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We were happily married newlyweds. We were buying our first home. I was seven month pregnant. We were moving from our apartment of three happy, fun-loving years to meet newfound responsiblility in the big, scary world of home owning. Only problem was, we made one huge mistake while moving. Someone, not blaming my husband here, left the back door of our apartment wide open. In fact there were two back doors. One door gave access for both renters to the entire building. The other door, someone who shall not be named, left wide open to our upstairs apartment.

My husband and I were getting a jump-start on our actual moving day. As soon as we got the mortgage signed to our new home, we leapt straight ahead and started moving boxes, and lighter items I could carry, such as plants and pillows. When we came back from our new home, two super excited, very in love soon to be parents found the back door wide open, The screen door was even wide open with that little bar moved to allow the door to stay open. Suddenly we knew we were in trouble. I said. "Did you leave the screen door open?" He said, a shaky, "No." We crept upstairs to our apartment and found the door open to the world. Our home was a mess. We were robbed.

One of the first thoughts I had besides blaming my husband for leaving the door open, was to realize in our new sense of responsibility, that we did not have renter's insurance. For some odd reason they left all of the old furniture we had inherited from well- intentioned relatives such as the ugly pink chairs covered with cat fur. They took our new microwave, and our new small television, they got away with our nice new dishes, still in the box, that I bought for our new home. They even took the new baby items I had bought filled with love and excitement.

Our first call was to his parents, who felt horrible for us, but could not replace or recover the items we scraped money together to buy. When asked if we had renters insurance, my husband forlornly said, as he looked around our meager apartment, "No." I broke down and sat on one of the two pink chairs and cried. No, I'm wrong, I wailed. After calling my parents and sobbing to them, we called our landlord, who said we were up you know what's creek without renter's insurance. Our landlord said that renter's insurance would replace our belongings in case of a fire, or a robbery. But we initially thought we could not afford to buy renter's insurance. We bought brand new furniture and a knock- down kitchen table and chairs with the money we worked so hard for.

We now only had an old bed, and two old pink chairs for furniture. Everything else was gone. They even found the money I was saving to buy a baby crib and baby clothing with. We learned our lesson the hard way.

Learn more about this author, Kate Johns.
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