud at my door at midnight?" I opened it very carefully, just barely peeking out and almost died when I saw.........................

A police officer standing there with gun drawn, Chris standing behind him. My head started spinning. "Mam, we have the house surrounded" he said. I was in a state of absolute confusion. "What!!" I asked in horror. "Mam we are aware that there is a hostage situation here and we have the house surrounded." "A HOSTAGE SITUATION, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?", I say. Then Chris peeks out from behind him looking very serious and mouths to me. "if someone has a gun to you and you can't talk give me a sign." What the HECK???? I was aghast.

I suddenly realize that this is no joke, I peek out a little further and see 5 police cars with lights on in front of my house as well as all the neighbors in their pajamas looking horrified about the situation. They all really think I am being held hostage!!

I calmly try to convince the officer that I am fine.....he doesn't believe me and thinks that I am being coerced by some man hiding in my house who has threatened me. He demands to search the house. "Sure, Come on in to my stinky barfed up house!"

They spend a good 15-20 min doing a thorough search of the house while I try to find out from Chris what the heck is going on!

Chris's perspective

So This is how Chris sees the story. He leaves Chloe and I, healthy, happy and tucked into bed. He returns, pulls into the garage but stays there because he had to go through some of the papers he had just picked up. Suddenly the lights begin flashing, He looks up and sees me jerk violently then look at him with the most earnest pleading look he has ever seen then the door slams shut. He says at that moment his brain tried to process what could have possibly caused me to signal him with a frantic flashing of the lights. The most distressing thing was the haunting look of desperation I gave him before the door slammed shut. He knew I was in trouble.

He immediately called 911 and told them that his wife was being held against her will by an intruder. How he took that huge mental leap and came to a clear conclusion that I was being held? I will never know. He then told them that he was going back into the house to help me, but they said "absolutely not, you will put your wife and child in danger, get away from the house, stay on the phone with us, we have a team on their way. "

Hence the whole, guns drawn, house surrounded, hostage situation!!

We laugh at this story often and to this day he defends his actions. I just laugh until I cry every time I think about it. I was horrified at the time though!

The ever protective Dad!