I really don’t know what to do. Really only writing about this to see a complete strangers point of view and to just get it out of my system. Trying to summarize as much as possible.

My husband and I bought our first house in 2017. A fixer upper out in the country. It was truly something we both believe God led us to after looking at house after house after house. It was in pretty bad shape…but through our eyes, it was perfect and we were all in. Within about 3 years we fixed it up from head to toe, inside and out and made it truly our own little paradise. My husband even installed a small pond with koi fish. It’s perfect.

Naturally, it was time for the next step—baby! It’s the year 2020 when the world was in full quarantine mode. Also during this weird time, our neighbors son gets out of jail after 7 years for burglary, drug charges and running from the cops on a four wheeler. The list goes on honestly. Why am I mentioning this? Well. He’s the neighbor from Hell. Along with his mother. If I could compare it to anything it’s like an episode of Reno 911. He’s a hill billy drug addict that obnoxiously revs trucks, does burnouts, and really anything super annoying. They live across the street from us so we also have the privilege of watching this asshole turn the property into a junkyard. Literally. Maybe at least 9 junk trucks everywhere and other random things. It was already kind of a dumpy place. Oh and with stray cats everywhere, too. My husband and I just bit our tongues and ignored them..But of course complained to each other and scratched our heads every time he’d show up. It was always weird because he didn’t live there… just always showed up to the garage and did his thing and left for God knows where. We also noticed his girlfriend was pregnant. Even saw him park the shittiest looking RV right across the road and spend the night in it a couple times. We were disgusted. “Ok now they’re living in there??” Little did we know this was just the beginning… throughout the year we’ve watched them sleep in his truck and the garage. Even after she had the baby. To say our eyebrows were raised was an understatement.

All that aside, fast forward to December 2020. Miraculously, we got pregnant on the first try. It almost didn’t seem real. We were excited—but scared, anxious…you know the feeling. I was already seeing life differently.

Now, Christmas morning. It was odd because we had no plans due to the pandemic so it was just the “three” of us. I’m sitting on the couch about to exchange gifts when all of a sudden my husband asked if I could hear screaming. Sure enough, the neighbor and his girlfriend are outside —in the snow— fighting and he is screaming every profanity at her. He pushes her to the ground and I said THAT’S IT. I called the police. I continued watching as it rang and the dispute seemed to of fizzled so I hung up. But they called me back because I guess that’s protocol for the police. I explained the situation and they came since this dude is on State parole. They didn’t answer the door for maybe 20 minutes until finally the girl shyly came out. She told the police “she fell”. We wrote a witness statement thinking “yeah this will get him”. But really just ended up getting a slap on the wrist for harassment/physical contact. And right when the cop left both he and his mother are outside in the snow flicking us off and screaming at us. He even parked his truck in line with our house and blared music in a way to try and intimidate us I guess. What a wonderful Christmas.

Ever since that day, life has not been the same. Here I was, 6 weeks pregnant and now we have a target on our backs. I found myself instantly ordering security cameras on that same day. His mother is seriously insane. She screams at us whenever she has the chance. Flick us off, etc. We aren’t conflict kind of people so we just ignored everything as much as possible. Especially since I was pregnant. Even when she’s screaming “Pussy!” At the top of her lungs at me. Yup.

Thankfully, he got arrested for violating his parole in the spring of 2021. (Drug related) Finally. This past summer was bittersweet. I had my baby but we’re still being harassed. Mainly just her flicking us off. And now I’m hearing he will be released in early 2022.

I hate how this situation got completely blown out of proportion. I feel like so much of my joy has been stolen from my pregnancy and becoming a mother. And now I worry for my baby girls safety. Even though..this dude is the biggest coward.

My husband refuses to move because he doesn’t want them to “win.” Along with the fact that we’ve invested so much into this place. I get it but…I’m still concerned. Upset my baby hasn’t even used her nursery yet that we put all our blood sweat and tears into.

Can anyone relate? I truly feel like this is a bad dream I can’t shake off. Asking God: Do we stay or go? You led us here and now this. Why?

I’m torn.