Last night I was home alone with the kids while my husband visited my sister-in-law who was still in the hospital.

At 9pm I had tucked the kids both into bed and I sat down for a little "Mommy gets to watch what she wants to watch on TV for once" time.

I decided to watch a little DIY Network and catch up on some of my DVR shows. (HGTV, DIY, TLC . . .) :)

Me time!

I started my show, sat back and let myself relax.

CRASH!

SHATTER!

It sounded like a very large very heavy piece of furniture (like a huge china cabinet full of china) had collapsed and fallen on top of a large number of objects crushing and shattering everything.  The thoughts that were racing through my head . . . "What was that?!  Where was that?!  Did the ceiling cave in?  That sounded like it came from the kids bedroom!  Their shelf fell over?  The shelf isn't even up in their room.  A stack of boxes?  We didn't stack the boxes.  Did it come from the garage?"  All these thoughts flashed through my head in about .005 seconds.

Then I heard . . .

the WAIL!

My daughter's loud hurt cry .  The cry of terror.

As I raced to our room (the kid's beds are still in our room) all I could think was that the crib had collapsed or the window shattered or the ceiling caved in.  I just knew my baby girl was pinned under something trapped and hurt.  "God please let my babies be ok."

Then I realized there wasn't a peep from my son.

Heart pounding I tore open the door and ran into the room.

My daughter was standing in her (un-collapsed) crib crying.  I grabbed her up and started checking for injuries.  I couldn't locate any injuries so I started frantically scanning the room.  My son was still sleeping soundly in his bed. (The boy could sleep through anything and has frequently!)  I couldn't find anything in the room that looked out of place.  I asked my daughter, who was still crying and trembling head to toe, if she was ok.  She answered, "sound."  She was terrified.  I held her close and tried to calm her as I tried to calm myself.  "The babies are ok."  I said a silent prayer of thanks.  "What was that noise?"  Still clutching the Princess I walked out of our room into the kid's bedroom.

I could have sworn the sound came from in there.

I walked in the room and found nothing.  Again I could find nothing out of place.  The disturbing thought even occurred to me that maybe something had fallen, but because it was such a mess already, I couldn't even tell the difference.  "But it was so loud."

I checked the laundry room.  Nothing.  Totally puzzled I decided to check the bathroom, knowing I wouldn't find anything, because there was nothing in there that could have fallen.

Unless my nemesis the toilet had exploded letting the Pipe Gremlins loose or something . . .

I opened the bathroom door.

This is what I saw . . .

The Bathroom Mirror

The big mirror over the bathroom sink had fallen.  It just fell off the wall and shattered.

I promise all the other junk on the floor was knocked off the counter by the falling mirror.

It seems that much like all the other construction in this house, corners were cut during the installation of the mirrors.

The brackets that held the mirror on the wall were not secured to studs.  They were screwed directly into the drywall.

Bracket (on a different mirror)

Hole Left in the Wall

Now I know you are asking yourselves where the miracle comes in.  It sounds like bad news right?

Here it is.  Why did that mirror fall when it did?  I mean it was on that wall for 50 years.  It was never secured well.  It could have fallen at anytime.

Empty Wall Where Mirror Used to Hang

That bathroom is the master/guest/family/kids/everything/only main floor bathroom.

There is always someone in there.

The KIDS are always in there.

I have one potty trained and one potty training.  If one or the other is not on the potty, (actually even if one is) then they are washing their hands, splashing in the water/soap bubbles, brushing their teeth at the sink under the mirror or making silly faces in the mirror, or drying off after their daily (sometimes second, three today) bath, or sitting on the counter next to the mirror, having hair dealies put in their pretty hair (ok just my daughter on that one) etc.  The brushing teeth especially.  My kids love to brush their teeth!  They brush them 10 times a day at least.  Especially my daughter.  Anytime my son goes in the bathroom she seizes the opportunity to grab her toothbrush and toothpaste, bring it to me saying "teef," and skip happily back to the bathroom to brush.  I put up with it because, well really, am I going to discourage them from brushing their teeth?  I know not too much longer before I will be pulling teeth to get them to brush at all.

Anyway, they are always near that mirror.  It's not like they are all calm and sweet civilized children near the mirror either.  They are noisy, they throw stuff around, they turn the water on and off, they climb up on the counter, they are silly and crazy and loud and boisterous.  The kind of things that might create vibrations, rattle a mirror, convince a mirror, that has been on the wall for 50 years but was never really secured well enough, that now is the time to fall.  To fall right on the heads of my babies.  Babies who would fall right into the shards of broken glass, babies who would panic surrounded by shards of broken glass. *shudder*

The thought of what could have happened . . . honestly just makes me want to hurl . . . and cry.  What did happen instead, fills me with wonder and awe.

During the quietest part of the day.  Kids sleeping, dog sleeping on the opposite side of the house, TV on quietly, no talking, no laughing, no screaming, no crying, no barking, no loud boisterous kids shows, the bathroom itself totally empty . . .

That moment . . .

That still quiet moment . . .

The kind of quiet moment that never happens in this house . . .

The mirror decided to finally release it's hold on the wall and fell.  No one was injured.  We were able to clean all the pieces up (ok my husband cleaned up all the pieces) while the kids were sleeping and not in the way or in danger.  Not even an, "I have to go potty."

That is my miracle.

God is good.

Also did you notice the red dress hanging in the picture?  That's a bridesmaid dress for a friend's wedding.  There are a few little nicks in the plastic but the dress was unharmed.  I can't believe it wasn't shredded.

I never liked that mirror anyway.

Another piece of good news . . . A broken mirror signals the end of our 7 year bad luck streak right?  Right??

Update:  Sis-in-law is home now.  Feeling better.  Follow ups with doctors are scheduled.